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Metalfish 28 Sep 2013 19:53:11 9,191 posts
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As ever, I'll be using the added momentum to finish something off. I'm 110000 words through the 2011 nano thing, and the 2012 thing finished way short of the 50k target, but I'm getting there.

RichieTenenbaum 28 Sep 2013 20:56:23 2,774 posts
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I'm quite excited about this years. I'm going to be writing something a bit more left field and a bit more creepy than my previous one.

I already have a title and some index cards with chapters and ideas on my wall.

It's going to be called 'SIGH'

Edited by RichieTenenbaum at 20:58:12 28-09-2013

Metalfish 28 Sep 2013 20:58:48 9,191 posts
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More creepy? Jeez RT, some of your stuff genuinely unnerves me, like James Herbert with less of a conscience.

RichieTenenbaum 28 Sep 2013 21:04:12 2,774 posts
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My idea is proper crazy this time. And my protagonist even more skewed. I also have covered a wall in my bedroom with crazy index cards with chapter ideas on. It looks like a mental patient's scribblings. One card reads 'Sex - Glow Sticks'

Also I wrote one of the cards in blood.

Edited by RichieTenenbaum at 21:06:08 28-09-2013

RichieTenenbaum 28 Sep 2013 21:04:48 2,774 posts
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I might go back and edit my other one at some point. It can't hurt to put it on kindle.

Metalfish 28 Sep 2013 21:11:31 9,191 posts
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You're proper scary.

I say this as someone who's first Nano hinges on a character made up of hunks of other people.

RichieTenenbaum 28 Sep 2013 21:12:46 2,774 posts
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Hey. The death count of my previous nano was 4! You killed an entire starship full of people in gross, horrible ways. Mine died almost instantly 'off screen'

Metalfish 28 Sep 2013 21:19:24 9,191 posts
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*Cough* Ithinkyou'rethinkingofMetalDog *Cough* *Cough*

RichieTenenbaum 28 Sep 2013 21:21:50 2,774 posts
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SHUT UP.

Anyway, I don't think my writing is THAT weird. Or that my characters are THAT crazy or nasty. I mean, I've never read any James Herbert but isn't he a horror author. My stuff wasn't horror. It was like noir fiction.

Edited by RichieTenenbaum at 21:32:01 28-09-2013

RichieTenenbaum 28 Sep 2013 21:21:51 2,774 posts
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SHUT UP.

Deleted user 28 September 2013 21:26:37

I'm having difficulty in explaining this to people.

"So you can publish your book on November 30th?"
"No, you end up with a first draft you can edit up and publish."
"So you don't end up with a novel?"
"You end up with a first draft of one."
"So if it's a finished draft why can't I publish it?"
"Because it'll be shit."
"Then what's the point of writing something shit?"
"Because all first drafts are shit. Hemingway said that. Listen to Hemingway."
"Mine aren't!"
"Yes, you're the one exception to the rule."

etc etc.

Metalfish 28 Sep 2013 21:39:29 9,191 posts
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Hah!

1st drafts are shit. As are 2nd drafts. (And in my case, every draft after that. But the important thing is that they're less shit.)

MetalDog 28 Sep 2013 21:44:19 24,076 posts
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I dispute that I killed an entire starship full of people, I only killed a thousand and something, there were survivors.

I'm with Hemmingway on the 'all first drafts are shit' issue. They're really fun to write though and that's reason enough to do it =)

Deleted user 28 September 2013 21:44:54

Stephen King seems to think that only two drafts are needed. But then again he has a massive list of editors to shuffle it off to and forget he ever wrote it (literally in the case of Cujo). I'd say for most amateur writers it's getting publishable around draft 6. Before that it's still in the realm of "WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU'RE RUINING IT FOR EVERYONE ELSE".

Draft 1 - personal. Then go back and kill the darlings.
Draft 2 - shown to your nearest and dearest opinionator.
Draft 3 - group workshop.
Draft 4 - wider test readers, preferably people you don't know all that well.
Draft 5 - Pay for a professional to give it a once over, both copy and manuscript if you can afford it.
Draft 6 - NOW UPLOAD.

Deleted user 28 September 2013 21:45:46

Of course, with liveblogging NaNo you sort of get step 3 done on the fly (and a chunk of step 4). But yes.

RichieTenenbaum 28 Sep 2013 21:47:00 2,774 posts
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I have never second drafted anything. Maybe I should

MetalDog 29 Sep 2013 13:44:57 24,076 posts
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I think I know what I'm going to write now. In the interests of full disclosure, I'll be using a 3k character scene I wrote some years ago within the body of it, so I'll need to hit 53k by Dec 1st to count as a win this year.

I'm all optimistic now, I'll be crying and whining by Nov 10th as usual.

Deleted user 1 October 2013 17:21:12

One month to go!

MetalDog 2 Oct 2013 11:30:13 24,076 posts
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@boo are you in this year? Are you? Are you? Huh?

The NaNo website has reset. It's now possible to set your novel info up and the forums have been scoured of last year's discussions to make way for new ones.

Deleted user 2 October 2013 12:16:57

I'd love to but I'm trying to put all hands on deck to get games out of the door. I've already been stop-start enough without breaking off for another NaNo :-(

MetalDog 2 Oct 2013 13:22:56 24,076 posts
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Sorry to hear that, Rhythm. Do what you gotta do though, sometimes life will not be denied.

RichieTenenbaum 5 Oct 2013 20:34:45 2,774 posts
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What's everyone's thoughts on cheating. I'm planning to get a head start as I know due to my job, I've got no chance of finishing this in November.

Deleted user 5 October 2013 21:19:03

Starting early's fine enough, but you'll still only have 30 days from the moment the first word of the draft is committed, so if you start now, your finish line is 4th November. Anything else is BANNED and VERBOTEN*.

* or at least frowned upon with a slow shake of the head

sunjumper 5 Oct 2013 23:54:44 3,548 posts
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I have not the slightest idea of what to do this year and my slowly groing mountain of shame of unfinished crap does not help in the least.
At least I seem to be getting incrementally better at getting close to the finishing line.

I am still utterly useless at pulling through though.

Moaning aside I am looking forward to November again as each year has always been full of delights and many EGers first drafts no matter how much in need of re-work and polish have brought me more joy and entertainment than some full priced books that I had the misfortune to actually pay money for.

Edited by sunjumper at 23:56:36 05-10-2013

MetalDog 7 Oct 2013 00:25:43 24,076 posts
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Cheat away if that's what you got to do, RT. I read nothing NaNo before Nov 1st, though.

@sunjumper
Something will come up and whack you on the head. You can finish this year, I know you can - just find something smaller than your epic tendency to hack at =D

I suspect I'll have the opposite problem this year - no idea how my current idea is going to stretch to anything longer then 25k, but necessity being the mother of invention, I'm sure something will occur before it's a problem. Probably =D

Deleted user 9 October 2013 16:37:53

I had one of those weird quasi-waking dreams last night where I crafted out an entire universe and filled it with stories, so I'm scrapping my original plan and am instead doing a set of loosely interconnected shorts for my NaNo. Also returning to genre (yes, MD, my literary snobbishness is beginning to wane

), so it'll be sci-fi, but hopefully keeping them short will stop it going into the realms of total turd like that first NaNo I did.

Deleted user 9 October 2013 20:18:11

Don't have a computer so will be doing this old school.

Metalfish 9 Oct 2013 21:10:37 9,191 posts
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Respect to the Hemingway handwritten first draught, mowgs.

Deleted user 9 October 2013 21:17:30

True fact: At his writing peak, Hemingway used to go through an average of seven pencils a day. In fact, he only considered it a "good day" of writing if he reached that magic number seven of worn-down pencils.

MetalDog 10 Oct 2013 00:05:43 24,076 posts
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meme wrote:
Also returning to genre (yes, MD, my literary snobbishness is beginning to wane )

\o/

Your first nano wasn't turd, meme. And sunjumper's unfinished stuff isn't crap.

Every year I've been blown away with the output of my fellow EGers, don't put yourselves down. Everyone's done good work before and shall do again. Get your best boots polished, because we are going to kick some arse in November.

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