How'd you all do?

How's the NaNo coming?

Goals for this week: finish this chapter and decide if this book is going to be a "part one" to the story, or a very long, hard book to sell. Get some Christmas Shopping done (damn, but it's sneaking up fast). Work a bit more on my collaborative outline—I keep intding to, I swear—and kick around some ideas on other WIP's antagonist.
 

My goal for this week is to finish the next chapter. I am hoping for energetic evenings full of inspiration.
 

Satate, broda has a link to a website you might find useful on the third page of the nano support group thread. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm excited to try it tomorrow. It'll get you writing.

How is Nano going?
I wrote 11,775 words on my novel this week, which may shed some light on why I haven't been returning any crits. I ought to be to 25,000 words by tomorrow night, and barring a miracle, I don't think I'm going to get there (I'm at 18,275 words). However, I am pleased with my progress.

I wish you could have heard my discussion with my brother-in-law about an upcoming scene that he has a certain amount of expertise in--bear maulings. He was recommending slashes, including one that would cause my main character's intestines to spill out--and of course he would trip over them. Heck, I said, maybe the bear could trip over them too. What a great way to escape--trip the bear with your intestines so that it falls back and hits its head and blacks out, just long enough for you to escape. Of course, chances are it would land ON your intestines, and then you're stuck. Authors have such better conversations than other people!

If anyone has any advice about murders or bear maulings, I'd love to hear it. It's not really my forte.

Goals: Write another 12,000 words. Think about Christmas and laugh. Sleep. Read some stories to my children. Pay the older ones to play in the basement with the younger ones so I can write while the sun is shining. Tell you all to keep up the good work. Isn't this fun?

[This message has been edited by Unwritten (edited November 15, 2008).]
 

Goal: Write.
Measurable Goal: Write the next two scenes.

Thanks for the tip Unwritten. I checked it out and I think it might be helpful. I'm gonna try it.
 

Aargh, this novel was much simpler when it was just Celeste. Silly other charactesr, making the plot complicated!

You could basically take last week's entry from me and paste it here. Progress is slow... I did get my two new main characters figured out, and cut a minor character that wasn't needed. (Sorry, Violet!) Now i've just got to get the smaller scenes worked out so that I can actually write them. So yeah, that last bit there is my goal for this week.

Edit: I hate it when I try to write a first scene with a character and it comes out all wooden! Sheesh, I guess I've been spending so much time on plot that I forgot to fully develop my new characters. =P

[This message has been edited by BoredCrow (edited November 17, 2008).]
 

Worked a bit on the revised query for this beast. I'll probably post here and then back at EE in a while. I wanted to be able to give EE a better update then ". . . still going," since EE edited what's now the first half of this beast.

Goal is still finish the rewrite by Christmas.

Husband was grumpy and feeling stressed all weekend so I didn't get as far as I wanted on the other "to do" items. They stay on the list.
 

Unwritten, sorry, that’s funny! But I hear it’s not fun for you. Hang in there.

Can we do it? Yes we can! ~ Bob the Builder

 

That name was chosen for one of my favorite tropes, coined by Virginia Woolf and Ursela K. LeGuin. Also described as a wise crone, frail hero, or housewife in space, Mrs. Brown is the ordinary woman in extraordinary circumstances who takes a practical and personable approach to her situation (my very loose interpretation). She can speak to and for all of us.

[This message has been edited by MrsBrown (edited November 17, 2008).]
 

Maybe I don't mind the bloody mess so much. I spent years detesting romance, and then out of the blue I decided to make my first novel a love story (NOT a romance. Big difference.) Maybe it's not so surprising that I can't keep it up. Still, there's a love story in there. It might just get crammed into the last couple of chapters.

[This message has been edited by Unwritten (edited November 17, 2008).]
 

::shakes hands with everyone::

I'm hoping I'll make some good progress this week. I've been hitting my head against this particular wall for so long that surely I'll break through soon!
I can say for sure I won't go crazy with all that head-hitting. I am far too busy with classes and my thesis to do that.

[This message has been edited by BoredCrow (edited November 18, 2008).]
 

BC, I think we may work for the same ESPionage division. I know I still owe you a crit, but I've submitted 6 flash pieces and brought my WIP up to 67.5K.
 

My best advice - stop trying to force it somewhere it doesn't want to be and let it happen. Some people hate the more organic approach to writing - cough, IB, cough - but it works for some of us.

Ruth, hang in there. After beating my head against the wall for the better part of a month, I finally got the scene (turns out it was 3 scenes, one of which will probably get cut on edits) I needed to play out in my head. I started writing them earlier this week and should be at the point I need to tie in by the weekend.

 

quote:

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Some people hate the more organic approach to writing - cough, IB, cough - but it works for some of us.

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Huh? What're you trying to say?

My WIP (Now a 69K) decided it wanted to grow in a direction I never intended—and I did extensive research for the arc of the historical part—which the characters dictated. I'm not opposed to "loose outlining"—defined as having an end in sight and stumbling toward it without a real plan—but, when you've got more than one writer, they should both know what to expect, so that they are working toward the same goal. I find it easier to make the trip if I know where I'm going; easier to work on the prose if I know what they characters are going to do (which just means letting the characters run through it all first, and then doiing the outline).

Believe it or not, I mostly only use a loose outline. Though I'm concentrating on a detailed outline for the collaboration.
 

What I meant by organic was truly seat of the pants, starting with an idea or a character and letting them lead you around by the nose. Even with outlining, even loose outlining, there's some of that.

But take Stephiane Meyer - she had a dream, which works out to less than 5 pages in Twilight - and wrote the story from that, without, it appears, much plotting to get there and out again. One of my friends has an idea, which may be a scene or even just a phrase, throws her characters into the mix and writes by constantly asking "What happens next?" She "outlines" what she's done. It works for her. Wouldn't work for lots of people.

I have lots of respect for people who can fully outline and who can be fully organic but for most of us, we usually have an idea/plot line in mind (whether written down or not) and go from there.

That's all.

Now for the crowing - I finished the tie in sections (although I have a few lines of dialog to add in that I forgot). So this weekend is rewriting the fight scene and working on the other projects.

[This message has been edited by kings_falcon (edited November 21, 2008).]