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mine is about trying to have a baby ... and then having one!
I started something totally different (romantic comedy style) but decided this year to just go with what I know, and write ... it's been very cathartic
what about yours?
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Mine's kind of random... I decided to just jump straight in with no sort of plot or planning.
It's romantic, because I cannot help myself. With a back drop of a bit of science fiction.
Exiled Prince from another planet planning to drain our planet of elemental magic to take back his place on his planet.
Oh man. Even when I say it like that, it sounds lame.
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Oh man... November is my absolute busiest month of the year for working, and I'm a consultant so I don't have a choice.Instead, I've done a 22,000 word corporate report and about 15,000 words of another report, neither of which will be anywhere near as interesting as your exiled prince, Kamarine!
Maybe I should use January (when I will be completely f-r-e-e) to get something ready for next November.
GL girls!
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that doesn't sound lame, kamarine!! and jennifer - I totally know the feeling ... I'm just loving not having exams this November, so I don't feel guilty tapping away on my book when I really should be studying!!
Very liberating
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tap tap tap ... tap tap tap ...
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It's only lame if you chicken out.
(*whips out and puts cheerleader outfit on*)Keep going! You can do this!!!
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50,000 words, you are *mine* !!!
so close ...
how are you other ladies going? you can do it!!!
tap tap tap
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Peanutter you are making it look ridiculously easy.
Btw I went a seminar with Fiona McIntosh, her golden rule is to never not ever back over what she has written until the entire first draft is done. I reckon that'd have to be modus operandi for getting thru Nano. Is that what u r doing?
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absolutely. save for typos which I correct as I go, I try not to fix up ANYTHING.
the other thing I do which I find really helps, is my self imposed "square brackets rule" which is that if I can't think of a specific word that I want, or I am on a red hot streak with one part of the story, I will summarie in square brackets what comes there, and keep going with the flow.
eg: [chapter 14 will be where Gabe realises that the girl he sold the car to is actually Ben's new fiance, and that he's going to be in *big* trouble ... Helen will come back on the radar at work, too]
or even [chapter 14 - Gabe]
and then I'll just keep running with whatever is going well.
Otherwise I'll spend 30 minutes pondering how to phrase the next bit of dialogue, the next scene entrance, where they are, what colour the grime on the dashboard is, etc ...
And I'm even worse with words - sometimes I'll have a mental blank and KNOW that I know the perfet word, but it just won't come to me, and I'll spend litterally 10+ minutes trying to push it out of my brain ... but I "square brackets" it, keep going, and just whevever the word hits me, I go back and insert it. Sometimes I use *** or ### so I can use control + f to jump right to it, so I don't have to trawl through pages looking for the blank...
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THat's some really good advice. I must admit I spend time dithering around with stuff like that. Or deleting and re-writing. I've managed to curb it a lot lately.
I'm officially at 40,000 words. How are you going?
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Peanutter that is fantastic advice. I use a similar technique (esp when I'm casting about for words, which is all the time since chemotherapy LOL), I use XXX (easily searchable) and I have been known to highlight in a different colour and leave that there to come back to. I like your square brackets method.
Wanna know what I've been up to in Nov instead of Nanowrimo? It's a blog....definitely not 50K but it's involved the discipline of turning out something every day (well nearly), and has been worthwhile from that perspective.
Last edited by AnyDream; December 16th, 2010 at 06:55 PM.
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kamarine - awesome!! keep it up! I've cracked 59, and am now gunning for 60K
marydean - noice blog
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Peanutter - lawdy! Fantastic effort, are you sure you can't pull out another 10K before the end of the month (call it a round 70K)?
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peanutter, that's fantastic!!! And really great advice a few posts up re square brackets. I'll remember that one because I think that's where I got stuck. Sat down to write but couldn't get anything out but the idea was in my head. Needless to say my novel is still sitting at around 4000 words. Not going to make it I don't think but I've enjoyed what I have done
Marydean, I've been following your blog and love it! I hope you get to meet Oprah!
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Eluned, that's just it, it's all about the process. Really it is. I think that's why writers write. Do any of us ever *really* enjoy reading what we've written (...there's *always* the cringe factor) - but you've got to keep doing it because that's what fuels you.
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Wow Peanutter. You're amazing. Can't wait to hear your final count.
MD. I hope you get to meet Oprah. Love your blog.
I scraped in with 50k. I'm so pleased with myself. I achieved. I love the feeling.
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eluned - that's super!! And it's 4K more words than you had a week ago. it's great that you've been able to do anything at all, with two little ones, etc.
and MD - your blog is fab. FX that oprah surprises you while she's here!!
kamarine - mega woooooot for you!! how good is it??
afm - final count - just over 72K. Amazing what happens, when you write about something so close to your heart ... not as cathartic as I thought it would be, but it's a start ...
my plan now?
January - edit this one.
February - re-read my last one
March - finish my first one
June - edit my first one
September - final edit, and decide what to them all!!
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Peanutter... I've been stalking this a lil bitand I want to know when we might be able to read something you've written???
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