NaNoWriMo progress thread

workshop
#1

A thread to track our Nano progress. Anyone feel free to update with theirs (e.g. daily).

To keep it relevant to this forum, please mention anything Dramatica-related that may have come up during your day’s writing, although it’s fine if nothing did.

I got 483 words after midnight in my time zone today, so counts as Nov 1. I’ll add to that “tomorrow” (still Nov 1).

Dramatica-wise, I noticed Evidence coming up a few times (the Skeptic character needing evidence to be grudgingly convinced they weren’t all insane; someone else offering evidence that the authorities cannot be trusted). Evidence is PSR variation #2 in my OS act 4, so that totally fits.

Also found a moment where the OS Problem helped clarify a character’s motivation. Instead of just “you guys need to stop being so stupid” it became “you need to stop being so stupid if you want my Help”.

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#2

What are the rules again?

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#3

You commit to writing 50,000 words on a novel in November. That’s about it.

You can also use it for short stories, poetry, working on several different novels, etc. In that case you’re termed a “Nano Rebel” but everything still works the same.

https://nanowrimo.org/

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#4

Thanks, @mlucas. Yeah, 50,000 words is ambitious, but it does focus the mind!

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#5

Thanks, @mlucas. Yeah, 50,000 is ambitious! But it does focus the mind!

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#6

I don’t Nano…but…I would love to cheer y’all on. I have a friend that does Nano in 10-12 days. I’m always flabbergasted. Rock it y’all!

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#7

For me it works because this ambitious, at times impossible-seeming goal gives the creative part of me a weapon to use against the inner editor: “there is absolutely no way we’re going to finish 50,000 words if you keep trying to get things perfect!”

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#8

Is it cheating if you dictate the story?

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#9

I’m definitely a Nano Rebel this year. I’m treating it as a month-long writing workshop, writing daily Quads—short daily exercises to get used to creating writing from the quads, developing PRCO scene circuitry, etc. They’ll be occurring as either scenes, flash fictions, maybe full on short stories, maybe longer short stories. I’ll let them take me where they may. Maybe they’ll link into something larger? I’ve selected a single storyform as an umbrella I’m writing under. So each short will fit into an overall storyform, though characters, settings, events, theme specifics, etc. might differ between them. I’ve long had the idea of creating a short story collection with an overriding storyform linking them, so the collection would have integrity as a whole. I suppose this is my first draft of that.

Long live the Nano Rebellion!

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#10

Not at all. They’re still words. It’s still writing from a different method. That’s brilliant! I haven’t developed the dictation muscle yet. You can probably finish this weekend if that’s how you’re going about it.

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#11

There is an excel sheet you can use to track your progress. Seeing the progress and getting closer to the 50k motivates you to work and continue. Good luck and have fun.

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#12

Oh, I can so relate to this! The inner editor! And that is also why I signed up for Nano - it prevents me from polishing every sentence.

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#13

Just checking in with everyone. I had a great weekend writing, but have not written a word since. That darned day job of mine!

How is everyone else doing?

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#14

I saw you had a lot of words on the weekend, good for you! But you have to try and conquer the day job thing if you can; I find momentum builds from writing every day. I usually write from 10pm - midnight, after everyone else goes to bed.

Just finished today with 1887 and passed the 10,000 mark! Have been pretty steady, between 1200 and 2200 each day.

I’m constantly amused by how the PSR items keep showing up on their own. Today it was Suspicion in the OS. Several times I actually wrote the words before I realized how it fit. “You shouldn’t be here. You’re a suspect!” or “We now suspect that dissecting you will prove interesting…”

Mostly this is amusing because when I first looked at the PSR items for this act (Truth, Evidence, Suspicion, Falsehood) I didn’t think they fit at all!

Today was fun, got to write a hospital chase & shootout scene that included an anti-gravity enhanced jump from a rooftop. It was funny, I got some great ideas in the shower about how the scene should go, but for some reason I didn’t want to write them all down as if that might sort of limit the creativity. So I drew them instead!

image.png582×623 435 KB

I think I’m onto something, because this evening when I looked at that page, I found it really fun to use as a guideline. Inspiring, but also kinda silly – not something to take too seriously.

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#15

Almost to 12k after a late start today. I’m just writing scenes I’ve put in as a line in the outline - and once I get started the whole thing just flows out.

This in particular has helped a ton - once I realized I was writing a Obtaining/Rebalance storyform, everything fell into place. Everyone is trying to Obtain things to put things back they way they “should” be all over the place!

Anyway, I’m having a lot of fun with this.

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#16

This! I filled out all the points on my current storyform, then went to the PSR to start making notes for how that would fit in, and found I really didn’t have anything to add. For the most part the whole thing was already in my notes.

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#17

So inspiring. Thank you.

And yes… the day job thing is challenging. You’re being very “tortoise” (deliberate pacing) and I’m being very “hare” (sprint about when I can)

Love the diagram.

Brendan

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#18

Love this. Go Patty! Love your eureka!

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#19

I love this, Greg. Amazing how it all falls into place.

#20

I’m reading this thread.
Go! Y’all, go.
Tortise, hare, I don’t care.
Rah, rah, sis boom bah!

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