# The NaNoWriMo Support Group for Novice Novel Writers with Too Much Time Thread! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 7, 2004, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nanowrimo-support-group-for-novice-novel-writers-with-too-much-time-thread/268081 "2004-10-07T19:41:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nanowrimo-support-group-for-novice-novel-writers-with-too-much-time-thread/268081/221 "2004-11-12T13:59:59Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > I don’t even have those. > My characters are dull, their lives are dull. Nothing happens. > > In a drama class, in school once, I had something incredibly obvious pointed out to me. In a play, all of the characters had lives before the start of the play, and the ones who don’t die will have lives after the end of the play. But something happens at a specific time to make a small, brief section of their lives worth watching. > My characters seem to be stuck in the before part. I keep trying to give them something to do, but they take it in stride. Life just goes on for them - > and they don’t talk much, either. That’s probably a description that you will want to not have on the back cover of the book. ---
**Author:** ![Hoshiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Hoshiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoshiko)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2004, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nanowrimo-support-group-for-novice-novel-writers-with-too-much-time-thread/268081/222 "2004-11-13T19:55:00Z")
I’m so glad I found this thread. I’m currently stuck in a lame part of my novel, and I’ve run out of procrastination time. Apparently I can’t write good (or even functional) dialogue to save my life, but a description of a fishing lure can easily take up a whole page. There’s not enough :rolleyes: in the whole world… Can’t I just skip to the good part where the evil people come in? Whadda ya mean I have to _develop_ my characters? On a positive note, I’ve invented my own method for preparing incredibly stong and sweet coffee slushies. If all else fails I plan on slurping down a large bucket of them and writing incoherant stream of consciousness prattle about the pretty colors. Desperate times require desperate measures… ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nanowrimo-support-group-for-novice-novel-writers-with-too-much-time-thread/268081/223 "2004-11-14T07:19:02Z")
You think you two got it bad? I can’t write dialogue OR descriptions! I’m stuck with 15,717 words of blog-like first person rantings! (Of course, it helps that the novel is in the _form_ of a journal, so it’s more okay, but still…) ---
**Author:** ![Nightwatch\_Trailer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9dc877/32.png) [@Nightwatch\_Trailer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightwatch_Trailer)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nanowrimo-support-group-for-novice-novel-writers-with-too-much-time-thread/268081/224 "2004-11-14T17:12:50Z")
I’m stuck at 14,233. At this rate I’ll have to chain myself to my computer over Thanksgiving break if I want to finish… ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nanowrimo-support-group-for-novice-novel-writers-with-too-much-time-thread/268081/225 "2004-11-14T17:21:44Z")
> [@Hoshiko](#): > > On a positive note, I’ve invented my own method for preparing incredibly stong and sweet coffee slushies. If all else fails I plan on slurping down a large bucket of them and writing incoherant stream of consciousness prattle about the pretty colors. Desperate times require desperate measures… Please share. Pretty please??? ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nanowrimo-support-group-for-novice-novel-writers-with-too-much-time-thread/268081/226 "2004-11-14T20:27:21Z")
Well, the computer issue has been resolved. Yay! And then I spent last night in the ER. Boo. But I’m up to 17,202 words. Yay! But that’s about 6,000 less than I need to be on track. Boo. And everyone survived the ER visit. Yay! YAY! ---
**Author:** ![Hoshiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Hoshiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoshiko)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nanowrimo-support-group-for-novice-novel-writers-with-too-much-time-thread/268081/227 "2004-11-14T22:00:28Z")
> [@Draelin](#): > > Please share. Pretty please??? When making coffee I make it double strength, then pour it into ice cube trays and freeze it. I also have ice cube trays with a frozen soymilk and brown sugar mixture. When I start to feel my inspiration running out I take about 8 coffee cubes and 6 soymilk cubes and put them in a plastic baggie. Pound the crap out of them then throw that icy goodness into a blender with a splash of more soymilk. Blend on high for a couple of mintes, and viola! An instant lowbrow version of diabetes and hallucinations in a glass. They taste kind of like chocolate coffee slurpees. I know you can buy a better version of this at Starbucks and elsewhere, but I’m cheap and lazy. I decided to do some writing on my laptop while going to sleep last night. I got alot of editing done (the bad lines… they taunt me,) but I fell asleep and woke up with a weird grid pattern on my cheek and 2 paragraphs of gibberish. Something about a shower cap with yellow rubber duckies on it and Circuit City. I actually kind of like it. ---
**Author:** ![Oregon\_sunshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/50afbb/32.png) [@Oregon\_sunshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oregon_sunshine)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nanowrimo-support-group-for-novice-novel-writers-with-too-much-time-thread/268081/228 "2004-11-14T22:22:01Z")
I just signed up! Help! ---
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nanowrimo-support-group-for-novice-novel-writers-with-too-much-time-thread/268081/229 "2004-11-14T22:50:28Z")
> [@Hoshiko](#): > > I’m currently stuck in a lame part of my novel, and I’ve run out of procrastination time. Apparently I can’t write good (or even functional) dialogue to save my life, but a description of a fishing lure can easily take up a whole page. May I tell you what has been working wonders for me? Okay, thanks! I will! I find myself with the idealized picture of a scene or exposition via dialog that I know I’ll never be able to do properly, so I say “fuck it” and change it so that I’m not doing the perfect bit that’s in my head. What comes out is not only actual words on paper, but also tends to be much better than I had ever thought I could do. (Which is not saying much.) Nevertheless, not doing what I want to do has saved me a lot of stress and suffering. ---
**Author:** ![davenportavenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nanowrimo-support-group-for-novice-novel-writers-with-too-much-time-thread/268081/230 "2004-11-14T23:24:45Z")
I’m getting close to 15,000 words. I just had to do a lot of infodumping wrt sci-fi crap which flew by pretty fast. I’m also skipping a lot of tedious description; I can churn through dialogue super-fast. Also, dialogue takes up more space than blocks of description, which makes it look like I’m accomplishing more. Yay! ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nanowrimo-support-group-for-novice-novel-writers-with-too-much-time-thread/268081/231 "2004-11-14T23:42:10Z")
> [@ggurl](#): > > I just signed up! Help! Ooh, this is a brave one. **ggurl** , you have the bravery of a thousand, well, really foolhardy people. Good luck! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hoshiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Hoshiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoshiko)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nanowrimo-support-group-for-novice-novel-writers-with-too-much-time-thread/268081/232 "2004-11-15T00:30:36Z")
> [@js\_africanus](#): > > May I tell you what has been working wonders for me? Okay, thanks! I will! I find myself with the idealized picture of a scene or exposition via dialog that I know I’ll never be able to do properly, so I say “fuck it” and change it so that I’m not doing the perfect bit that’s in my head. What comes out is not only actual words on paper, but also tends to be much better than I had ever thought I could do. (Which is not saying much.) Nevertheless, not doing what I want to do has saved me a lot of stress and suffering. Great suggestion! I’ve been trying that for the last 30 minutes or so and got a whole page and a half done. I’ll have those 50,000 words or so in no time if I can keep it up. I just have one question. Do your characters tend to get a little unruly when you write this way? My plot is still pretty flexible and changing right now, but I find that they tend to wander all over the place when I focus less on the ideal outcome and more on just getting something down. **ggurl** , you must be completely out of your mind. I admire that in a writer! 😃 If those overacheivers from **lel’s** link can make 50,000 (and even 80,000!) in 10 days then you can certainly do it in 16. ---
**Author:** ![Oregon\_sunshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/50afbb/32.png) [@Oregon\_sunshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oregon_sunshine)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nanowrimo-support-group-for-novice-novel-writers-with-too-much-time-thread/268081/233 "2004-11-15T00:35:38Z")
Hey, thanks for the encouragement **jsgoddess** and **Hoshiko**! My word count is up to 5643 now! And it’s really not a bad story so far, the main character is basically writiing himself. Oh well, back to writing! 🙂 :smack: 🆒😉😃 ;j ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nanowrimo-support-group-for-novice-novel-writers-with-too-much-time-thread/268081/234 "2004-11-15T03:34:35Z")
> [@ggurl](#): > > Hey, thanks for the encouragement **jsgoddess** and **Hoshiko**! My word count is up to 5643 now! And it’s really not a bad story so far, the main character is basically writiing himself. Oh well, back to writing! 🙂 :smack: 🆒😉😃 ;j I’m impressed. Keep up the good work. Though if you pass me, keep it to yourself! 😃 21000 words on the nose, and I am bailing for the night. Are we all allowed to be pretty impressed with ourselves yet? ---
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nanowrimo-support-group-for-novice-novel-writers-with-too-much-time-thread/268081/235 "2004-11-15T04:23:58Z")
> [@Hoshiko](#): > > Do your characters tend to get a little unruly when you write this way? Not really. The path the story is following is different from what I had imagined before Nov. 1[sup]st[/sup] came 'round; however, it is going where I want it to go. In my most grandiose fantasies, for example, I had envisioned a sort-of Anti-LOTR where the notions of racial superiority and genetic hatreds could be pretty soundly trampled, and now that I’ve abandoned the idea of doing the perfect vision in my head—that was nebulous and inchoate, and most likely unworkable—I am well on my way to that in what is probably a better telling of it. What is happening is that it is continually expanding at each step because _not_ doing what I have pictured as ideal is forcing me to improvise much more creatively. It has allowed me to put in more conversation in a way that seems more natural. And I’ve come up with new ideas that I think are much better. It’s been making the characters a little more real, I think, too. The little saint who helped the main character is allowed to be seen a light that may suggest he’s more Machiavellian that we would want to believe; the main character is allowed to have a mini-breakdown, which she’s doing right now, because she is under the protection of a character who was originally inserted as so much filler, and who may turn out to be a major hero; and I’ll be able to turn the evil goblin-like race into a sympathetic people because I needed a new perspective to move the plot along because I knew I wouldn’t live up to my irrational standards doing it with the main character—so I introduced someone akin to a stoic, _sane_ col. Kurtz who has turned into a doorway to the reality of his people. Of course, in reality it probably sucks in spades. But I’m giving myself this little bit of fantasy for a little while because it’s fun. NaNoWriMo really is a great idea because there is no expectation that what I’m going to produce will be in any way readable. I can’t imagine writing a novel for fun other any other circumstances. ---
**Author:** ![Nightwatch\_Trailer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9dc877/32.png) [@Nightwatch\_Trailer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightwatch_Trailer)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nanowrimo-support-group-for-novice-novel-writers-with-too-much-time-thread/268081/236 "2004-11-15T06:33:41Z")
**js\_africanus** , do you mind if I cut and paste that post into my novel? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nanowrimo-support-group-for-novice-novel-writers-with-too-much-time-thread/268081/237 "2004-11-15T14:36:06Z")
I haven’t been saying much, since due to circumstances I didn’t start until the tenth and I was ashamed of my puny word count. ☹ HOWEVER, I typed like a madwoman over the weekend and now I am at 15,790! Woo hoo! Go me! FIVE DIGITS worth of words! 😉 My little questing heroine will save the world yet. ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nanowrimo-support-group-for-novice-novel-writers-with-too-much-time-thread/268081/238 "2004-11-15T15:29:28Z")
I’m over 30K! _miniature 60% victory dance_ And I managed to get there _without_ incorporating my extreme talent for … ahem … erotic passages. ---
**Author:** ![lno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nanowrimo-support-group-for-novice-novel-writers-with-too-much-time-thread/268081/239 "2004-11-15T16:02:20Z")
11k. 22%, and I’ve only introduced one zombie (except for the backstory, which has millions of zombies, but that was exposition) which was killed off quickly. I’ve brought up the Haitain voodoo zombie cult, I’ve got a mysterious zombie attack in London, I’ve got some main characters, and aaaah. Zombies on the brain. ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nanowrimo-support-group-for-novice-novel-writers-with-too-much-time-thread/268081/240 "2004-11-15T16:27:11Z")
> [@lno](#): > > Zombies on the brain. I suppose it’s better than zombies _eating_ your brain. I’m sorry, I just couldn’t resist that. You can’t use the words “zombies” and “brain” in the same sentence and not expect it. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nanowrimo-support-group-for-novice-novel-writers-with-too-much-time-thread/268081.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nanowrimo-support-group-for-novice-novel-writers-with-too-much-time-thread/268081.md?page=13)