I missed the Nano waffles because I was driving south to a funeral. It kind of put me behind right at the start. Then my middle son who lives in Phoenix announced that their pregnancy, which was scheduled to end the first week in December, might end up in induced labor on the 24th. (They like to induce a week early for gestational diabetes, but they’re watching the scans to see if it’s necessary.) So that’s going to eat up the end of the month.
Seriously, who picked November for this? I’ve gotten a few pages done. Also, I got waffles driving back from the funeral. Not as good as group waffles, but pretty good. Also got to see a bunch of second cousins. So I’m not complaining, I’m just really unlikely to make the word count.
Hey all! (waves) I just KNEW there had to be some NaNo writers around here…
I am a rebel writing nonfiction! (There are more and more of us… my goal is for us to get our own genre forum on the official NaNo site next year.) So I guess it would be NaNonficMo?
“And the Blind Shall See: The Promise of Stem Cell Cures, A Patient’s Point of View.” It’s a story that needs to be told.
I’m pleased to report somewhere in the neighborhood of 45,000 words - looks like I’m going to be able to do this! The good news is of that 45,000, I’d only consider about 6,000 words to be scrap or unusable material. I was worried it would be a lot worse than that. So overall, I’m feeling pretty good.
A lot of it was rewrites and adding new chapters into the beginning, but I’m glad I did that, because I feel like I have a much more solid foundation for subsequent chapters now. Writing scenes between my male and female protagonist is still like tuning a piano, but when I can finally get it right, my heart melts a little, so I’m hoping that’s a good sign.
Still, I can’t wait until this is over with and I can go back to editing what I want, and play with the nuances, or do whatever I want in the process without worrying about volume.
Hey! I thought I reached 50k on the bus to work this morning, but the site validator has me 84 words short, still. Really having fun, especially on the urban fantasy project.
I was on a month-long vacation visiting family and thought I’d have plenty of time and mental space to get 'er done. But I pooped out after about 16,000 words in the first ten or so days. Turns out having no plot was a problem, my basic premise started to seem stupider by the day and when my main character started getting Mary Sue-ish I threw in the towel.
I have a dear friend who writes, he says he has a difficult time writing characters who are flawed.
This is not a problem I can relate to at all. My characters tend to be so flawed it’s all I can do to keep them from blowing things all to hell. It’s kind of a game of, ''How much can this person fuck up and still be likable?"
I have my own struggles though. Plot development being one of them. This is the most complicated plot I have ever attempted to pull off, and a master of strategy I ain’t. They say ‘‘write what you know’’ and for some reason I’m fundamentally incapable of doing that. What I know bores the shit out of me.
I hate that advice. Several previous Nano attempts turned into treatises on event planning, zoo accreditation, science journalism… whatever I was working on professionally. And for me, that’s the fastest way to make writing fiction boring - literally turning it into work.
I really really failed hard this year. I have less than 1000 words. My loving husband spent one lovely restaurant meal completely outlining a story with me (well, FOR me - I had TWO glasses of wine!) which I… had no interest at all in writing. Huh.
Congrats to those that made it! And congrats to those that did better than me
I’ve got about 12 solid chapters of a first draft now, or maybe, like, a third of my book.
But I’m glad I went back and did the rewrites, I feel much more comfortable now with subsequent chapters, like I have a firm foundation moving forward here.
Really having fun, especially on the urban fantasy project.
