National Novel Writing Month

[Krilari]

My apologies for not taking advantage of these boards as often as I should, I've had a few busy weeks and only just now have I thought of something removely worth posting.

Never the less, as many of you know, Novemeber marks the start of 'National Novel Writing Month' and it has been fairly encouraged by my school's creative writing club which I've been an on-and-off member of this year.

Last year when this topic was brought up by Anski, the mere thought of writing a novel made me snort in belief that I'd never be able to compose such a piece of work...

But...

This year... this year I have the feintest of flickers in my mind as to attempt this daring feat (Especially for one who is only a Highschool Senior).

The plot... I'm not even sure yet.

I guess the point of this thread is to moreso compose your opinions, my closest friends, as if you in your HONEST opinion think that through my pervious writings that I would ever be able to pen a work that may one day see the eyes of some individual who paid ten bucks for a book he's never heard of penned by a boy no one's ever really known?

Also, to those of you who may also be attempting this unspeakable feat, I salute you.

-Kril

[Anski]

Yeesssssss.... -cackle-

[Aerikan]

Don't think about publishing or being good enough to publish. Just write it. Then write another. And another and another. The only way to get good is to do it over and over and over again. Don't worry about being good enough to sell/publish/produce something until you've written and rewritten and learned and grown. And that process is awesome. Each thing you do will be better than the last, and will get you more skills, and eventually more notice and more connections until something happens.

There is a quote from Ira Glass going around Facebook,and it is the best advice you will ever receive:

"Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through."

[Delta]

...I've been planning on entering this since last December, actually.

I would strongly suggest you go for it. You won't know whether or not you can achieve it unless you try, so try!
That is the spirit of the month, doing something you wouldn't normally do.

If you are going enter, though, start making a plan now. Thoughts, ideas, random concepts, character profiles, anything you like. Don't start writing the thing, obviously, but even a bulleted list will give you a framework to build on.

Good luck!

[Aphetoros]

I. Don't. Know. What. To. Do.

I'm trying to work off of a vision of wrathful drums, a towering ziggurat of crumbling gold, mummified assailants and strange rituals.

[FlyingSquirrel]

Eh. I've had a few ideas, but Freshman Homework + Novels don't mix, even though I never do my homework.

[Aphetoros]

Squirrel, it's a bit early to have Senioritus, isn't it?

[FlyingSquirrel]

Senioritus directly relates to how cold the weather is.

[Anski]

Doing NaNoWriMo is actually easier than it seems. That being said, it's also an extremely difficult challenge to do once you're chest deep in words and you're not quite sure where you're going or why you're doing it, and everyone is cold and your characters come and go. It's easy to let it sink you and have you just crumble and fall, but it's not as hard as it seems to be, which it seems to be a backwards learning curve in which people are jumping off the edge into despair below. I've done NaNoWriMo for the past three years now, and I have some advice. It's not universal to everyone, because everyone is different, but I try and give everyone attempting it the same warning:

Have an idea of what you're going to write, FROM BEGINNING TO END.
While you certainly can just jump in headfirst with no direction in the English Channel, that doesn't mean you'll make the swim to France or not. These things require at least some groundwork of where you're going. You may simply say 'Oh, please, Anski. You and I both know i'm an experienced role-player and these situations come naturally to me. I can make anything up!' Have fun with this mentality when you've been in the same role-play with yourself for 37,000 words and everything's looking too grim to continue. A plot, at least the sketchiest, almost-about-to-collapse literary bridge will do, as long as it reaches from point A, word 0, to point B, word 50,000. This is one of the most important pieces of advice. You must know what your characters are striving for, or what will happen from beginning to end. Sure, you don't have to map out EVERY INSTANCE of what happens, but knowing what starts and how it ends will make the whole trip a lot smoother.

Another part is simply just not giving up hope. You must not go back and edit your work, if you have time to do that, you have time to write. There are a very rare select people who do not write garbage during the month of November in NaNoWriMo, and i've only met one of them. The rest are legendary creatures. Do not worry about your characters personality or the awesomeness of the plot. Do not worry about whether you're writing garbage or not, because most likely, everyone else is writing the same thing. It's hard to choke out that many words. It's even harder to make them all coherent together. My three NaNovels are all garbage to an extreme. It makes me want to crawl in a corner and die when I look over them. However, I get to say that i've written 150,000 words over the NaNo contests. That's what it's all about, the accomplishment of having written -anything-, even garbage, over the course of November legitimately.

Word.

[Aphetoros]

So basically we can always rewrite and edit later, but don't worry about it now.

[Binkleheimer]

I got everything planned.



I think.

[Aphetoros]

My problem with planning (and plans in general.)

Plan plan plan plan -- IDEA PLANS CHANGE. Rest of plans ruined...

[Anski]

Plans change. I decided what I was going to write about truly the night before November 1st. It was originally going to be a novel about backpacking and exploring, and it turned into a Steampunk Victorian Post-Apocalyptic romp through a war torn world of arctic snow. That also reminds me, NaNo is fun because you can write about ANYTHING YOU WANT EVER. There are no English teachers telling you what to write about. You are practically free game completely. Romance novel about the Queen of England and her affair with Donatello from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? If you can squeeze 50,000 words out of that stone, it'll work.

[Binkleheimer]

My problem with planning (and plans in general.)

Plan plan plan plan -- IDEA PLANS CHANGE. Rest of plans ruined...

Oh, don't plan it down to the last detail.
Instead, think of the basic genre and plot. Then plan out the various sequences and how it may end.

Then you fill in the blanks.

[Aerikan]

Outline. Always, always, always outline.