Writing • Page 8

I diiiiiid it. 1711!

Now I need to flesh out these characters. They're nerdy as fuck and already sassy and I love it

 

Fantastic! I'm so happy to hear it!

 

Yes, thanks for the reminder :) Something my creative writing professors always said was that the true art of writing came during revision. So I'm trying to stay well-aware that, if I decide this "book" is worthy to take in the direction of publishing, very little of this draft will exist as-is in the final version.

Art. What a beast.

 

Right? Less than a page of my first draft survived to my final product. And it's a better story for it.

 

I believe it!

 

Late start today, just now finished at just over 1000 words so pretty stoked I actually made it happen. Still only have a vague idea of what I'm writing so this should be interesting.

 

I'm spending too much damn time planning. I've got like 5 main POV characters and a handful of minor POVs. It's set in a fantasy world so obviously it can be as massive or as small as I want it to be. I did at least fully flesh out the 2nd main character's arc today so I'd consider that a success even though I didn't get any writing in :/

 

so for this month, i'm just going to try to write at least a page of writing a night-- and consistently push myself to do more and more if i can. that means I'm going to be writing my novel/novella/whatever it turns out to be as well as post on my prose/poetry blog as often as i can-- just so long as i get some writing done. if anyone is into this sort of thing, i write prose poetry based on my own life experiences. its pretty abstract but maybe some of you will dig it. you can follow me here if anyone is interested: thenatureofdaylight.tumblr.com

i posted my first thing of the month last night! criticism/comments absolutely welcome!

 

I write rap lyrics if that counts. A lot of my upcoming album is about a faith crisis, giving up on pursuing a music career to settle down, and more.

Small piece I wrote today that I'm proud of

"My moms siblings resent me for speaking the truth
Anger is an understandable feeling after years of abuse
Id get mad when people called it a cult and defended it too
I got a lot of problems but ain't a single one of them booze
You think God talks through a prophet/ they really listen
I lied to my bishop one more click im on a mission
Dawg - me - I was almost a part of their system
Of gender roles, deep seeded hatred and the resentment of women"

 

Imma write a kids book on how being sad happens and how to help ppl who are. First verse:

So I fell inside my well today
The exact one, it's... hard to say
I thought I'd gotten rid of it
But I guess it's here to stay

Gonna work on it when I get bored but I wanna see if I have any friends that'll help illustrate. gomma brainstorm on it tomorrow but it should be fun, have a lot of good ideas.

 

lol I just watched this episode last night

 

Looks like there are some NaNo folks in here! This is my first real attempt and I feel good about it so far. Had a complicated night last night after a great first night, but I think I felt so guilty about not getting words down that I knocked out 500 in bed before I could fall asleep.

Currently at 2688 and it feels so good to actually breathe life into characters I've been tossing around for the past few months. Gonna take off early from work today to play catch up a bit, but best of luck to everyone else participating!

Also, please add me as a writing buddy! My username is nomemorial

 

How is everyone doing?

 

With NaNo? I'm behind for sure. I got over 3k words done on day 1, but I've accomplished close to nothing over the past 5 days because I was on vacation visiting friends and family nonstop. So I'm hoping to get back into gear tonight. It'll take approximately 2k words a day for me to stay on track now.

 

Not well

 

Yeah, poorly

 

Sorry to hear it guys, but you're all doing better than me! I'm interested but too much of a coward to start somewhere. Take pride in the fact that you care and try to keep pushing on

 

I figured the radio silence in here was due to the lack of progress for most of us

I've been sitting on this particular story idea for at least 3 years. Prior to this idea, I've tried and failed about 7-8 different times to start and finish writing a book. I only finished once, and the result was 220-ish pages of handwritten drivel that wouldn't even pass for an Assassin's Creed fanfic. I have it buried somewhere in my closet, along with pages of notes from other failed projects.

When I decided to take part in NaNoWriMo this year, I explained that I would finally be starting this story I've had rattling in my head these past several years. I would start on the 1st, then hopefully use the momentum from a month's worth of writing to keep going until I finally finished. I was told by a few people that "that's not how NaNoWriMo works" and "you aren't doing it right because you're supposed to finish by December". While that may be the case, at least I'm finally putting time into expanding and fleshing out this world that I've been excited about for so long.

I haven't written a single damn word of my story. In fact, I have two index cards of notes. Two. I got super excited and purchased a stack of them and a pack of stickers so I could color code the cards by different characters. At the moment, those two cards are the culmination of my creative powers for the month of November. And I'm damn excited about them. While I haven't had all the time in the world to sit and write, simply planning and talking my ideas out loud have worked wonders for me. I can't stop thinking about these characters and where they might go or what they might do. It's thrilling.

In short, I guess I am really am not following the rules one bit...and I haven't so much as written the opening sentence. However, I am more excited about writing than I have been in years, so I consider this annual exercise a good starting point. It's at least got me creating again, and that's something I never want to stop.

Here's a bonus pic of all those old ideas:

View attachment 4468

 

Yeah, not going very well at all. Part of that is health issues, but also I got a freelance gig where I'm editing 5 hours a day and it's hard to want to go write after having to work in that realm for so long each day.

 

I thought this was going to be a post about how you were disappointed with yourself, and then I got to the end of this paragraph and it made me so happy. That's awesome that you're making progress and getting excited about it, man! Forget the "rules," two index cards is definitely something to be proud of

 

On a totally opposite note from everyone else here, I'm feeling great. Currently a little over 10k. I thought I was about to hit a roadblock, but took a few seconds to remind myself that this is just a first draft and then spent a ton of time in character dialog which really helped moved things forward -- gave me good excuses to delve into major plot points naturally while still setting things up. I still have yet to reach any real "action" and since it's very heavy "character-based" novel (each chapter pertaining to a particular individual) I feel like I'm still in extended introductions, but I'm doing what I can not to limit myself so we'll see where that goes.

 

So behind. Migraine, hospital, lost voice, urgent care, doctor today, now cleaning so my sister can come over tomorrow.

My life is a hot mess and I'm soooooooo behind. I'm really hoping to catch up, though.

 

I'd love to do this (would actually give motivation to not only start writing, but finish this story idea I've had for almost a year now), but I have other things that are taking my attention.

Hopefully I can manage to squeeze myself in before the month ends. If not, there's always next year, or I can also just do this out of season.

 

Take heart and persevere everyone! I've barely done any physical work but I'm stoked on the process. Most of you have done far more than I. I'm encouraged by that.