Nanowrimo, what gives?

Post by **Dray** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 11:29 am

:/ Kat and I were thinking of working on a project together for Nanowrimo, but their flat out 'no writing a story together' guidelines in the FAQ kind of put a kibosh on that. I know that some of you guys have done some Nano-writing in the past... is it more complicated than their simple, "NO YOU CANNOT SHARE WRITING DUTIES" answer in the FAQ?

Unyko · Post by **Unyko** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 9:50 am

Maybe if you kept it secret... and did two nanos worth of work? Split half between your two accounts? So you're basically writing a nano novel each, but doing it jointly. :3

Lilu says there's a forum for 'nano rebels' who don't -exactly- follow the rules (writing non-fiction as opposed to fiction, for example). And also that the rules are more like guidelines than actual... rules. There's apparently a guy every year who c/p peoples excerpts to make his novel. XD

I don't think anyone will be going through the millions of accounts every November making sure that everyone is behaving themselves. And no one reads what is verified at the end of the month, so there's really no way for anyone to know one way or the other.

So, in short. Who cares what the rules say! Go for it! Have fun!

(Lilu: MAKE MESSES! 8D)

Post by **Dray** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 9:58 am

I prodded the local representative and asked him what gave as well, and he sort of gave the same answer.

Our issue is that there are parts where we're writing the same scene together, so it's going to be a mixture of drabbles and sort-of RP. XD I think that if we do twice the amount per day (3334 words?!) we'll be okay.

I think there's going to be a lot of word-wandering going on in the first draft!

Unyko · Post by **Unyko** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 3:21 pm

Hey, that's what Nano is for!

(The word-wandering first draft, that is...)

But I think you could totally pull this off. :3 *cheer on!*

Post by **Dray** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 8:53 pm

Anyone else planning on doing the mad writing this year? :3

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Sun Sep 18, 2011 9:42 pm

I've been more than making up for my lack of completion of years past, with Repurposed. Not sure whether I'll do more specifically for nano though.

As for "rules"... I wasn't aware there were "rules" other than 50k words in 30 days. Did that change somehow? I thought the point was to write and have fun, and edit later. Didn't they used to say "doesn't matter whether it's x or y"? Hm. Sad.

And yeah I'd say just split the project, once you're far enough along and take 'credit' for it in parts.

jess d · Post by **jess d** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 10:13 am

I plan on trying again this year. I have participated for 4 or 5 years now (can't remember for sure), but the best I've done so far was 35k XD

Maybe this year I can manage it >.>

Post by **Dray** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 1:24 pm

Nie, Shard! Well, may as well put the writing to purpose (har har har) and get a chance to boast for little achievements... though it sounds like you're probably at a place where you can scoff at them. XD

I'm not sure if they're straight up rules, but I browsed the FAQ specifically looking for if there were any notes about two people, one project, and that was what I came up with. I'm assuming that it's just so that two people aren't both working towards the 50K mark together. That would make it 'easy', after all. 9.9

Jess, maybe we can coach one another or something. At least give one another back-pats and such! I think it'd be worth it to have more people to encourage one another, as I don't know anyone else who's working on it, this year!

delyar · Post by **delyar** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 5:41 pm

I guess you could aim for 100K to make it "fair" with two people? I'm a big fan of ignoring the rules myself.

I don't know if I'll be participating this year. I have some ideas that could benefit from a crazed push to get a draft started... but it depends on if I get this job I applied for on campus and how heavy my course load is.

Post by **Dray** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 2:04 pm

I think we'll wind up aiming for somewhere between 50K and 100K? We're thinking that if 100K becomes too much, that we'll try to finish the challenge to 50K... we'll have to see!

Ooh, good luck with getting the job! ...If not, perhaps we can throw pep talks about throughout the month? :P

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 6:21 pm

Dray, there are unicorns humping, on your avatar's shirt.

Just thought you should know that.

delyar · Post by **delyar** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 6:46 pm

I will gladly engage in pep talks.

Post by **Dray** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 6:58 pm

This is the nexus, what's new?

Yakima · Post by **Yakima** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 7:21 pm

*flops in* I might...if I remember about it this year. Middle-earth stole me last year and I remembered about NaNo about...oh..thanksgiving time.

Post by **Dray** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 9:07 pm

Ha ha, I'd worried about doing that, so I've started planning EXTRA early for it. :3 Still super into your LoTR game, Yakima?

Post by **StarFyre** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 2:22 am

0.o Huh... Y'know, I haven't thought about Nano for years at this point... I wonder if I could throw some words on a page this time, seeing as I'm neither suffering from burnout nor scrambling to finish college work.

Post by **Dray** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 10:28 am

Pfft, I bet it wouldn't be too hard at all. You could always combine the world-building aspect with the nano-writing aspect!

Post by **StarFyre** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 12:34 pm

Yes, I suppose so =P And it would get me actively writing again, instead of goofing off doing nothing but worldbuild.

Post by **Dray** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 12:41 pm

I'm finding that having some practice with that every night before bed is making the word-count-snagging a little bit more realistic to me, too... like... now I have sort of an idea of what I'll need to do in order to hit the count that Kat and I would both need each day. O_O Looks like it's boilling down to either four hours of RP or half that of RP spliced with drabble-writing. Gah!

Post by **StarFyre** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 12:56 pm

That's some pretty significant time dedication there. I've COMPLETELY forgotten (if I don't have to entirely redo my math to begin with, seeing as I haven't wrote in years) how much time it takes me to reach the necessary daily word count. It'll be interesting, that's for sure.

..... I don't even know what I want to write! c.c;; Eep.

Post by **Dray** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 1:17 pm

A lot of my friends who do Nano every year (or at least, who have done it recently!) have pointed out that the Nano boards have lots of challenges and opportunities to RP and whatnot to help meet word quotas, on their forum. I haven't checked them out, myself... but I think that might prove helpful once in a while in order to switch things up a bit!

Post by **StarFyre** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 1:27 pm

I've never thought about doing that. I usually don't even bother with the site, since I've only rarely finished Nano properly.

I think I might focus on the world I've been building these past few months, though I've yet to figure out a decent storyline beyond the obvious one that jumps out at me, and I'm not entirely sure I want to write a "crusade" story, since I'll probably be tempted to play the "Rocks fall, everybody dies" card on my own chars, even the ones that I really like.

Post by **Dray** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 3:28 pm

Maybe take some slice of life stories out from around the world and do thousand-word-drabbles for each of them? It sounds like you have a lot to work from, so that might be helpful in developing the story further!

Post by **StarFyre** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 3:48 pm

That's actually a rather good idea, and has my mind actively considering it. Huh. Maybe if I... ... mmm... I wonder how many characters, at a minimum I should focus on...

... *contemplates world* ... That could definitely be fun. Huh... *wanders off to muse*

Post by **Dray** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 4:04 pm

That'd be like... fifty characters. :O That would be a lot! But kind of awesome.

Besides, I really liked your little slice-of-life stories for those neat metal-ish creatures from earlier. Definitely a good route to go!

Post by **StarFyre** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 4:14 pm

Or less-than-fifty-characters and do several bits with each. Sorta before-during-after, maybe. Heck, it'd probably help me see how some of these characters became... whatever they are.

Sheesh, I totally forgot about those guys. I swear I did more than just the one or two drabbles that I posted, but I'm not sure where they are. *frowns, goes to rifle through files* Heck, maybe I'll start posting/writing some more of them, to get back into the mindstate that I'll need.

Post by **Dray** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 4:30 pm

I think October's going to be a good practice run... Kat and I are sort of doing the same thing.

(O_o'''' I just plugged our text file from the last couple of months into a word counter and we're over 100K. WOOH! At least I know that we can accomplish it!)

Post by **StarFyre** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 4:32 pm

It's surprising how quickly the words can add up, especially if you're not paying attention to it while you're doing it. and the more fun you have, the quicker it goes by.

Post by **Dray** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 4:35 pm

Totally agree... though I'm such an overeager word-counter. "HOW MUCH HAVE WE DONE NOW!?" often comes up in my head!

Post by **StarFyre** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 4:38 pm

*laughs* Yeah, I know that feeling! Maybe I'll spend October gearing up with some drabbles on the scaly-dragons (and further worldbuilding in my chosen world) and then spend November seeing if I can slice-of-life an entire Nanowrimo instead of trying to write a cohesive story from the getgo =P

Mmm, plans... bound to be destroyed later, but at least I HAVE one now.