Congrats, maggenpye! Throws confetti
Has there ever been an ongoing writers’ thread on the Dope (there probably has). It might be fun to start that up again, if there are enough people interested.
Um. Because that’s the goal I set for myself?
See, I’ve done Nano many times. Many many times. I’ve always ‘won’ in the write 50k words sense, but I’ve never reached the end of the story by the end of the month. 
I have gone on to finish many of those stories after Dec. 1. A couple others are still in limbo – maybe I’ll go back to them yet. Two I deleted immediately after validation: I’d come to realize the stories were fatally flawed and I disliked them so much I knew I’d never go back.
This year I decided I wanted to actually write a book in a month.
I designed my story specifically so it wouldn’t require huge numbers on words. (I always write long. My very first nanovel I finally finished three years later. At over 250,000 words!) So I outlined a simple plot, a limited number of characters (only 10 in all), and a confined setting (an island.)
If I can’t get to “The End” under those conditions, well, I’m hopeless.
Mind you, I’m not saying that simply writing 50k words isn’t ‘winning.’
It’s just that I’d set myself an additional goal.
Yay, fellow complete-ist! <Joins the relentless march. Cue the fife and drums.>
Oh, and I’ve been thinking about your idea of sharing parts of the novels here. I understand being shy about the rough draft, heck, I won’t even let my bestest, oldest beta reader see it until I’ve done an editing pass.
But I am curious to hear about the novels we have written.
How about this: Write the back cover text for the paperback edition of your book. You know, a sort of ‘here’s what the book is about/teaser to make you want to buy it.’
It wouldn’t have to be long, probably the real ones are only a couple hundred words.
Anyone up for that?
I’m with you in wanting to finish the book this time. I took a half hour to fix the worst plotholes last night and I can dump the junk file at the end (Killing my babies, as they say, the scenes I loved that ended up not fitting)
Post 155 has a link to the synopsis, which I wrote like the pack page teaser - and an excerpt of a scene I was fond of. The link goes directly to the page (no login required), just like Anise’s links go directly to her pictures. I don’t know why it’s become such an issue.
We have the Make your opinions count! Vote!! in the October 2012 SDMB Short Fiction contest's Anthology Thread! - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board regularly, with another coming up around New Year’s.
That and the linked excerpt are as much material as I want to give away for free at the moment.
I should actually be finishing my story sometime…oh, today. Of course, now that I’ve decided to make this novel a prequel to my last novel I have a ton of re-writing to do, both with this one and the other one. So basically I’m just trying to get the end down and I can come back and fill in later.
This brings me to an issue that I need some advice on. I wrote the first novel in third person and the second novel in first person. Since I’m planning to make these novels into a series, following three generations, I need to choose one or the other. There are things I like about both, so it is a difficult choice. Either way I’m going to have to completely re-write one of the novels. So, suggestions? What would you do?
cry
Hahaha. I’m sure I probably will. The other option, I suppose, would be to go back and re-write the ending of my Nano novel and pretend I hadn’t decided to mash the two worlds together. I really never meant for it to happen, I was just writing along when I suddenly realized that it would make the perfect back story for the father of the main character in my first novel.
That’s really cool.
I was lucky enough to know I was writing sequels, but I still have to go back an re-write the first to accommodate both new facts I’ve learned and my better writing skills.
All three books in this series are first person narration swapping between characters. Most of my short stories are third person, including the short stories that background the novels - so I have no preference either way.
Would it be remotely possible to incorporate first person within the third person narrative (letters?) or even just jumping into the character when the whole scene can be told from his POV? I think I’ve seen that done, but no cite, sorry.
Since it’s a back story in a separate novel, is there really a reason why the viewpoint has to match?
I could actually see that as an interesting stylistic approach to a braided series of stories; the main storyline would be in third person, with tangents like the backstories or unrelated adventures of particular characters told in first person. If done well, it could make the main story more immersive; I feel that first-person leads readers to identify more with the point-of-view character, and that would carry over. So, you salt the main story with Noodle Incidents and interesting bit characters, then pick the ones that readers seem interested in to flesh out in first-person side stories.
Alternatively, you could slap a frame story around it, with the father telling his story to someone. Then you don’t have to change anything, just add some third-person window dressing. 
Yeah, it was definitely unexpected! I kind of like that it happened that way because I wasn’t letting the other novel influence what I wrote about him at all. And then all of a sudden I got to a place where I went, “Whoa, these are her parents and this is why they did what they did!” It was kind of a plot hole in the first novel, too. I think I’ll just play around and see what I can do. Letters are a good idea since the dad is dead in the first novel. If I do that I might just end up combining them into one novel, which would be nice because I’d be working with two 58,000-59,000 stories and could cut a lot of crap.
ETA: I suppose they don’t have to match. I was just thinking about consistency. I have a lot to think about and some cool options it seems. Thanks for all of your ideas!
Write the third novel in 2nd person. 
Oh, God! I don’t know about that… not something I would try. But then there’s fourth person POV, and-- and it’s been a long day, and I’m very loopy. 
Anyway. I also like the epistolary novel idea. And I definitely think that we should all share the synopsis at the end! I’ll do a back and front cover with the synopsis shown on the flyleaf and… and I’m so tired, I’m not sure if I’m even making any sense. 
More later.
Second person? Are you trying to make me even crazier than I already am? 
The thing about the epistolary idea is that the first novel already includes scrapbooks with some short newspaper articles through which the main character learns about her family. So a series of letters from the father to his estranged daughter could work really well along with that.
I helped!
does happy dance
Validated today at 60,630 words. It seems like a good idea to do it early… you just never know what it’s going to be like at the end of the month…
I don’t think there will be a cover today… but I’ve been working on some ideas for a YouTube video about the book… I like AfterEffects…
SO tired and loopy… not even sure what dimension this is by this point… (64th?)
Anyway. Nighty-night.
I lied! Here is…
30 Days of NaNo, 30 Covers of Anisefics: Sex and the Single Devil 7
Another salacious and sensual cover! (IMHO, anyway…) Okay, I’m not sure just how much interest straight men might have in this one… I believe in truth in advertising… but *I *like it. 
I started editing today. Is there something wrong with me? Because I’m really enjoying it. Wait, don’t answer that. I think it’s becase I decided to just combine the two novels and it gives me a lot more freedom. Instead of keeping crap for the sake of word count, I have the luxury of cutting it out. I think this was exactly what these two novels needed. And don’t worry, I’m leaving both the originals intact in case I suddenly change my mind.
I get what you’re saying.
Editing is a whole different project, it’s not writing and it’s not proofreading.
It means looking at the story as a whole, the pacing, flow and arc of it.
It means looking at the story in pieces, the logic and honesty of it.
Are the characters consistent wih each other and within themselves?
Can they get there from here? Why do they want to?
Kill your babies, murder your darlings, cut the fat and release the story.
Yep, I’m looking forward to it as well. Just have to get the last two chapters written and take a little break first - other projects are demandng attention.
I feel a Crafty Doper thread coming on.
Yay! (Waves Happy Editing Flag.)
And without further ado…
30 Days of NaNo, 30 Covers of Anisefics: Sex and the Single Devil 8
I wish we could post thumbnails… I really, really like this one. Well, just click on the link to see!
Oh, yeah. I’m murdering all the darlings. Poor dears. One thing I’m doing is not letting my main character jump right into bed with her love interest. He was the character who I had originally intended to be minor and then I gave him a bunch of tattoos and suddenly he was Adam Levine and I … I mean, she … couldn’t help herself. He’s still going to be a big part of it, I’m just going to drag the sexual tension out much longer. The character I based on a Gap model just so I could have a male character who would wear a peacoat may also get cut. weeps
I didn’t write a single word yesterday. I had plenty of time, I just didn’t want to write and I couldn’t force myselft to get started. 
Today. Today I WILL write those last two scenes. If I don’t, y’all should abuse me.