So November 1st - 30th it is NaNoWriMo
(National Novel Writing Month). This is day 2 of the month and I had hoped to
put this up on the first but yesterday was hectic for me. I have heard of this writing
challenge in the past years but have never participated in it myself. Basically
you write a 50,000 Word Novel in One Month. A fun challenge indeed!
I will not be participating this year but just thought to
bring some attention to this writing challenge. Although I won’t be doing
NaNoWriMo I have been editing and adding on at least 25,000 words to one of my
novels and will be writing a short story and some poems and writing a bit on
another one of my novels. So though I won’t be writing a 50,000 word novel all
my writing for November probably will amount to 50,000 words, lol.
So if anyone is participating this year then I wish you well
and hope you are able to finish your novel in one month. Have fun writing!
If you care to I always love to hear about characters names
chosen for novels so if you are writing a novel for NaNoWriMo or just a novel
for another reason leave me a comment and tell me your characters names and if
I don’t already have them on my blog I might add them to my list to be added in
the future.
Also if you want to share minor details about your novel,
writing style, or any past experiences with NaNoWriMo or writing in general
then leave a comment as well as I would love to hear from you guys. I do
understand though not sharing too much about your novels online, so I
understand not giving too much away should you comment.
Happy Writing!
That's too bad about not participating in NaNo this year. I've only done it twice since I heard of it about ten years ago and I'm definitely doing it this year. Unfortunately, at the moment, I'm about four thousand words behind but I'm trying to get there. At least the story is taking shape a little bit- or maybe that's wishful thinking on my part? Either way, I'm definitely taking this novel somewhere I never expected.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I kind of got discouraged a few days ago which was why I'm behind. I looked at the writing and I thought "What crap!" and I've sort of avoided it for a day or two, but than I figuratively slapped myself and reminded myself that NaNo wasn't about perfection, it was just about getting it done, and that definitely got me going today.
Ironically, this story I'm currently wasn't even the one I'd planned on writing about. I went with a completely different one on the first day of NaNoWriMo (though I haven't managed to change the synopsis on my novel info). It's a story based on a dream I had the night before Nov. 1 and I just went with it. At first it was fun, thrilling when you first start something and you can see all the possibilties in front of you, but after that initial excitement wears off you're left with reality and hard work because- for me at least- the idea itself can only take me so far. I have to put effort in and ignore that tiny voice in my mind whenever I write a sentence that just seems so drab, or a dialogue that sounds stupid and just drags on without any benefit to the story. That's where I always fail wheneve I write. I'm well aware that nothing can be perfect on the first draft, but sometimes it's easy to get discouraged even knowing that. For this month I'm going to ignore every grammar rule andjust write, write, write. I don't write straight from start to finish. Whenever I'm stuck at a particular point, I move on to another scene and that's what my story is at the moment- different scenes that don't make sense when you read them, but I'm trying not to get stuck. Actually, to my amazement, I actually managed to wrap this up with another story I came up with but which never went anywhere, so yay for me.
Anyway, enough about that. My story- well, I'm still not sure what it's about but basically it's about two half-siblings born 11 months apart to the same mother but different fathers, who leaves both men and her children with their respective fathers. At the start of the story, the siblings discover that their fathers' work for rival organizations, that their mother was a freelance agent who doublecrossed everyone she worked for, and seems to have disappeared from the face of the planet with no sign of her, and that one's brother has been kidnapped and the only way for his sister to save him is to follow an old map into a forest where her mother once hid out- despite the fact that the hideout has already been searched for before. There's a lot more to it than that but that's the basic premise.
Also, this takes place on a similar planet to earth but not quite- different history, magic and supernatural creatures a well-known fact, etc.
As for my characters' names, my two major characters are Cole (f) and her brother War (short for Warren, but he prefers War because he thinks it makes him sound tough). Others are: Ezra, Hugo, Drusa, Avi (m), Keena, Luanne, Karisa, Lucrezia (the mother of the siblings), Carter (m), Sophia, Scott, Yeruslan, Lin Wang (he usually goes by his last name), Damon Russo (also goes by his last name), Coric, Bassey, Morven (m), and Jano- and those are the characters I know of at the moment!
I think the main reason I don’t do NaNoWriMo is because of lack of motivation. I first heard about it a few years back when I was on Yahoo Answers for hour’s everyday. I don’t go on there anymore due to the changes to the site and the many people on there just there to argue or be mean instead of helpful. I have gone to other means to get answers now but anyway years ago people were talking about NaNoWriMo and I had no clue what it was so I Googled it.
DeleteI think it is cool to encourage writers to write a 50,000 Word Novel in a month so they can get used to deadlines and learn to reach toward writing goals, like making time frame or word count goals.
That is so great to hear you have done it twice before and are doing it for a third year! I am happy for those that do it. I think I am just so unmotivated to participate as I already set time frame and word count goals for all my novels. Plus when I set a time frame goal and miss it I am always discouraged and upset so I would hate to do NaNoWriMo and not get the 50,000 Words done in one month. I would feel awful. Maybe I will strive to do it in November 2016!
It is always so exciting to go in a different direction with a novel or short story than you at first planned. It feels like exploring a landscape and characters as they are unfolding in your mind and it is a cool feeling!
Oh that is funny I will sometimes get discouraged and avoid my writing if I think it looks awful or crappy too. I will just not look at it but then the writing bugs bites again and I go straight back into it, lol! I am very glad to hear that you figuratively slapped yourself and got back into writing your NaNo novel, lol!
I get a lot of my novels and short story ideas from dreams too. That is so funny I too get to where I am so excited about one of my stories and can’t wait to start it. The first pages go great and I am on Cloud Nine and then the dark cloud of reality flies over and I am left with the oh my feeling of realizing the hard work I still have to put in. There are actually 2 Trilogies I want to start writing and I get excited about them and then the reality of the enormity of the work hits me and I back off, lol. I even have a series I have been working on for ten years that I haven’t finished yet, partly because of the enormity of the series which is 7-8 Novels and partly because I don’t want to leave those characters worlds. In that series I have written 3 novels and am working on the 4th, well taking a break from writing it right now.
That is the little voice every writer has. It is the negative feeling writers have surrounding a part of their story or their own writing ability. It is the nagging feeling that the writing is awful and just not right or downing ones own abilities. I get that sometimes and when I do I have to just step back and take a break and then try and go at my story with a fresh mind and push the little negativity to the background and say, “This is great writing or at least not crap!” Lol. You’re doing the right thing by ignoring it and the grammar hound in all of us by just going forth and WRITING!
I have heard of a lot of writers, even famous ones, who don’t write from start to finish and seem to love that style. I admire them, as for me I am a from beginning to end writer. I mean I will maybe move from one unfinished scene straight to the very next scene and then go back and finish the previous scene but I have never been comfortable with moving all over and creating scenes and then trying to bring it all together later, though I did expand a novel once and added 15,000 words in the middle so I had to figure out the changing of a lot of scenes. Even with my “Titan’s Trilogy” book two came as a dream, the scene was a scene toward the middle of the first part of the book and so I had to figure out how the previous scenes would catch up but I never wrote that middle scene until I wrote everything before it. I am just not comfortable gliding about but I have writer friends who do it and love it and I am like I kind of wish I could try it but that is out of my writing comfort zone.
DeleteIt is the same way with me, with the short story I am currently writing it is a mash up of two ideas, one from a writing prompt and the other from a novel I never got around to writing. Sometimes I will borrow ideas or fragments from novel ideas that I never wrote and will then lend it to another story.
Well that is an interesting premise to your story! Makes me wonder more about the sibling’s mother and their father’s rival organizations. Double crossing agent is always a fun thing in a novel, gives depth and mystery and thriller aspects. Ooh fun stuff always seems to happen in forests. Perhaps it’s the mystery factor of who or what creature or person lurks in the depths of the woods. What kind of wondrous and or freighting things hide waiting to be uncovered? Or what conspiracies may also be unearthed. Many of my novels have scenes in forests and I find it a perfect setting.
Oh and taking place on another planet similar to Earth, I have done that twice before myself, in my two longest novels. I think doing that allows us to use Earth as a foundation, its look, certain history, ect but to adapt it and change it. It’s a great way to go into world building by using similar parameters with a planet you already know but changing small or large things to bring something new to the story and characters lives.
It is definitely intriguing when you said it was a similar planet to earth in yours but with different history, magic, supernatural stuff. I had assumed the story may be a bit like a good old espionage scenario but it gives it a different alluring property with it being another planet with different creatures, people, and history than earth. It’s like a sci-fi / fantasy / thriller / mystery all wrapped into one – if I understand your story contents right. I am just basing my thoughts off what I have read.
Lastly the names, I will say they are interesting. I have never seen a female character named Cole before. That is pretty cool about her brother being named Warren but nicknamed War, as he thinks it makes him sound tough. So I assume he is not as tough as he wants to be seen as. I love those kinds of characters who try and put on a far different air than they really are, it makes finding out their true depth all the more intriguing and fun.
DeleteI have a few of those names on my blog already, such as Hugo and Sophia. Some of these other names may go on my list of future posts. My list is backed up to the New Year but some of these names are pretty cool and I love them a lot. So I might just use some on my blog, thanks! I am always open to new names for my blog.
These are quite interesting unique names for your characters and so make me wonder even more about your story. Sounds pretty interesting!
Thanks for sharing your story premise with me and your characters names! I hope you have a joyous NaNoWriMo and that you are successful in finishing your 50,000 Word novel in one month! It sounds like an interesting story and so I hope it becomes everything you hoped it would become.
If / when your get discouraged take a step back but then come back at the writing hard and finish it, no matter how long it takes. I once wrote a novel on and off for three years while writing other stuff but it was a wonderful feeling finishing after so long. The sweetest writing feeling is a novel finished and a million more ideas waiting behind it in line waiting to be grabbed, explored, excited about, and then to finally sit down and happily or sometimes agonizingly write it until it too is finished!
Happy Writing!
Oh Gosh I wrote a mini-novel right there in my comments section, lol!
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