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I tried nanowrimo a few years ago and never finished, so I'm trying again, though I started a little late (yesterday), so I'm going to just end late (Dec 2nd). My story is a young adult modern fantasy story about a girl who moves into a small mid-western town, and she meets a boy who's actually a wood sprite. I have no idea unfortunately what the conflict of the story will be. Fortunately, I was an hour early to work because of me being confused about the time, so that let me write furiously about 700 words to start my story. Unfortunately, it's now day 2 for me, and I still need to write about 4,000 words to catch up. Has anyone else have an idea for a story's setting/characters but no conflict? Any good ideas for trying to figure what the conflict should be? Edit: Oh, and my username link: http://nanowrimo.org/participants/Foolster41 Foolster41 fucked around with this message at 02:12 on Nov 5, 2014 |
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Nov 5, 2014 01:37
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rotinaj posted:I've been hanging tough so far. NaNo is never easy, but is totally do-able. On the plus side, I've had more work on my novel in the past 3 days than the past 3 months, so there's that. I'm right there with you. I actually hit my flow at lunch today, but then I had to stop and work. 
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Nov 5, 2014 02:41
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Fifth attempt, hopefully third success, second account. (Won the first round in 2010 then lost my log in. Typical.) This time, I came prepared with an outline. I'm writing a heist mystery novel based on Thief: The Dark Project with the characters based off of Ghostbusters and sadomasochistic spies doing time travel set in an alternative reality and there's something about friendship or something. . . . What? I'm serious!! Really, tho, I'm just trying to make a semi-cohesive story. Already 7k words in. God help me. Here's me: http://nanowrimo.org/participants/grimwit
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Nov 5, 2014 02:54
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Actual unironic post from my local area forum:quote:I am always inclined to genrebend, so my primary project this November has grown from a scifi-dystopian-steampunk into a twin-period-plus-futuristic scifi-paranormal-fantasy-dystopian-steampunk-satire-mystery-suspense (twiperifurry sciparafantatirepensianerypunk). (I think I add a new genre every day I write. So far, the plot is pretty cohesive, though. I think. I hope.)
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Nov 5, 2014 04:24
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I missed two days of writing, but today I brought it back. 7,568. Suck it cock farts. Story so far: white teenage boy is crushed by elevator, ponders life after death, as a ghost. God I hope it gets better.
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Nov 5, 2014 04:24
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magnificent7 posted:I missed two days of writing, but today I brought it back. 8,195  I'm pushing hard right now because I'm planning on taking Thursday off my my b-day, and I know if I get into a hole it gets almost impossible for me to get out of it, and my writing time on the weekends is shorter because I have to make a model cemetery for my sister. So far my main character has scared a soldier by casually pointing out booby traps in a mountain pass, been grilled about dissection by a visiting dignitary, and gotten recruited into babby's first espionage scheme. Tomorrow, he'll be chatting about astronomy and religion with a princess. Soon, he'll be a war criminal.
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Nov 5, 2014 04:56
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Foolster41 posted:I tried nanowrimo a few years ago and never finished, so I'm trying again, though I started a little late (yesterday), so I'm going to just end late (Dec 2nd). If you have trouble figuring out sources of conflict in a story I find it's helpful to ask yourself fundamental questions about the characters, the biggest one being "What do they want more than anything else in the world?" Once you've figured that out then you can start thinking up obstacles to place in their way, or even better, the characters' differing motivations can create the conflict for you. In your case you've got a wood sprite hanging out in the heart of Campbell's soup casserole country, which is not the first place that springs to mind when thinking of creatures straight out of Midsummer Night's Dream. How did he get there? Does he like it there? Does he hate it and want to return to the woods outside of Athens or wherever it is he usually hangs out? And how do all the other characters feel about this supernatural character living in their otherwise ordinary town? Have fun with it - I think you have a nice jumping off point for your story there. I would definitely be curious to know how a wood sprite ended up in Iowa or wherever.
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Nov 5, 2014 05:06
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Ah, gently caress. I started late because I was traveling. I don't actually remember how many years I've won NaNoWriMo, because I know there was at least 1 year where I had to skip it because I had a book in editing. And I'm pretty annoyed at the site for having been reset at some point so it doesn't show the old information. Username: dj_clawson
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Nov 5, 2014 08:18
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Liam Emsa posted:Actual unironic post from my local area forum: "I am always inclined to genrebend, so my primary project this November has grown from a scifi-dystopian-steampunk into a twin-period-plus-futuristic scifi-paranormal-fantasy-dystopian-steampunk-satire-mystery-suspense (twiperifurry sciparafantatirepensianerypunk). (I think I add a new genre every day I write. So far, the plot is pretty cohesive, though. I think. I hope.)" I'll be honest, I would totally read that just to see the genre smoothie that came out the other side.
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Nov 5, 2014 16:12
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Grimwit posted:I'll be honest, I would totally read that just to see the genre smoothie that came out the other side. Likewise. Seconding the recommendation for f.lux. Nothing has done more to stop the proliferation of The Scream face at my office. I'm taking the purest word vomit approach to NaNo this year. I know that I'm going to end up cutting at least 3/4ths of what I've written since starting, but that's okay. Better out than in. And a tiny squeal of joy. My husband just received the first full request for the manuscript I co-authored with him. My nanowrimo project is a companion/prequel to it.
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Nov 5, 2014 16:47
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Cthulu Carl posted:8,195 Oh are we playing numbers games cause  11349
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Nov 5, 2014 17:07
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Grimwit posted:I'll be honest, I would totally read that just to see the genre smoothie that came out the other side. If she were pitching this novel in a query letter to my boss, she would call it "literary fiction" in hopes of not completely alienating the agency with her unsellable work.
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Nov 5, 2014 18:59
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God drat you guys are doing good. I'm on 6359 and I'm stuck. I know the main plot bits of my story, I'm just having a hard time filling out the stuff in between 
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Nov 5, 2014 19:25
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Once again I'm doing terrible job at keeping up with my daily word count. Only 3100 words in but I'm determined to actually see this story through. I'm writing about a death obsessed bank robber that's laying low at a creepy Bed and Breakfast where everything is "off". Hopefully my paranoid nightmare fueled anti-hero is enough to drive the story forward. So far he has contemplated killing a guest that may have recognized him and had nightmares of a wolf with a black tongue eating his face.
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Nov 5, 2014 20:13
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Nethilia posted:Oh are we playing numbers games cause I'm waiting to see who the overacheiver is and says they're halfway done on Friday.
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Nov 5, 2014 20:25
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oliven posted:God drat you guys are doing good. I'm on 6359 and I'm stuck. I know the main plot bits of my story, I'm just having a hard time filling out the stuff in between What do you mean by "main plot bits"? Don't fill stuff in between, add more "bits". Don't think beginning, middle, end (most good fiction doesn't have 3 acts when you really look at them anyway), think"acts". Could you current end work better as a third act twist to create a new and interesting fourth and fifth acts? Etc. Thinking "how do I fit my story into x words" is a dead end avenue I think that leads to a boring elongated story. Add more things, don't smooth it out, crinkle it up. Conflict, etc.
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Nov 5, 2014 20:50
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oliven posted:God drat you guys are doing good. I'm on 6359 and I'm stuck. I know the main plot bits of my story, I'm just having a hard time filling out the stuff in between Two miscounted words, my friend: Descriptions. Every new location... Describe. Every new set of clothes... Describe. Every new emotion... Describe. I'm not even sure this is cheating, but talking about what someone is wearing seems to fill out the word count for me. You can only do it once per whatever, tho, otherwise you're just repeating yourself and at that point just retype "All Work and No Play..." over and over again.
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Nov 5, 2014 20:56
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I'm at a "write in" and its uh... It's actually not bad.
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Nov 6, 2014 02:25
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I poo poo out a couple thousand more words and managed to hit 10,350, which means... I can spend tomorrow evening drinking beer and watching kung-fu movies on netflix. Might do a little writing, but I'm not gonna worry too much. Main character started getting philosophical, and I realized halfway through he was making no sense. Probably could have started over, but gently caress that, I had him keep on digging till another character called him out on his nonsensical bullshit.
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Nov 6, 2014 03:09
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I finally actually started a couple days late. Shat out just over 7k words which doesn't quite catch me up, but puts me most of the way there. The pacing on everything is completely hosed and I'm constantly forgetting the names of my characters. Nanowrimo, folks.  Also, my characters have already managed to commit murder, robbery, torture, and arson. This keeps getting far darker far faster than it's supposed to.
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Nov 6, 2014 04:00
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Yeah, I'm a bit behind at 8100 or so words, but I'm already doing heaps better than last year, so that's encouraging. Planning my scenes out back in october has been immensely helpful. But then so has looking at Liam Emsa/gronke's high word count and slightly goading smile every time I check on my writing buddies  
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Nov 6, 2014 04:32
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I was on track to finish by the 20th and then my best friend's mom died. gently caress.
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Nov 6, 2014 04:33
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Aphra Bane posted:Yeah, I'm a bit behind at 8100 or so words, but I'm already doing heaps better than last year, so that's encouraging. Planning my scenes out back in october has been immensely helpful. But then so has looking at Liam Emsa/gronke's high word count and slightly goading smile every time I check on my writing buddies Thanks for the high praise, but my high word count is misleading. I started the novel that I'm working on a few months ago, and I'd had 5000 words when Nano arrived. So I'm shooting for 55000. Basically, take my word count and subtract 5000 from it. edit: With that being said, I'm around 4,000 words short by the end of the day today. Really slacking here, that's about it. Liam Emsa fucked around with this message at 05:01 on Nov 6, 2014 |
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Nov 6, 2014 04:59
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PoshAlligator posted:What do you mean by "main plot bits"? Don't fill stuff in between, add more "bits". Don't think beginning, middle, end (most good fiction doesn't have 3 acts when you really look at them anyway), think"acts". Could you current end work better as a third act twist to create a new and interesting fourth and fifth acts? Etc. I mean I have a series of scenes that should happen in a certain order to drive the story forward, but some of these scenes are more closely tied together while others are more general. I mean you're right of course, I definitely need more bits, and trying to make the whole thing add up to an even 50k isn't going to do me any favours. Grimwit posted:Two miscounted words, my friend: Descriptions. Cheating, pfft. This is good advice. It's easier going back and cutting stuff should it turn into something wonderful at some point anyway.
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Nov 6, 2014 08:14
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I fell behind yesterday. (I made a small tactical error: pierogis.) Now at 6889. Ought to be able to catch up on my flight tomorrow, though.
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Nov 6, 2014 14:32
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Okay, tell me if anyone else is doing this. I've started to notice while writing dialogue that my characters sound like famous actors. I meant it when I said there are some people based off characters from Ghostbusters. The weird bit is Tasha Kinglon sounds like Bill Murray in my head annnd.. she's a she. The only exception has been the main character, Scar, who sounded like Garret in the beginning, but has since wrestled the controls away from me and started taking on her own voice. Is it just me?
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Nov 6, 2014 17:54
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I've written the first few scenes, which needed to be very immediate and follow the character's every thought. Now I have about a week of story-time where nothing much happens. The character is stuck in a hospital. She needs to come to terms with how she got there, and make her decision not to talk. I don't know how to fast-forward to the bits that matter, and I'm getting bogged down in scenes of her eating, sleeping, and pacing. I'm still writing words, but by god they are pointless, boring words. I'm just shy of 5k words. At this rate I'll be happy if I finish half of Nano. But this is still more than I've written in this short a time before.
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Nov 6, 2014 18:15
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This goes for writing regardless of whether or not it's nanowrimo, but if something is loving boring to write, then just loving skip it. If the reader doesn't need to know that your characters ate breakfast because it's assumed that they're not starving to death, then you don't need to write it. Related note, my favorite radio show did an episode on nanowrimo earlier today: http://onpoint.wbur.org/2014/11/06/novel-writing-month-creative-fiction inthesto fucked around with this message at 21:13 on Nov 6, 2014 |
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Nov 6, 2014 18:18
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e: oops wrong thread
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Nov 6, 2014 18:48
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Anathema Device posted:I don't know how to fast-forward to the bits that matter, and I'm getting bogged down in scenes of her eating, sleeping, and pacing. I'm still writing words, but by god they are pointless, boring words.
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Nov 6, 2014 19:02
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Anathema Device posted:
Story telling is kind of like memory. Do you remember every time you've driven down the same old road to get to work? How many times have you walked through the front door? Can you describe each time in detail, or just the moments that broke routine? Memory tends to highlight the most interesting parts of our life and compresses them. It's why people can get mixed up which year they moved houses or that time the tire went flat... when was that? Write like the character is remember what happened. Even if it's from a 3rd person perspective. I guarantee, she won't remember everything tile on the ceiling.
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Nov 6, 2014 20:46
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systran posted:e: oops wrong thread Four more words towards the day's word count goal. Grimwit, the comparison you draw between memory and writing is excellent and I'm predicting it's going to be super useful.
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Nov 6, 2014 21:11
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Grimwit posted:Okay, tell me if anyone else is doing this. Actually that's a pretty good technique for making your characters sound individual from one another and to build a good foundation. So, don't worry about it.
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Nov 6, 2014 23:26
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Powered through and wrote 10,004 words in two days and now I'm officially caught up. Time to grab some beer and start writing some surplus words (that are hopefully less lovely because they're not pressed for time).
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Nov 7, 2014 00:03
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Anais Nun posted:If you have trouble figuring out sources of conflict in a story I find it's helpful to ask yourself fundamental questions about the characters, the biggest one being "What do they want more than anything else in the world?" Once you've figured that out then you can start thinking up obstacles to place in their way, or even better, the characters' differing motivations can create the conflict for you. I think the main thing the main girl, Lana wants is to at least at first move back to the city, though I don't think this is at all a reachable goal (would mean maybe sabotaging her mom's job, which would be awful, and I don't think she'd do it). Perhaps she gets over this soon and the goal becomes trying to adjust, fit into the town. As for the boy (who I'm naming "Jack" for now), I'm thinking he was either dropped off as a baby on parents (ala "Timothy Green", only not with terrible parents) or he has one human parent and one parent who's a sprite. So more or less this is the only life he knows, and since it is pretty rural, he likes it enough, he probably sees it as the best of both world, being around people, but not in a big dirty city. I'm starting to feel like this is turning into a pre-teen/teen romance story, and I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing, it feels just overly typical, I like idea of a story about two people who don't fall in love, who just become really good friends, but I don't know how to deal with that hanging expectation (for example, when their hanging out together at the county fair). I obv. don't want to just tell it ("he was like a brother to her."). I'm still pretty far behind, it's day 4 and I'm at 1,804 words. 1,529 words behind. Foolster41 fucked around with this message at 02:14 on Nov 7, 2014 |
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Nov 7, 2014 02:07
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AAaaand I keep falling behind every day.
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Nov 7, 2014 05:21
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Liam Emsa posted:AAaaand I keep falling behind every day. What's the problem?
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Nov 7, 2014 07:01
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Another aspect I'm struggling with in my story was, I'm thinking Jack is pretty reserved and doesn't like to be touched/hugged. I was thinking this would come in later when he hugs suddenly Lana. What I'm afraid of is someone seeing that and thinking the assumption that Jack was abused and that's why. I know that's not the only reason why someone might not be touched, but it is a common sign of abuse. I'd rather it not be ambiguous, but I don't know if there's any good way of showing it's not.
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Nov 7, 2014 07:51
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Aphra Bane posted:What's the problem? Too much avoidance of the big responsibility, then each day I get further behind so it's more to do, etc. Vicious cycle. 6000 words behind at this point.
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Nov 7, 2014 07:51
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Foolster41 posted:Another aspect I'm struggling with in my story was, I'm thinking Jack is pretty reserved and doesn't like to be touched/hugged. I was thinking this would come in later when he hugs suddenly Lana. What I'm afraid of is someone seeing that and thinking the assumption that Jack was abused and that's why. I know that's not the only reason why someone might not be touched, but it is a common sign of abuse. I'd rather it not be ambiguous, but I don't know if there's any good way of showing it's not.
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Nov 7, 2014 12:24
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