23 replies to this topic

[tricksie]

I'm starting nanowrimo today, and just wondered if any of the other H&E writers were doing it....or have thought about doing it. This year will be my first. Wish me luck!

oh yeah: nanowrimo is National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write 1600-ish words per day, for 30 days, for a total of 50,000 words by the end of the month. So the hope is that whatever you end up with, you are farther along than when you started. Whether you reach the goal or not. It's all about quantity, not quality, just getting the words on the page.

[Madz]

I would have loved doing this. It's just that this month is VERY busy for me.

Anyway, best of luck to you, at least we'll get to read more of your goodness by the end of the month

Edited by Madz, 01 November 2011 - 07:00 PM.

[Gravenimage]

I'm starting nanowrimo today, and just wondered if any of the other H&E writers were doing it....or have thought about doing it. This year will be my first. Wish me luck!

oh yeah: nanowrimo is National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write 1600-ish words per day, for 30 days, for a total of 50,000 words by the end of the month. So the hope is that whatever you end up with, you are farther along than when you started. Whether you reach the goal or not. It's all about quantity, not quality, just getting the words on the page.

This sounds promising I might sign up for this because I can write 6,000 thousand words or more in one day.

[pharix]

This sounds promising I might sign up for this because I can write 6,000 thousand words or more in one day.

all in one sentence too

[Onionhead Attacks]

Wow, sounds like an interesting challenge! Writing 1,600 a day doesn't seem that bad, but for 30 consecutive days? That's a real challenge since sometimes life can be so busy and we end up forgetting or worse, end up with writer's block! Oh wait, you said that it's about quantity rather than quality... so I guess that means that what you write doesn't have to be in the best shape and can be reworked later, huh?

Well, either way, best of luck, tricksie!

[peanutbutter126]

I did NaNo last year and was going to do it again this year for the fun, but I don't finish exams until Friday, and I'm going to need every single day I can get to churn out 50K XD I'll probably pass this year, but good luck to everyone who does it! The trick is to just keep writing, not stopping to edit (because it will side track you!) and then go back to edit everything afterwards, if you want to hit that 50K. Otherwise, just have fun and knock yourself out

[AchikaMiyu]

I'm trying it for the first time this year. I wrote a little bit today. Haven't checked the word count, but I'll worry about that later. Good luck Tricksie!

[tricksie]

I'm trying it for the first time this year. I wrote a little bit today. Haven't checked the word count, but I'll worry about that later. Good luck Tricksie!

Good luck to you, too! I knocked out 2,791 words today. I'm trying to get some high count days in early so I can get a little ahead for the inevitable days when I can't write a bit!

[tricksie]

Just hit 25,000 words! Hoorah! I had a big moment of doubt today, so I'm very relieved that I got through it!

[peanutbutter126]

You're doing very well, tricksie! Right on schedule too. Good luck with the rest

Out of curiosity, are you writing fanfiction or an original story for your NaNo project?

Edited by peanutbutter126, 16 November 2011 - 07:45 AM.

[tricksie]

You're doing very well, tricksie! Right on schedule too. Good luck with the rest

Out of curiosity, are you writing fanfiction or an original story for your NaNo project?

Ty. I'm working on an original fiction, a steampunk twist on the fairytale, The Twelve Dancing Princesses. Sort of like Alice down a copper-lined rabbit hole!

I'm also trying to work on my fanfic, but it is falling woefully behind the nano. Ah well.

[NaruDeeds]

Would if I had the time =/

[peanutbutter126]

Ty. I'm working on an original fiction, a steampunk twist on the fairytale, The Twelve Dancing Princesses. Sort of like Alice down a copper-lined rabbit hole!

I'm also trying to work on my fanfic, but it is falling woefully behind the nano. Ah well.

That is a fascinating idea! :O I don't know of the fairytale myself, but modern appropriations of old stories are often very interesting - and you're working with steampunk here as well. Definitely sounds like a blurb that would make me pick it up. Hope you'll hit that 50K! Let us know how you go at the end of the month

[tricksie]

That is a fascinating idea! :O I don't know of the fairytale myself, but modern appropriations of old stories are often very interesting - and you're working with steampunk here as well. Definitely sounds like a blurb that would make me pick it up. Hope you'll hit that 50K! Let us know how you go at the end of the month

thanks for the support! I need it! Everyone says the last half is the hardest and I'm finding that to be true! I've been on DA looking at steampunk cosplay, youtube watching automatons, and every crazy alchemical/historical/philosophical/fairytale site online to keep myself inspired!

my stab at a story blurb --Click here to view--

The hum of machinery always was a lullaby for the young girl. The pleasant snick of gears and the click-ticking of the gilded automatons (whimsical clock-work-like machines) filling the arching space of her father's workshop.

A genius engineer, her father spent his life building elaborate contraptions for the royal family. But upon finding out the innovations in his masterpiece were to be used to bolster war machines, the father secretly dismantles it. The pieces are hidden, refashioned into toys and sent out to other customers in other lands. His meticulous notes are burned.

After his untimely death, the girl discovers some strange marks among his notes. They match up to markings in her favorite fairy tale, "The Twelve Dancing Princesses." She soon realizes that he was hiding something. Something big. It's up to her to follow the clues, translate the riddles, and solve the puzzles if she's to uncover his findings. And deciphering his notes will push her knowledge of the elaborate machines to dizzying heights.

Now, with their country teetering on the brink of war, the girl finds herself in a desperate race to reassemble the scattered pieces of the masterpiece machine. If her calculations are right, and if her own innovations can work, then the technology hidden in those delicate armatures might be the only hope for peace.

But the headstrong Princess has set her sights on conflict. And she charges the girl's childhood rival, the dark-eyed son of the Master Engineer, with uncovering her secrets so they can push ahead with the war machines.

Trying to stay a step ahead of the Princess and her supporters, the girl must follow the trail of clues wherever it leads. She knows she can not go back, but the path twists and turns in ways she could never imagine....

From the cobblestone lanes of the overcrowded kingdom to the glossed palace halls of an impossibly high castle…. From the fantastical gardens where she played as a child to the treacherous border kingdoms, where her very presence is treason…. She will learn who are her friends, who are her enemies, and that in life, just as in the whirling swirling mechanical creations her father was so famous for...nothing is ever as it seems.

No title or character names yet — I'm such a chicken! — but it's coming along slowly, slowly.

[Madz]

Wow, the plot sounds fantastic! And as usual, your writing is fabulous... Best of luck to reach up to 50 000 words!

So - since there are no names yet, I understand this:
The Girl is the main character.
The dark-eyed son - the romantic element? Or will there be any romantic element at all?
The Princess - the antagonist?

Madz

[AchikaMiyu]

@tricksie Good luck with the rest of your story!

I wish I were working on an original story, but I'm working on another fanfic. I'm barely making the quota. Trying to stay on top of it through Thanksgiving is going to be tough.

[tricksie]

Just hit 40,000.... fingers are aching and eyes are burning. Achika, I know what you mean. I've been padding in extra writing as much as I can so I'm not stressed over thanksgiving. I had a plot crisis last week, and I nearly lost my momentum. (I did several 2,000+ days to catch up.) So I had to reevaluate a lot of points. My writing has veered from scene creation to character sketches and backstories. But it will help when I swing back around to writing it in order, from chapter to chapter. I just couldn't go on writing without ironing out the plot wrinkles. And those wrinkles were the size of moutain ranges.

@madz, thanks so so so much! You're right on all counts with the characters. And still no names! I'm such a chicken! The boy will be the romantic subplot, but as with all young-adult or coming-of-age stuff, it won't feature too prominently. But it will have a nice resolution of mutual love and admiration at the end. As a kid, I would always assign relationships to characters (in books, cartoons, whatever), and I was always slightly disappointed when everybody turned out "just friends" in the end. I was shipping and I didn't even know it! So I definitely want to have a little love element that comes in at the end. It's not part of the plot at all — love is not a drive or motivation for either character, although their rivalry is — but it will be a natural by product of their mutual respect. So it's like the icing on the cake at the end!

Edited by tricksie, 24 November 2011 - 06:13 AM.

[tricksie]

I did it! 52,521 words in one month! YAY! Now back to my fanfic!

[peanutbutter126]

Whoo! Congrats! It feels so good, doesn't it?

[tricksie]

Whoo! Congrats! It feels so good, doesn't it?

feels great! I can't believe I got it done. Well, not done, as in finished shiny manuscript, but done I've made a good start on my original fic that I wasn't even sure I'd ever write. But now it has depth and character and feels like a real world. So it's a lot easier for me to write for it than when I first started.

Congrats to Achika too! I'll definitely be doing nanowrimo again next year, although I might do a fanfic as well!