No plot, No problem- the NaNoWriMo thread 2012

[Mercenary Pen]

Right, October is already upon us, and November is fast approaching- which can mean just one thing, its time to get ready for National Novel Writing Month.

For the uninitiated, National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo for short) is a challenge to write fifty thousand words of a novel during the month of November, averaging to 1,667 words per day.

This next month is particularly important for any participant who finds it useful to have a plot for their story, but can also be used for purposes such as filling your house with more energy drinks than the local shop, or for clearing any and all dates in November, whatever you think will help you to write. Also, October can be useful for convincing other people you know to participate- because writing in the company of other people trying to do the same is so much more fun than writing in the company of other people who aren't trying to do the same...


Feel free to point me in the direction of any resources that would be useful to be linked in the first post, and I can add them (though if we reach november first, I may be too busy writing to add stuff to the first post).

[Giegue]

I may or may not be participating in this. Even if I don't, I'll be writing a novel of sorts anyway once I finish doing all the research for my massive setting that I'll be setting the story in. I admittedly have never done this before, so I'm not fully sure what I'll be getting myself into if I do actually decide to go for it instead of writing at my own pace. It does sound like fun, though.

[Glass Mouse]

Sure, I'm in! For once, I don't have school project crunch mode this November, so this'll be my best bet for making it

I'm considering writing a novel in an already-created universe, to get a feel for it before I start the actual story the universe is made for (Mercenary Pen will know which one). Just gotta find an angle or character to focus on.

Probably gonna go the "energy drink" route for October. I have another novel to complete before November starts, so I'm kinda busy

[Ravens_cry]

I'll give it a shot, though I have no shot of success.

[Icewalker]

Wooo! Now, I've been meaning to do NaNoWriMo for like, three or four years, and never have, for one overly busy reason or another.

I won't be doing it this year either.

Fortunately, this is because I'm in the middle of a novel.

So while I may not be doing NaNo proper, I am going to be trying to write a lot in the coming months! Maybe not 1700 words per day, but a lot! And maybe I'll do a proper 50,000 in one month rush sometime later this year, after I'm done with Another Turn of the Wheel. Because why not, it's good practice, and it's not like I'm going to run out of novel ideas!

[Mercenary Pen]

Originally Posted by Ravens_cry

I'll give it a shot, though I have no shot of success.

That's defeatism talking- I wouldn't count yourself out any time before late november, especially considering I've heard of people managing the 50k words within a 3 day period on some occasions...

[Glass Mouse]

Originally Posted by Mercenary Pen

That's defeatism talking- I wouldn't count yourself out any time before late november, especially considering I've heard of people managing the 50k words within a 3 day period on some occasions...

Hah! I've done that in a non-NaNoWriMo context. 100,000 words in two months. That was crazy.

So, yeah. I very much agree with Mercenary. No need for pessimism here - you can do amazing things if you want to, and inspiration strikes!

[-Sentinel-]

Only 19 days before the start! Got a plot or general idea yet? (I don't.)

For those who don't know, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short) is a challenge to write a 50,000-word novel during the month of November. So 1,667 words a day on average. You write for yourself, without necessarily wanting to publish, and you don't take time to edit; you just put words on paper. It can be any type of novel.

Last year I made it to 40,000 words, with the added difficulty that I wrote my pirate novel in English, which isn't my first language. Unfortunately I never finished my novel, as the motivation was gone after Nov 30; I estimate I was about two-thirds of the way through. I hope to do better this time.

So... who's in? Any past experiences you'd like to share?

[Sanguine]

I plan on taking part. Hopefully this year I wont end up hating my protagonist and turning him into a minor character while I turn my antagonist into the new protagonist.

[A Rainy Knight]

I've never done NaNoWriMo before, so if I end up with the time to try it I might actually give it a shot this year. Now... I guess having an idea of what to write would be a good start.

[Tvtyrant]

I keep meaning to take part in this. I think I can put about 1,500 words a day in during my free time, but only if I can make myself sit down and do it.

[Eldan]

Last year, I put down one sentence, gave it a long look, then gave up because I had no idea how to continue. And never looked at it again.

This year, I'm trying to come up with a plot idea first, but I can't think of antyhing.

Maybe I'll finish that story about the Zombie Noir detective. Though I'm not sure that will ever be longer than about five pages.

[Dumbledore lives]

I haven't thought about plots, though I might just browse through my musings files and see what comes up. I will definitely try to take part though, even though my workload is theoretically more than last year.

[Man on Fire]

May be good excuse to put my **** together and finish my work I started this month.

[Mauve Shirt]

I'm gonna write a book about a scientist and a rescue attempt and a betrayal and there are dragons. (I will probably not write this book.)

[Dienekes]

You know I have always wanted to take part in this, but November is rather consistently one of my most busy months of the year and this time looks no different. But good luck to you lot who are participating.

[Sanguine]

Damn, I just realized something. I'll be hopped up on painkillers for a good bit of November.

[snoopy13a]

I don't have the self-discipline for this. But if I did, I think it'd be interesting if, after I was done, to put it aside for a year and then look it over to see how awful it would be.

[Ravens_cry]

I have some ideas. One was a world in which humans primary export in the Interstellar market is mercenary groups. Other races consider themselves too 'civilized' to fight directly, so hiring muscle, us, is what they do instead.
The story follows one such group.

[Tvtyrant]

Originally Posted by Ravens_cry

I have some ideas. One was a world in which humans primary export in the Interstellar market is mercenary groups. Other races consider themselves too 'civilized' to fight directly, so hiring muscle, us, is what they do instead.
The story follows one such group.

Kinda reminds me of the Classical Greeks, where Sparta and other cities would rent out their heavy infantry so they could afford lighter troops (which they couldn't train at home due to their culture).

[Castaras]

Wasn't too sure whether I would, but I'll likely give it a go then end up failing as I normally do. I have an idea for a setting to tell stories in, and will probably try lots of short stories in one setting rather than a 50,000 word story straight off. Might be better for my attention span.

[Sanguine]

I feel like talking about my idea.

The world is an animistic one where all magic is done by invoking contracts with relevant spirits. Like say invoking a contract with a spirit of fire or heat to create a fireball, or a spirit of health or water to purify water. The exact nature of the spirit and the contract will of course have huge effects on the magic.

The story revolves around a group of refugees founding a settlement in a wild untamed land. They must deal with the local spirits forging permanent contracts that the settlement will need to survive: Protection from supernatural threats, clean water, protection from disease, abundant harvests, and similar things.

[Dumbledore lives]

Browsing through my random ideas I came up with an interesting one. Essentially mass teleportation becomes easy, quick, and cheap so the world slowly evolves to be incredibly lazy, with no one ever having to do anything. Then one day it stops working, people have to do everything themselves. I'm not sure what I'd write about there, but there are a few interesting concepts.

[The Extinguisher]

I will be doing it this month. I'm pretty excited.

My story will be centred around a girl who can't die (super healing factor or something), and is targeted by the criminal organization in the city. The crime boss wants to live forever and wants to figure out why she can't die and how to replicate it. So she teams up with a group of friends who are petty criminals, and they end up using her unique skill to make a lot of money and buy themselves a way out. The leader of the group's father was in with the mob but was suddenly killed, and he's trying to find out why. On top of all this, there is a detective trying to piece together just how this girl is connected to this city wide criminal empire and how to bring them down.

[Wyntonian]

Originally Posted by The Extinguisher

I will be doing it this month. I'm pretty excited.

My story will be centred around a girl who can't die (super healing factor or something), and is targeted by the criminal organization in the city. The crime boss wants to live forever and wants to figure out why she can't die and how to replicate it. So she teams up with a group of friends who are petty criminals, and they end up using her unique skill to make a lot of money and buy themselves a way out. The leader of the group's father was in with the mob but was suddenly killed, and he's trying to find out why. On top of all this, there is a detective trying to piece together just how this girl is connected to this city wide criminal empire and how to bring them down.

Neat! That's a pretty awesome concept.

[Raistlin1040]

I always feel weird talking about my novel ideas because everyone here has such high concept ones and I generally don't. My novel last year was about some students at a boarding school in rural Pennsylvania and my most developed idea this year is about a college student who studies abroad in Spain and tried to figure out what to do with his life (so original).

[Dumbledore lives]

Originally Posted by Raistlin1040

I always feel weird talking about my novel ideas because everyone here has such high concept ones and I generally don't. My novel last year was about some students at a boarding school in rural Pennsylvania and my most developed idea this year is about a college student who studies abroad in Spain and tried to figure out what to do with his life (so original).

I'm interested in how this turns into a novel actually. I guess I just have trouble righting a lot about a little, in that all my stories have a relatively small word count, and something like this with no real plot I just couldn't do. I mean I enjoy reading these kinds of things, but just have no idea how to write them.

[Eldan]

Originally Posted by Raistlin1040

I always feel weird talking about my novel ideas because everyone here has such high concept ones and I generally don't. My novel last year was about some students at a boarding school in rural Pennsylvania and my most developed idea this year is about a college student who studies abroad in Spain and tried to figure out what to do with his life (so original).

Honestly, I almost admire you a bit for that. I write my stories like D&D games. A bit like Play-by-Post, where I try to run the characters while also DMing. So, I can't really do aynthing other than small-scale fantasy.

[Ravens_cry]

Originally Posted by Tvtyrant

Kinda reminds me of the Classical Greeks, where Sparta and other cities would rent out their heavy infantry so they could afford lighter troops (which they couldn't train at home due to their culture).

It's also like how the many of the Italian city states of the Late Middle ages and Renaissance would hire foreign mercenaries to do their fighting for them, if I remember correctly.

[dehro]

Originally Posted by Ravens_cry

It's also like how the many of the Italian city states of the Late Middle ages and Renaissance would hire foreign mercenaries to do their fighting for them, if I remember correctly.

yah..the Swiss were particularily sought after..also, it wasn't an uncommon career path of choice for lesser italian nobility.

that's how the Swiss Guard in the Vatican kind of came to be.
also, Eddings has used this idea profusedly in his books.. with a couple of populations/tribes being noted for making a living through fighting for otherrs.

anyhoo..last year, at my first attempt, I was way ahead..with over 30k words after around 10 days..
then work caught up with me and I had to stop altogether.
I think this year I might try it again and just continue where I left off last time.
a fantasy plot..
something low-magic, around a couple of artifacts.. with as a development the rediscovery of higher magic.