Coming up on NaNoWriMo

workshop
#1

One month until NaNoWriMo. Just wondering what everyone else is doing to get ready for it. Not that I’ll have time to write a full novel that month, but I’m going to give it my best shot. During the month of October I hope to flesh out three or four storyform’s so I can pick my favorite to start working on in November. What’s everyone else doing to get ready?

Also, if anyone wants some help finding a storyform for your story for NaNoWriMo, I make no claim to be an expert, but I’m obsessed with Dramatica, think about it pretty much constantly, and would be more than happy to offer my assistance to anyone who might want some help or even just a second opinion. Feel free to reply here or PM me to keep it private.

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Dramatica Writers Room
#2

Cool! I’m going to use this year’s NaNo to finish the first draft of my novel (I hope).

I did NaNo last year (first time) and got just over 50K towards the same novel, which was great. Little did I know the thing was going to be well over 200K $%$@ words… :slight_smile:

But I’m about three quarters done the book now (at the fourth act turn story driver right now). So if I can get 10-15K words in October – very doable – I should be within 50K words of the end by November 1.

And more important than actually finishing in November is just to have good momentum, enjoy the writing, and get to 50K. So I think I should make it a priority in October to plan out the last act at a high level, make sure I have what I need to not get stuck.

I did find out last year that NaNo writing really encourages your Muse to take the story in new and better directions. It’ll be interesting to see how that works with the last act, for which I have a pretty good handle on most of what needs to happen…

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#3

Cool. Good luck on getting through that last quarter.

But are these new storytelling directions? Or Storyforming? I’d hate to get 100k words in and start redoing a storyform!

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#4

From my experience, definitely storytelling. Actually, it might also be like, better and cooler ways to get your storyform (message) across.

I always feel like my subconscious figures out the structure / storyform early in the planning phase. Then I have to use the clues it gives me to figure out what storyform is already underlying all these ideas. If I have to change the storyform partway in, it’s because I made a mistake in uncovering it.

(Current project, I had 3-4 potential storyforms until I got about 40K words in. All were almost the same, with differences only in Outcome, Judgment, and Driver. Luckily, my primary guess (Action/Success/Good) turned out to be right.)

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#5

I didn’t end up writing very much the last year.
Well, actually, technically, I did do a lot of writing, but it was mostly in filling out storyforms. The bad news, I didn’t get my story told last year and decided to abandon the one I was working on at the time. The good news, I think I’m light years ahead of where I was with Dramatica this time last year and ready to pick up that story again…at least potentially. Going to try to have three or four stories to pick from.

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#6

I do all my main series first drafts during NaNo. This month I’ll be working out the storyform and doing the outline.

I went ahead and joined the Discord thing. Should be fun :slight_smile:

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#7

Is everyone ready? :smiley:

Today is Hallowe’en :jack_o_lantern: so that makes tomorrow day 1 of Nano!

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#8

I’m doing NaNo a little differently this year. I’m focusing on Quads. Writing quads, like doing laps, creating scenes, flash fictions and short stories to better understand PRCO, SRCA, TKAD, etc. I like the idea of just getting in the habit of generating and writing them like a musician does scales. Plus focussing on the sense of journey through NaNoWriMo, rather than the end product goal, appeals to me this year. Though, I have toyed with the idea of writing a collection of short stories that fit all into one overriding story form—so they have integrity as a whole collection. Not sure exactly how to do that, but it sounds fun to play with.

I have started a thread in the Forum over there, asking if there are any other people using Dramatica to structure their stories this year. I got a total of 1 reply. So if you all want to pop over there and show some Dramatica love, it would great. I’ve searched the forums there as well and do not see Dramatica as a subject, which surprises me. My user name there is the same.

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#9

It’s NaNoWriMo every month for me :grin: in one form or another.

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#10

My comment on this has nothing to do with anything, but this statement strikes me as having notes of an holistic approach because it sounds like it’s more about the direction than the goal, and seeing that made me happy. But I could be wrong.

I’ve wondered if I could do this too. I have an idea on how I might do it, but I have no idea if it would work for an audience. Let us know if you end up doing something like this and how it turned out.

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#11

Can you post a link to it?

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#12

Thanks Greg. And I’ll get y’all posted.

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#13

Gee… Duh… That would be a helpful, wouldn’t it? :slight_smile:
Here is the link: https://nanowrimo.org/forums/nano-prep/threads/449394

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#14

You probably noticed I already replied (found it with a search).

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#15

I did notice. Thank you. Now there is some life on that thread. I noticed both you and @Greg posted. Thank you both.

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