scrape_r_rational/data/cache/5edbr6.md

[WIP][D][BS] National Novel Writing Month: Week 4

Post:

This is a general purpose thread for anything you'd like to talk about for National Novel Writing Month, which starts November 1st; we'll have four or five of these posts throughout the month.

• Want to check in your some progress?
• Want to talk about what you're writing?
• Out of ideas and want some help?

Feel free to make posts to the subreddit if you crank out a chapter you want to share, have a meaty question you want some help with, or something like that; this is more a place for things that aren't quite substantial enough to warrant their own posts.

(This thread will be pinned after a day or so.)

Week 1 Thread

Week 2 Thread

Week 3 Thread

Comments:

• u/DataPacRat:

  Still going on [Extracts](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jPU6QKEohcrw6l6O3SxorIxf2Tnq54h36LtQO6Qv86w/edit), with a word-count of 56,000.
  
  Just today, I've figured out how to get from where I'm currently writing to the finale; in other words, I've finally got a plan for the entire plot. Now I just need to keep up the writing to finish narrating the whole thing - a detail that I'll admit I've had some trouble with in the past.
  

  • u/DataPacRat:

    Okay, suddenly an issue.
    
    Yesterday, after watching a cartoon with an emotional impact, I felt unsatisfied with how I've been writing Extracts, and decided to take the day off to work on putting myself into the headspace of remembering that making the reader care about the characters is at least as important as the plot. No big deal - I took another day off narrative writing earlier in the month, thought up some worldbuilding elements, and I'm still ahead of NaNoWriMo's wordcount.
    
    But today, I've been looking at the story draft... and it's not that I'm unsatisfied with it, I just have no /desire/ to get back to writing out what happens. I've done the basic tricks - carried my laptop to various places, put on various background music and/or noises, tried thinking about other parts of the story, tried /not/ thinking about the story, and so on. I think I've got an actual ugh-field developing.
    
    I have thought of one possibly unpleasant possibility: this extreme drop in my desire came just after I figured out the story's complete plot. That is, as soon as I knew what would happen, I ended up with a day-and-a-half(-and-counting) of not having any interest in typing it out. Not entirely sure how I'd go about testing to see if that's actually how my brain is working, or if it is, how to deal with it.
    
    Anyone have any alternative hypothesis, or possible solutions?
    

    • u/xamueljones:

      It sounds like you were absorbed in the story *because* you didn't know how things were going to work out for your character and had fun making it up as you went. Since I doubt that you actually have the entire story in your head and only remember the majority of the plot through notes, I suggest throwing out all of your notes (just for the parts you haven't written yet) and start writing again when you think you have forgotten what your notes were.
      
      It's a rather dramatic suggestion I admit, but it's an incredibly useful one. When someone is stuck for one reason or another, if he is forced to restart from an earlier point, then it can be very easy to push past the blocking point when one reaches the block again (as if he was building up momentum to smash it).
      
      PS You may think of just keeping the notes and simply not look at them to be able to keep from losing them if my suggestion doesn't work. But I really recommend just either throwing them out or putting them someplace where you won't be able to read them until at least a week in the future. The reason is because whenever I had an easy way to retrieve my prior efforts, I kept falling into old patterns and couldn't be creative in doing something new. You need pressure to be innovative.
      

      • u/DataPacRat:

        > had fun making it up as you went.
        
        That seems all too plausible; for many years, my creative output took the form of participating in RPGs, particularly the collaborative storytelling kind, and my mind may have imprinted on and canalized that approach.
        
        > I doubt that you actually have the entire story in your head
        
        Mm, maybe, maybe not; it's actually not that complicated a tale, and if I had a metaphorical gun to my head, could probably rewrite it from scratch without many significant changes.
        
        > where you won't be able to read them until at least a week in the future.
        
        I can run the existing story-notes through ROT13.com.
        
        > You need pressure to be innovative.
        
        That's what I was trying for with NaNoWriMo in the first place, but it seems that pushing for simple word-count isn't what's holding me back. :)
        
        Okay: possible plan: Set aside "Extracts" for a /short/ time (as opposed to letting myself procrastinate it into indefinite hiatus), and focus on something else for a week. Maybe start toying with a background for another Solar System scale setting, with the assumption that an EM-drive-like reactionless thruster is workable. And then jump back into Extracts to see if I can give it a proper wrap-up.
        
        Sound workable? Anyone have a better suggestion?
        

        • u/chthonicSceptre:

          You have a problem with endings (see: tonnes of your prior stories). The titanic amount of writing that went into S.I. suggests that you do indeed enjoy making shit up as you go along. While there's nothing wrong with that, actually finishing is something of a virtue.
          
          * Suggestion: in the future, try writing a piece of short fiction, the entirety of which you have in your head, and muster the willpower to finish writing it in an hour or two.
          
          * Suggestion: think about what you're trying to accomplish as an author.
          
          * Suggestion: the deadline of November 30^th is ridiculous and arbitrary. Agree to finish it when you're ready, and then absolutely don't renege on that agreement.
          
          * Suggestion: finish writing out the plot details of the story, in the bracket-style method you've already started using, then fill in those brackets at whatever pace you so desire. Put yourself in the mindset of a person reading that part for the first time, and think about a) what they want to read, and b) what you want to tell them.
          
          * Suggestion: re-read *Extracts* from start to where-you-are-now, and improve. This is not a good idea, but it is an idea.
          
          * Suggestion: what other projects are you working on? Organize and/or schedule all of those (the way you would if it was part of your job), then finish *Extracts*.
          
          **Concluding thoughts:** it's probably important for your personal development that you finish *Extracts*, however that is accomplished. I dunno. I'm not your psychologist.
          

• u/alexanderwales:

  Welp, this is the final stretch.
  
  I keep getting Facebook "memories" from my progress in 2013, which is somewhat demoralizing since I hit 50,000 words by the 19th. I'm at 41,000 (exactly) right now, which means that I need 9,000 words in the next 9 days, a rather sedate pace.
  
  Plotwise ... there will be some massaging needed in editing. Sister Miriam and Sister Constance, what is even the point of you? You are going to get edited out of existence, or at least out of the final stretch of the story. Or maybe I will find something for you to do when I have more time to reflect. I really liked the idea of a tiny wrinkled old lady kicking ass in complete silence, but I might have to save her for the sequel, since this seems like one of those darlings that Stephen King is always talking about killing.
  
  There aren't many chapters to go until the story is done though, and nothing *too* serious has fallen apart. I think I am leaning toward the fight/retreat/fight option, which will require more than my 9,000 words remaining, especially if they're as dialogue-heavy as recent chapters have been. (Though I think much of that talking gets cut in the edit.)
  
  And in the final few scenes, I'm just going full on 'member berries. 'member that wolf made of porcelain shards? 'member that ritual that let Adrianne walk on the bottom of the bay? 'member that onyx altar from the opening scene? 'member that ritual where they were going to kill a baby? 'member? 'member Ibrahim's locked away mindscape? 'member the secret wards around the castle? 'member that lighthouse in Sofia's mind? 'member that seed Sister Marigold put in Henry? 'member how Ventor took an oath not to eat or drink?
  
  Not entirely sure how all the pieces fit, but I think I have most of it at this point. Tonight will have time set aside for final plotting.
  
  Edit: As of 11/26 I have 2,500 words until the NaNo deadline, but 11 scenes left in the plotting document, which probably means more like 15 scenes. Based on my current pace, the fact that I'm traveling for Thanksgiving, and the funeral I'm attending, it's probable that I finish NaNo with room to spare but don't finish the book until about a week into December.
  
  Edit 2: Reached 50,000 words written on 11/27!
  

  • u/None:

    >  Sister Miriam and Sister Constance, what is even the point of you? 
    
    I enjoyed reading about the affairs between the sisters and forsworn, helped to flesh out the world and how the oaths operated in practice. 
    
    
    Related question, is there anywhere I can go for updates and general discussion? (Other than just stalking you on reddit)
    

• u/xamueljones:

  Whelp, I failed miserably when it came to writing anything for this month. Only a few thousand words to make a first chapter, and a lot of notes on how the rules behind a time-travel power work. I definitely plan on writing the story, but it's going to have to be another time since this has been a terrible month for me.
  
  However, the good news is that I think I have outlined the power well enough that I can base a scientific RPG game around it. It will be something that starts with people finding a strange device and they have to test it via the scientific method to learn how the time-travel ability works. The hardest part is figuring out how players' actions affect future events which retroactively influence the beginning of the quest.
  
  I think I'll start in late December.
  

• u/brandalizing:

  Sitting at 45,000 right now. Ran into the first major roadblock this week, a piece of the plot that I realized I really dislike how I'd planned it. Wrote it anyway. I'll come back to it after, like I'll come back to a lot of things. First: finish the smoking book.
  
  This is the second part of the book I was working on for last year's NaNo, but this year I decided to start doing interludes. Interludes are awesome. I get to take a step away from the single-PoV narrative for a few seconds, show something interesting happening elsewhere/elsewhen in the incredibly expansive world, sprinkle in some hints to the plot and/or introduce some character/worldbuilding that'll show up later, and then step right back over to the main character. Also helps me get back on track when I lose steam.
  
  What are your guys' thoughts on interludes in Epic Fantasy?
  

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