Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related NaNo 08 - Let's Get This Party Started!

Symbolic - believe me - it is very doable.

Last year for me was *horrible*. Read last year's thread. Seriously. My 3mo son was in the hospital for 12 days, including surgery and on the 27? 28?th DH got a kidney stone and the water pipe broke. I think I had something like 25K words to go with 3 days left. Something like that. I don't recommend that, of course, and I was home basically all day both of those days without too much else to do, but if I could finish last year, it's possible for just about anybody to.

Keep plugging away. Use Jojo's calculator to help with new goals or whatever and even if you don't finish, be proud of what you've done.

Word count: 25247
Chapters: 10

Carol

I second that, Carol. Symbolic, I'm not even that far. I finally reached 6363 last night. I downloaded JoJo's calculator and put in my stats from the NaNo website, and now I know what I have to do to finish by the end of the month: 2300 wpd. Do-able, yes. Likely? Well, there's that long Thanksgiving break the last week.

No, I hope to use that vacation to get caught up more, but last night, I finally started pushing on my writing the way I have to do to finish this and totally surprised myself by writing 900 words in one hour. 2 1/2 hours a day of that, and I'd be finished.

Even as I write those words above, part of me says, "It isn't possible. I don't know what I'm going to write about." And yet...

In the midst of that outpouring last night, I felt like I was really tapping into my muse or my subconcious or whatever you want to call it. I was writing almost blind in terms of knowing what was coming next, but the words were pouring out because I had finally shut up my editing self. I started off stiffly, and the writing really showed it--totally telling instead of showing. Instead of deleting what I had written, I hit enter and then went back and began to write it as if I were inside my hero, and boy did he have a lot to share.

So today I'll try again: set the timer for 10 minutes; take a two minute break to reread; repeat. JoJo, thanks for the calculator, and Elisabeth, thanks for whatever you did to make it work so well. Off to do chores and then to write.

It's amazing how much different you write when you finally release the need to write well and just write. The word count comes from writing with the five senses, as well as including thoughts and feelings.

Yes, it's doable.

Last year I started writing about a week into the process. Oh, I started on day one, but the story wasn't working. Every time I wrote I realized I was writing the same story I had just finished. The setting was different, but the emotional journey was identical. I struggled against that so much that I eventually quit, started over with a new story. My 5-yr-old daughter was talking at the table one time about what a great story idea she had. I told her it was a fantastic idea, but I couldn't write it because I was writing my novel. So one day I threw out my old, not working novel and picked up her story idea. I hit 50K on November 30.

You're only a week in. It's still very doable. Not only doable, with diligence it's probable. Why? Because you obviously care very deeply about it. Passionate people get things done.


Elisabeth
PS I don't have you on my buddies list. What's your UserID #?

Symbolic is 429976. The username search is working again .

Carol [who did write a bit this AM]

Oh, Carol. You beat me to it. I added you to my buddies list. Now, when you update your word counts we will all be able to see your improvements and can say, "Yeah, SymbolicAngel! Another couple hundred words."


Elisabeth
PS It's hard to be creative when you don't feel well. I'm praying you find relief soon.

I'm writing blind too. I have no idea where my story is going, and when I do force some words out, my characters are doing things that I didn't give them permission to do. I'm still trying to grasp this story.

Well, I better get back to it. I've procrastinated enough on here and on the nano site.

But WOW what an excerpt. I hope you'll be posting that on the original fic site sometime soon.

BTW, I happily got to 18,334 words earlier today, whooped it up and put the word count into the Excel spreadsheet... only to have it tell me that I was a little behind but if I wrote 1666 words tomorrow I could catch up. So, the corrected function for D8 should read


=IF{A10<=NOW{},IF{B44>0,IF{B44>C6,"You're done!",IF{B44>{SUM{C6/30}*{30-F44}},"You're on track to complete on time.","You're falling a little behind. But don't worry, just try to write "&INT{M44}&" words a day and you'll still make it."}},"Let's get writing!"},"NaNoWriMo begins in "&INT{A10-NOW{}}&" days. When it starts, this bar will give you a quick report on your progress so far."}


The only problem is that the boards won't let me put in parenthesis, so all of them were substituted with { or }. Sheesh!

I know it's horrendous. I modified what was there. The mistake was that I had to write 1667 words today in order for it to realize that I wasn't behind.

There's another problem with it that I can't wrap my brain around yet. If you skip a day writing, it can't figure out the basic math of how many words written today. Not very important, but it bugs me nonetheless.


Elisabeth
PS Symbolic, if you get stuck you can just write something like, "In his alcoholic stupor Aiden couldn't get the stupid song out of his brain. 'Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall. Ninety-nin bottles of beer.' "

Word count: 27608
Chapters: 11

Next chapter has me nervous as the whole rest of the plot hinges on it...

How's everyone else doing?

Does anyone know why only 11 buddies show up on the buddy list? It shows symbolic [for instance] as one of my buddies, but not on my list...

What's up with that?
Carol

I tried the new formula replacing all { with ( and } with ).

It didn't work. It said that I would only need to write 6 more words to catch up...

Wait a minute. Why did the boards let you put parenthesis in here, but it won't let me? LIFE ISN'T FAIR!!!!

I'll e-mail you the formula and we'll see if it works thataway. If there is an error still, lemme know.


Elisabeth
edit: 11 was the magic number last year. It wouldn't show 12 and beyond. My theory is that Chris Baty only has 10 friends, so he feels that 11 is generous. (Although I'm betting they're 10 very close friends.)

The parenthesis thingy is really annoying. Especially since there is no documentation.

What I figured out is, that you get in trouble when using asterisks and parentheses in the same post and close together. The asterisks are a bullet-item indicator and together with the parentheses the system gets thrown off course.

Michael

James just forgot that he personalized his. But there were two A10 s that were supposed to be A12. Oh, well.

If anyone wants me to send them the formula, let me know and I'll e-mail you the cell contents. BTW, it goes in cell D8, which is a pretty aqua blue color.

Elisabeth
PS Not a single word written so far today. I have to write a chapter test first. Uggh!

PPS Did I see 1500 words written yesterday Sheila. Way to be!!

Thanks, Elisabeth. I actually made 1638 words yesterday, and today I finally reached 1671, and you know what? The number in the daily word count column turned green instead of black! I know, you guys already knew that, but today was the first day I finally exceeded the Nano minimum, so it was the first time I saw it.

Tomorrow I'll break into 5 digits with the rest of you. I intend to keep up this 1667 word pace at a minimum until my vacation, and then I can start picking up an extra 1150 words a day to make up for what I should have been writing the first ten days.

BTW, does anyone else ever wonder, "Who are these secondary characters who just wandered onstage?" When I'm just shooting from the hip as far as the writing goes, all sorts of people show up to interact with my MCs.

Go Sheila!

And yes!

Though, to be fair, the biggest of those characters for me popped up in OTOH and the other big one in UP is directly connected to him.

Otherwise, the characters been fairly isolated, but it happened a lot in OTOH which has led to those same characters showing up in UP. So they're sort of random but not completely - except I only *know* they're going to show up in OTOH, they haven't been written yet...

/sigh/

But... GO SHEILA!!!

/sniffles as she removes this year's non writers from her buddy list so that the writers will fit on her list of 11.../

Carol

Yes! The muse is back. I pulled enough teeth to get the writing flowing again. I'm still behind, but I reached my own personal goal of 2,500 words tonight.

Yay! Good luck to everyone. Don't give up.

The next section is going to be difficult to write. There is a lot of heart rending emotion and I tend to feel it all while I write.

James

I'd be Chris Baty's friend.

I've actually found a lot of shinny things this year and not worked on my Nano much at all. I'm going to try to get myself worked up and on it in the next day or so!

Jojo, who is at around 3,000 words

Actually, both last year (which I'm planning to post someday) and this year, I've had a lot of other characters. On the one hand, I felt as if my story would be very two-dimensional without having an ensemble cast, even if it meant making up my own characters or filling in characters that were two-dimensional in the show. For me, it made it a better story.

On the other hand, I'm always concerned. Lois and Clark wasn't an ensemble show, and a lot of readers don't like it when they aren't given the spotlight throughout the story.

I felt the same way when I had to cull my buddy list. Last year I had more than 11 friends who were writing. I had to pick and choose between buddies. For one thing, I deleted James since I already knew how he was doing. This year I thought it was sad that all of my buddies fit, including some who left this fandom over the last year (or at least, I haven't seen them).

Christina, 2500 words is awesome. I've only managed that twice this year, once on a Sunday and once during a write-in.

JoJo, try to get at least ten to twenty minutes of writing in every day, even if you don't get 1667 words. That way you won't lose momentum. You'll remember who everyone is and where you put them. Yesterday I only got 251 words in, but I didn't miss a day. I'm just as proud of those 251 words as I am some of my big days because it shows my commitment.


Elisabeth
who has to confront someone in RL and isn't looking forward to it

Last line for the day.

Dr. MacKenzie said that he should not feel guilty.

James, who is 6,000+ behind

Just a general note to anyone who is stuck. Just add Tim Mitchell in as a character in your story. He's the secret weapon to get to 50K.

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3025826

Edit: How's the toothache, Christina? I can understand why you didn't get anything written while you were in pain. Tonight when I was draining a pan of meat, I missed the handle and touched the metal that holds the handle in place instead. I burned the pad of my f/r/t/g/b/v finger. It doesn't even have a blister, yet I'm down for the count, with pain intense enough to bring on nausea and chills. It's the first night in three days when I have the time to write, and now I'm stuck.

Another hint for those who are stuck--add an author's note or a dedication page. Add a short verse to the beginning of each chapter, or a description such as, "Chapter Three, Wherein the werewolves overtake the citizens of the quaint town of Fondulac, and Jeremiah disappears".


Elisabeth