NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month

I'm almost worried that I've done *too* much planning. I've got a yellow pad full of plotting and character notes, cross-referenced scenes and subplots, and index cards for scene set-up. I guess all I need to do now is actually start writing. The anxiety 12 hours before NaNo starts always gets to me.

 

I went to a workshop on epic-writing over the weekend and the lady spoke strongly against outlining, but said that if it works for you, to do it.

 

^Nice. Since I hate outlining... Did she say why?

 

She said that most of it could be done entirely in your head and that's usually more productive. She said to find a mundane task to do while forming your thoughts on things. I agree with this, since some of my best writing was done when I was doing drudgework for 11 hours a day.

 

I usually just keep a very brief outline, once I have the story main events worked out (i.e. two sentences per chapter) and then detail-outline each chapter right before I write it. Then if I have to make changes to later stuff, it's not a lot of work to undo and redo.

I am so tempted to bypass the WIP rule on a technicality and split my WIP into two stories... as it is with a "To Be Continued..." cliffhanger and then start a "new" story with Chapter 10 Or, if I finish 10 today, then with 11.

That would be wrong, of course, but I really want to so I don't have 2 projects going.

 

I've found that if I don't write stuff down, I'll forget it or miss something really important. Writing out the plot helps me think about what needs to be done and connect the pieces that make up the whole story. Without it, I tend to start wandering. The first time I did NaNo, I had a simple outline, and I finished about 23k words. Last year, I had practically no outlining, and I only got about 11k. This year, I'm hoping outling = success.

 

That's nice to hear, since I definitely tend to be an "organic" writer. I've got the setup, the main characters, the beginning and the end. It's the middle that worries me.

And what the heck I'm going to do with my WIP over here during November, I have no idea. I may just have to go on hiatus if I can't keep up the pace.

 

Between the lady who ran your workshop and J.K. Rowling -- who insists on outlining everything -- I'd personally go with Rowling's suggestion if you want to write an epic.

Then again I'm not much of an outliner myself (I consider the first draft my "outline") so I'm not one to talk.

M. Scott

 

That's nice to hear, since I definitely tend to be an "organic" writer. I've got the setup, the main characters, the beginning and the end. It's the middle that worries me´

Heh, that's me as well. I have an idea of the middle, but nothing concrete...


*sigh* I so want to do this- it absolutely sucks that I can't.

 

I tend not to outline, just because my brain works better if the ideas are not on paper. I've been doing it for this project just so I can keep a chronicle of my planning progress.

 

Cracking my knuckles...getting ready...just 38 minutes now...

 

*hyperventilates* Day one.... (and its nearly over for me!) I have done excatly... 100 words? *sighs again*

~Misha

 

I have 358, but keep getting interrupted.
Edit: Am now at 2617, but must sleep at some point. At least I got the entire prologue done.

 

*cracks knuckles* Ah, 3 words. Only 49,997 more to go.

 

Went grocery shopping first thing this morning and followed Chris Baty's advise to load up on nibble
food and caffeine (Diet Coke, in my case). The story writing starts after lunch!

 

Yep, good luck everyone!

If only November weren't crunch time for college... I've already got enough to write without adding more!

 

I ate chocolate chip cookies last night while stressing through my first 2600 words. Today, I'm getting a big hot chocolate and some nice yogurt.

 

I really would like to do this -- but sadly my muse hasn't thought of any ideas for what to write about and that's kind of the first step. I have all this extra free time since I'm not working and no muse

 

Write a Qui-gon fic...

 

About what? Need a plot to go with that..

 

I concur. One can never fail when a story has Qui-Gon in it.

Let the plot come to you...do some meditation, maybe then you'll think of something.

 

Was thinking about the outline thing...

Often, I'll write out a scene or two by hand, (with a bunch of notes thrown in) and then end up with a longer story than I had originally planned for in the typed version because there was more there than just what was written down. The outline can help with the basic idea and direction of the story, and can sometimes make it better.

I'm not saying that one always needs an outline (because I have gotten some of the best stuff when I was writing on a lark), just that it can be a useful tool.

 

I think to have a least a basis, even a few ideas written down will is a good idea. I went all out for Nanowrimo and wrote out an entire outline, but I'm acutally finding that I'm not keeping to it, which is actually really fine with me because I'm still coming up with fairly good ideas.

See you just never know what'll come out of your unless you just sit down and write (or type!)
I've been surprising myself! And it's only day one!

 

I was very interested in sticking to my outline until page 12 hit and then all of a sudden, I started Chapter 1 very differently than I'd anticipated. Now I don't know.