Be Excellent To Each Other

It's now two days in, but with insane effort you might be able to catch up. It's NANOWRIMO, which is 'National Novel Writing Month'. Having started November 1st, you've got until the end of the month to write a 50,000 word novel. I'm underway, but 'cos it's a weekend I've blown a fair bit of time visiting friends and doing Scrabble Sunday down at Shot in the Dark. (Drink with friends! Play Scrabble! Argue about the rules! Lose friends!) As such, I've only done just over a thousand words. Oops. Best do two thousand tomorrow to make up.

http://www.nanowrimo.org

There's no prize and no fee. You just write knowing that over two hundred thousand people are in the same boat. There's also lots of support, advice, fun things and a forum on their site. Every now and again you upload your current stuff and your word count on the site goes up, and correspondingly the word count for your region.

So, anyone else doing this?

I'm tempted, with a head start of being the best part of 20k into the story.

The only problem is that my 'novel' is essentially a series of interconnected short stories, so I'm not sure how this fits in with the project.

Hmm, tricky. Do the short stories share the same character?

The advice the site gives is to go in completely fresh. That way you're more writing and less agonising over what you're doing to your existing story. It doesn't matter so much as plot and planning ahead, just pummell your ideas onto the page. I guess you could write a self-contained novel featuring your main characters after the events of your novel to date and have one of those Atonement-style leap forwards a few years into their future lives. Or you could write the novel with new characters and have the old ones cross their paths.

Good luck either way!

Some of the same characters inhabit the stories. It spans a good deal of time, featuring a diverse range of characters tied together by the city they are in (Las Vegas).

I might, however, go through on the idea of writing that idea you gave me that I started once. The only problem is just finding the time.

That said, I've written 8k in a night before, so all I need to do is find a few free nights... I wish I had some!

Ah, I may give this a go!

Ooh! Do so!

I've got tomorrow off so I'm headed down to a cafe with a notepad to scribble away, then back to the compy to type up. Then Meester Bond film, and tea round a fellow NamoWrimo friend's house. Toppo.

By the way - the Namowrimo website may be down or slow in the following few days owing to the sheer volume of people logging on to their writing blather. Record number of people have joined it, apparently. Cripes.

Yeah, I thought I'd have a nose at it (not that I intend to enter - I have the writing skills of an orange) and couldn't get on at all.



At least the word count won't be a problem.

I'll try my best! I love writing. I already have a few idea's jumping around so will get and write them down

Going to go and sob into pillow as have toothache it's a bar steward-had co-codamol (?) and a double scotch....sorted! Not together though

Mr.D-you little sod hehe.

Me too. I kept refreshing though and it let me on with the fourth attempt. Should work in the morning when all the Americans are tucked up in bed.

Now to sleep. *Yawn*

Too late. I'll only get 46k done at this rate.

I'm going to write a daily account of my activities.

Can you restrict it to 50k, though? It'll need some heavy editing.

Heh.

I've written a bit already, quite pleased with how it's going so far

You lothario.

Sounds like you need a Matt Parker & Trey Stone style writing montage, Myoptika!

The race is on
Days are flying past
What ya got is only prologue

And you've sprained your wrist
Wasted time getting pissed
You're really - feeling - the slog!

But they never said it'd be easy...
Scratching out a novel hour by the hour
Ya got find the time and seize it...
And tap in the core of the writer's power!

WRITE TO WIN!
WRITE TO WIN!
WRITE TO WIN!
WRITE TO WIN!

Get you're ass out of bed
Type it letter by letter
Ya gotta move ahead
Yer getting better and better

WRITE TO WIN!
WRITE TO WIN!
WRITE TO WIN!
WRITE TO WIN!

Don't hit that backspace - yer writing to win...

WRITE TO WIN!

More haste less waste - yer writing to win...

WRITE TO WIN!

We don't care if its borderline racist - yer gotta write to win...

WRITE TO WIN!

See that word count and chase it - now yer writing to win...!

We're all so proud of you...
Now that we've found you're ploughing through and you're writing to win
Thank God the racism's ironic
A beautiful message about man's struggle within

Like the struggle -
To send a message -
When you're writing to win!

WRITE TO WIN!
WRITE TO WIN!
YOU'VE GOT TO TAP AT THOSE KEYS IF YOUR WRITING TO WIN
NOTEPAD OR APPLEMAC YER SURE WRITING TO WIN
YA CAN PLAGURISE A LITTLE JUST BE WRITING TO WIN
ANGELA LANSBURY WAS WRITING TO WIN
BE LIKE HER AND SOLVE CRIMES WHEN YOU'RE WRITING TO WIN
AWWWW! YER GOTTA BE ANGELA IF YOU'RE WRITING TO WIN....
LIKE THE SONG THE INK RIBBON'S FADING AS YOU'RE PRINTING TO WIN...
ALWAYS MAKE SURE YOU HAVE SPARE RIBBONS IF YOU'RE PRINTING TO WIN...
BUT PEOPLE USE EMAIL MAINLY NOW SO DON'T WORRY YOU'RE WRITING TO WIN...
WRITING - AWWW! - YER GOTTA BE WRITING TO WIN....

Why are you wasting time writing hilarious song lyrics, when you should be WRITING TO WIN^TM?

Because Pete is actually amazing and can do both?

MULTI-TASK TO WIN!

Alt-tab are the keys
Between finger and thumb
To flick between the windows
When your thoughts are on the run

Because you're writing so fast
Your typing's picking speed
Too much for one page
Prospective writers take heed!

MULTI-TASK TO WIN!
CHA-CHA! CHA-CHA!
MULTI-TASK TO WIN!
CHA-CHA! CHA-CHA!
MULTI-TASK TO WIN!
CHA-CHA! CHA-CHA!
MULTI-TASK TO WINNNNNN!
WIIIIINNNNNN!

It can be considered a pun
Because WIN abbreviates
Yeah, abbreviates for 'windows'
And the smugness is on
Quips people appreciate
Christ yer really putting on a show!

WITH YER MULTI-TASK TO WIN!
MULTI-TASK TO WIN!
KEEP FLICKING THOSE KEYS!
WITH YER MULTI-TASK TO WIN!

(etc.)

We should write an entry from the forum. It only needs 100 each from ten people per day. That's nothing.

Like a 'Round Robin' you mean then?

It has to be called WRITE TO WIN, with the above ditty as the theme song.

No, just do it when you like.
And don't check my maths, obv.

Robin's going to be really upset when he sees what we've been saying about him today.

But....um....if we were to do this, we'd need to form some sort of same story line wouldn't we? Otherwise we'd just be writing random '100 words' and it wouldn't make sense...

Yeah I know, like most of my posts-I'll get that one in thankyousomuch

Hence the need for something like a round normal shaped robin to work on?

Just a thought there

EDIT: Spellings fixed, god knows whats wrong with me today

Or we can split up the types of words, and then put them together later on. Someone writers 100 verbs, someone else writers 100 nouns, someone else writes 100 prepositions, 100 adverbs, etc.

Bagsy definite articles.

Um...

Well, we'll see how many people want to do it first. I'm up for it (whichever way we do it)

I'm up for it. Storyline or freestyle.

What should our story be about then?

I think it should have a pixie in it who steals Emos make-up.

4 Life.

...and a bit where Girls Aloud are chopp..[snip - A lawyer]

Are we doing genres like a proper story or is this a prat around comedy thingy?
Also-is it poll time?

No Genres, a Pixie. That way no one will get it mixed up with Aladdin.

I really want to include Nicholas Witchell as a supporting character.

-_-; oh god, it's a comedy upload today! Just saw Scrappy-doo...

"Brandon was painfully emo. His head was slung as if hung from an invisible rope and when he moved on the dancefloor, his twitching limbs made it look as if he were kicking air, the hempen dance. He was the leader of a tribe of emos, claiming mutual support in the face of a hostile society, though the sullenness of their conversation belied a sort of fellow contempt as well. Derided in the town centre, they had moved to the fields on the outskirts, beneath a brooding wood with an equally brooding stone circle. They went there to brood."

That kind of opening then?

You could actually weave something fun out of Zardoz's idea. As long as you balance the comedy self-pity against character development, gleefully savage satirical fantasy and mandatory clumsy sex scenes.

Yes, we can use Nicholas Witchell.

The Pixies name is Mark and he lives in a Telescope.

*punches Joans*

I like nervouspetes start btw

Mark the Pixies Telescope is magic (sorry should have been clearer) he can see teen-angst and iTunes vouchers with it.

God-this is going to be interesting.
I've written a bit...um...will send it to Pete first I think

Excellent! Anyone feel free to write more than one hundred words, btw.

Got your PM Shin! I liked it.

Next story post reserved for Shin!

Hang on. Surely someone writes a beginning then everyone else just carries on writing the same story?
How hard can it be?

Brandon’s entourage consisted of three boys and two girls, the hanger-on chicks digging the tight trousers and stripey scarves. They shunned the outside world, face half-veiled by the universal jet-black haircut - turning their backs with affected contempt on the ones that were brave enough to have streaks in the black locks. The coloured-lock tribe were a lesser emo; they hadn’t given themselves over to the despair and the greyscale life they believed that all emo’s should lead - life was to suffer, as decreed in Chapter 1 of ‘The Book of Emo-To Err is Human, to Suffer is Emo’

Brandon was calling a meeting in the middle of the stone circle, he made sure to bring his iPod and speakers so they could listen to the mandatory Fallout Boy as the meeting took place. Earl Grey tea was in the flasks on a make-shift table, next to the razors, eye makeup, and baby wipes.

Brandon had heard down the grapevine that there was a wood not far away from where they were, a magical wood. He never listened to this kind of thing normally, mostly because he was usually informed by chav's hanging around the local shops, ever waiting for someone to buy them cheap cider. But this intrigued him - apparently there was a magical creature that dwelled within the wood and it had been known to have great powers ... and Brandon wondered, half-dared to hope, that it was one that could transform his mop into hair that never needed to be straightened...

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Tweaked and edited by the wonderful Pete! Merci for suggesting bits and fiddling round with it

Not hard at all, it's just that Shin PM'd me a bit and I really liked it, but we wanted to tinker with the post, and so I brashly reserved her a space to ensure no one could jump in with one before her. I'll be less interfering here on in!*


* (Possibly an obvious lie.)

Can I deal with the punctuation? I love a nice colon.

Yup.

Which is a good idea. Beta'ing is needed really, so I thought Pete may want to give it the once-over and I'm pleased

Um....should we have another topic thing that's just the story and discuss it on here? People may want to suggest bits and edit things that people have written if they sounds good, that can be done without ruining the flow of the story on the 'Story time' thread then

Um....good idea or? I mean if it's JUST the story on there then it won't break up the flow of it with meaningless shit....and I can stay on here then

Nope, I agree. That way this thread can also be used to personal Namowrimo talk too! Set the thread up Shin and copy and paste! I'm stuck on a fun dialogue scene between knife wielding national park woman and impossible bearded man.

Any benefit to me knocking together a quick site where you submit your text and it automatically adds it on to the end of the current text?