Tag Archives: NaNoWriMo

They Sucked Me Back In

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Last year, after doing both Camp NaNos back to back followed by NaNo prime, I suffered from NaNo burn out. I decided I would stop participating in the camps, to avoid that this year.

Then they went and not only moved it to April, but introduced flexible word counts.

So… I’m signed up.

Camp NaNoWriMo 2013I’m still trying to finish the project I started in August last year. Over the past months, I’ve gone through the existing content and cut out anything I can no longer use. (Even when I plot, I change my mind about things part way through a draft, which can lead to a lot of lost content.)

It was an interesting experience, and my total word count went from 102,575 to 69,642. I didn’t lose enough to count for an entire NaNo session, but it was still a significant chunk. I’m hoping to avoid losing quite as much this time, though I’ve set a conservative word count to make this camp lower stress.
It will be interesting to see if that makes a difference, or if I’ll just have the same lose spread out over a longer period of time :)

W1S1 2012, NaNo Draft, and a Merit Badge

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I didn’t do my W1S1 update at the end of November, because I’d spent most of my time on NaNo. Then in December, I spent it on other things (holidays are inherently distracting), or on trying to sort through the manuscript as it sat after Camp NaNo and NaNo. There doesn’t seem to be much point in putting up a pretty graphic, given how little progress I made on the short story revisions.

I’d made up my mind not to do W1S1 this year, but then I got an invite to the new Google+ community and accepted, so on that I’m easy to sway, apparently. I expect to follow along quietly, though, as I’m not exactly going to be following the rules. I want to get through my revisions at this point more than I want to be adding to the to-do list. We’ll see how that goes for the next few months :)

Other than that, I will continue to sort through the NaNo draft, and figure out which parts of this story I’m keeping. I’ve been telling people it will be interesting to see what the word count is once I’m done hacking out all the things I changed my mind on.

While I don’t talk about it much here, I have a novel draft that I keep going back to, yet never finishing. It’s been rewritten at least four times; characters have been added, deleted, renamed, merged, split; the setting has been changed; and the world revised and sharpened.

And it’s still not right.

I expect this will be the story that sits at the back of my mind until I figure out how I really want to tell it, but for now I’ve decided to let it rest. I’ve learned a lot from working on it, but I think it’s time it earned me my Drawer Novel merit badge.

Drawer Novel Merit Badge

I’ve made this decision before, and then pulled it out only a few months later. This time I’m putting at least a year ban on it. We’ll see if I can stick to that for a change :)

No Plot? No Problem!/Pre-November Plot Planning Party,

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NaNoWriMo 2012

The EdMoWriMos are holding a NaNoWriMo introduction and Plot-Planning party at the Idylwylde library on October 13. I won’t make it, but it sounds like it’ll be fun ^_^

When: Saturday, October 13th, 2:30-5:00 pm

Where: EPL – Idylwylde Branch 8310 88 Avenue – Program Room (http://www.epl.ca/about-epl/branches-and-hours/idylwylde-branch)

RSVP: On this thread http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/forums/canada-alberta-edmonton/threads/61280 at the NaNo boards.

Who: Anyone participating in NaNoWriMo, and anyone thinking about doing so! This is your chance to convince that friend who’s always on the fence, your hesitant spouse, or your coworker who keeps muttering about writing a novel some day.

What: We’ll cover the basics of NaNo for new Wrimos. You’ll hear how other people prepare for and work during NaNoWriMo, some tools for the job, and the resources that EPL has to offer. Speechifying will be followed by the Pre-November Plot-Planning Party where you’ll have a chance to brainstorm with help from friendly fellow Edmowrimos and maybe win a helpful door prize!

Why: Because there’s nothing like a little pre-November plot planning to get you in the mood for NaNo! Bring a pen and paper or your preferred outlining and planning tools, and come on down for a few hours to give your novel a kick-start!

Merit Badges: Finished First Draft and NaNoWriMo

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I realized that I’ve done NaNo since discovering the Merit Badger, but forgot to claim that badge, so I’m grabbing it now :)

On top of that, however, I’ve finished the first draft of this novel. For camp this year, I was a rebel, as I wasn’t doing a brand new idea. In fact, this idea was also the one I used for my very first NaNoWriMo in 2005.

All that survive from the first attempt were two plot points, and the two characters most closely tied to them. I have changed the location, dropped characters, merged characters, added scenes, and stripped them out. It’s been an interesting experience as far as editing and plotting goes, and in understanding my own approach to the process. In some ways, my stubborn nature is a detriment, especially when it comes to hanging onto pieces that need to go.

But this time I’ve cleared those out and I have a story that works. The pieces are there, and now I can work on moving them around and polishing them up. It’s nice to be able to say I’m done my final first draft for this piece :)

Merit Badge: Gibberish

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I’m participating in Camp NaNoWriMo this month, and have plans to participate in the August one as well. When I get this close to the end, I tend to hit a “whatever gets the words in” point that promises lots of editing in my future. I think that alone could earn me the Gibberish Merit Badge.

Merit Badge: Gibberish

However, this month I’ve been writing using my Echo Pen as well as the computer. While I prefer to go over what’s transcribe from the pen right away, this time I’ve been leaving those sections as they are for the most part. It’s going to lead to even more interesting editing than usual.
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Merit Badge: Outlining

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I don’t think I’m ever going wind up doing detailed outlining for the first draft, but I’ve gotten as close as I can getting ready for NaNo. Of course, it helps that I like using the outlining tools in Scrivener. I may still break down some of the parts farther once I get going, but I have my chapters and sections prepped, and a pretty good idea what needs to happen to get from start to finish. It’ll be interesting to see how much of that changes along the way.

Merit Badge: Outlining

I’m getting impatient. It’s probably a good thing we’re almost there :)

Well, So Much For That

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When I finished NaNo last year, I’d pretty much decided it was my last one. My enthusiasm had been waning the last couple of years, which made it feel like going through the motions more than anything. It also meant that I would have done NaNo from 2005 – 2010, which appealed to the way my brain likes to organize numbers.

Unfortunately for the orderly part of my brain, a little while ago I began putting the pieces together to make a project out of an old idea, and it’s pretty much perfect for a NaNo draft.

So, I’m doing NaNo again this year :) I’m also trying something new this year: outlining. I don’t tend to do that on first drafts, but I think it’ll come in handy this time. It’s not quite ready, but I still have a couple of weeks to prepare. Here we go again!

NaNoWriMo 2011 Participant