NaNoWriMo Support Group discussion

Are you feeling like you just can't do it? Do you feel like you shouldn't go any further? Do you feel like your work is crap? Well don't! Tell us what's wrong and we'll see if we can help. maybe you just need to be lifted up a little? That's fine because we all do!

Ok so I need support! haha XD i just missed a whole day of writing. It did help to take a break and Ii was able to get past some things i was stuck on. but know I am behind. Also I've already lost my excitement about writing a novel.. SO I need encouragement!

I think you'll make a great novel :3 If your Rp's are amazing already,imagine what you could do in a book! XD Anywaysss i think you should just write because I.Want.To.Read.It!!! And what if someday,that same novel gets published?!You'll be like famous! :D So,GO VICTORIA XDD

C: aww thanks jess! I really needed that! ha, I am so tired right now though. It's 1:15 where I am but i can't get to sleep because I ate a bunch of sugar!

and your pretty amazing!

So I thought I had my novel saved in my documents, however when I try to open it, it says it was in my tmp (temporary folder) which it wasn't and no longer exists. I had 5000 words and was going to spend a lot of time catching back up but I just lost a ton of writing and I'm back to 1,250. I honestly feel like just quitting right now.

No! Don't quit Mark! Just think of it as on opportunity! Now you can change your story for the better! You can add new twist and other things to the plot. Besides I think your an amazing writer and that means your story will be good, which means you have no choice but to write so I can read! I am sorry that, that happened. But just make the best of it. Think of it as a test, I've gone though the same thing before and I found out that it actually helped my writing, instead of trying to make the same story again, try to take a different approach at the story line. :D I bet your 1,250 words are amazing anyway and I don't think they want to be left alone! Don't give up on a good story, especially during NaNoWriMo! I believe in you Mark! more then that I am TELLING you to go sit you butt down and just write!.

Ugh. I had SO much momentum, until my computer crashed, completely corrupting my primary, and my backup files. Lost several hours of work. Got it redone, but I think it's not as well connected as it was, and it's KILLED my impetus to move forwards. I could barely concentrate today, to keep up with my word count quotas. I'm 25,000 in already, so it's a minor enough setback that I SHOULDN'T be letting it get to me.

Ah well. My weekends are usually my writing time anyways. Hopefully I'll make up for lost time Friday-Sunday, and make a dent in the workload.

:) it sound like you are doing better then most Nicolas! 25,000 is very good! so congrats on that. I'm sorry about that. I found that it helped me get motivated to talk to about it with someone. Maybe even just on here, but I'd suggest talk out loud about it. Maybe even pretending our talking to some (haha :) Also try taking a break and maybe working on things like profiles or planning a head and going into plot. Or try throwing around new ideas. I am always open to read your guys work. I'm almost done with Sarah's then I'm open to anyone else that wants to share.

Thanks, Victoria. I write a LOT of dialogue, so it's still very early in the project. Last years na-no-wri-mo project ended around 70,000 in the first draft, and is now around 90(I think?) with revisions and additions.

I've got a really thorough outline of the plot and pacing of this one, so as long as I can get my heart into the dialogue, it should have been pretty easy moving forward. I gave my fiance all of the finished stuff that I have, and am hoping that she'll be able to tell me which spots I missed rewriting the ruined stuff, where it's bumpy. But I HATE having a day of limited productivity, and hate feeling that the little I have accomplished is going to need twice the work, revising my crankiness out of it.

first off, you have a fiance! awwwww! when did you get engaged?! (girly moment, i know)
Well I hope she can help. Maybe while you are waiting you could write some side stories? Like something that relates to the story that might not be in it or short stories? Also that's good that you got a nice outline. Mine is all over the place and has no good direction.

Hey so I consulted the forums on the official site and they say just to continue and count those 4000 words anyway and afyer the end of the month in editing write them back in.I'll be doing a big word sprint to try and catch up to 13,000 on Friday night so I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks for the advice and kind words Victoria. I can't believe you think my writing is amazing lol. I'm just completely derivative if George R.R. Martin. Thanks for the compliment though, what is it you think is good so I can write more of it.

Glad you're sticking with it, Mark. Good luck with the sprint! That's the toughest thing about this, not having the time to let it rest, when the crappy setbacks happen. Not a bad lesson to take into writing, outside na-no-wri-mo, I guess.

Victoria, what sort of outline do you use? I have to admit, I'm a mathematical nerd. I keep exact word counts of everything I write, organized daily, monthly, by project, etc. My outlines usually end up being very long, since they aren't just plot related, but have a lot of research notes, to make sure that I'm not spacing on any of the details I looked up, or need to look up. I usually keep character sketches in a different area of it. I like discipline though, so I love my notes and outlines. As for the girly moment, I've been engaged to the woman several months now. She's been editing my stuff and being my sounding board for years(meanest editor I've worked with. What am I in for?) I'm going to settle in and try to work on the next few chapters, and then tackle her notes on the rebuilt chapters. I'm posting a chapter each day on my blog, so I've got a few days to really try to even out the tone, before I'll be really worried. She says the cranky isn't too bad though. Just a few abrupt scene changes, and more mistakes from trying to type too fast. Have fun finding your direction! I'm sure the fluidity will help you find avenues you wouldn't have thought of working from a rigid outline. Good luck!

Mark wrote: "Hey so I consulted the forums on the official site and they say just to continue and count those 4000 words anyway and afyer the end of the month in editing write them back in.I'll be doing a big w..."

need a like button.

Nicolas wrote: "Glad you're sticking with it, Mark. Good luck with the sprint! That's the toughest thing about this, not having the time to let it rest, when the crappy setbacks happen. Not a bad lesson to take in..."

I am the opposite of you... seriously I just do it at random and put stuff here and there. Maybe you could help me with how to make an outline, cuz mine is just random stuff and even some ideas. and I think that is so awesome! you'll have to give me up dates on your webbing! and I think that is so cute that your a write and she is and editor! send her the best of wishes! and thanks you.

I can't believe it but it happened again. I have been writing since about 9:00pm for a total of three hours and I've lost everything, about another 4,000 words. I saved my document on my usb, closed the document and pulled my USB out to go to my laptop and it was gone. The entire document, vanished.I'm currently trying to restore bad sectors to see if it's found again but it's a long shot. All I have is a copy from where I left off last night. Four hours work down the plughole.

F.M.L

Mark wrote: "I can't believe it but it happened again. I have been writing since about 9:00pm for a total of three hours and I've lost everything, about another 4,000 words. I saved my document on my usb, close..."

Hey mark that's happened to me before and now i send everything I write to my email, that way if the computer crashes or want to acess i somewhere else but dont have the usb . try doing that. It happened to me last year and lost 40k words, gave up after that.

Nicolas wrote: "Ugh. I had SO much momentum, until my computer crashed, completely corrupting my primary, and my backup files. Lost several hours of work. Got it redone, but I think it's not as well connected as ..."

I've let my husband edit one of my stories and i wil never do it again! he doesn't like romance and that's what I write.

Eva wrote: "Mark wrote: "I can't believe it but it happened again. I have been writing since about 9:00pm for a total of three hours and I've lost everything, about another 4,000 words. I saved my document on ..."

I know, I do back up via e-mail. That's what I mean by I have a copy from last night so not everything is lost, just a ton of work from tonight. This is pretty much exactly how I reacted when I saw it was missing.

http://youtu.be/RoSy2dtXa9Y?t=58s

For all you who have computers crashing, what I have as a safe-fail against that, is every time I write a new chapter, I have an external hard drive that I save everything to. It's small and enables me to carry my writing around too ;)

Victoria wrote: "Nicolas wrote: "Glad you're sticking with it, Mark. Good luck with the sprint! That's the toughest thing about this, not having the time to let it rest, when the crappy setbacks happen. Not a bad l..."
I think it's because I have such a crappy memory. If I don't write EVERYTHING down, I forget it within ten minutes. What was that old Sherlock Holmes quote about only having room to remember so many things, and wanting to remember the most relevant ones? I have saved outlines/ideas for every project that I may possibly get the time to write in the next decade.


Bloody heck, Mark! Again? That's rough! Hopefully you can figure out what the problem is, to actually preserve your hard work. I gotta admit, I've done the email thing, and the hard drive thing, on occasion. Seems like everything is fallible though.

I write down reminders ;) Those help. Writing down the whole thing just takes too much time for me ;) I have a really good memory for those things lol.

And I LOVE Sherlock Holmes, both the movies and the books. XD

Good news! The bad sector recovery was able to find my novel! Now excuse me while I back it up in about a thousand different ways.

Mark wrote: "Good news! The bad sector recovery was able to find my novel! Now excuse me while I back it up in about a thousand different ways."

YES!!!!!!! So glad to hear you're back on track!

Thanks very much. Today I'm hoping I really do get back on track to the target word count.

I'm glad mark i was like. No way , how could that happen to the poor guy again! Happy you found it! (sorry about the language earlier, i normally am not like that)

Mark wrote: "Good news! The bad sector recovery was able to find my novel! Now excuse me while I back it up in about a thousand different ways."

YAY!!!!!

Thanks guys.

So an update, I definitely won't be finishing this year, I'm way too far behind. I only manage a few hundred words a day. However I will be continuing to write all month and into December whilst on holiday. So eventually it will be finished and you can read my shamefully terrible first draft.

Well that's ok, it's the same with me. except I can't write till me dad's laptop gets fixed, it the only one that has Microsoft windows (writing thing or whatever its called) hahah so ya :/ I might not even be able to write this month

Depends on how I'm feeling as to how much I write. When I'm on a role, my fingers and brain are flying, and I can get around 10 chapters....most days I usually get in two or three.

how many pages per chapter Tabi?

Like I said yesterday evening, it's not like I won't be able to do the 50,000 words by the end of the month, it's that I'll do that and not be able to put an ending to it. What are your thoughts about that?

well, sometimes endings can be hard, sometimes you don't know how to or just con't want too. I would say meet you goal for this month and if you don't end it then keep going and maybe just see what you get... I hope that helps a tiny bit, i think i might of thought of the question wrong.

Victoria wrote: "how many pages per chapter Tabi?"

Around 5 ;)

hmmm.. maybe I'm making mine to long. I always aim for like 7 or 8

Well I like to make them average...and it depends on whats going on as well. Sometimes the chapters are short, sometimes they're really long ;)

So sorry about all these lost files and do-overs. A bazillion years ago, when our kids were under 5, our first real computer was a Coleco Adam, which has a word processor and a game system all in one and stored files on modified audio tapes, believe it or not, which took a long tome to save onto! I had been typing for over an hour on my first book and our son walked over, said, "Play game?" and pushed the game module button. That wiped out all my work. Precious memories! Our son is now 30, and I have forgiven him. :-)

I came to an unhappy realization last night. My detailed plotting notes for the 2nd half of my book...where things get really interesting and fun to write...pretty much need to be thrown out.

I had drafted it originally with 3 POV characters in mind, I cut it down to 2 POV characters. Which means a lot of the action stuff that I drafted don't really make sense anymore. There's pretty key scenes that I need to completely replan.

Mary wrote: "So sorry about all these lost files and do-overs. A bazillion years ago, when our kids were under 5, our first real computer was a Coleco Adam, which has a word processor and a game system all in o..."

:D wow funny and sad story, glad you for gave him!

_rebeccab wrote: "I came to an unhappy realization last night. My detailed plotting notes for the 2nd half of my book...where things get really interesting and fun to write...pretty much need to be thrown out.

I ha..."

Happens to me a lot, i seem to stray from the original idea a lot!

Eva wrote: "I've let my husband edit one of my stories and i will never do it again! he doesn't like romance and that's what I write. "

That's unfortunate. I got lucky in that the lady knows when to keep her mouth shut and overlook stylistic decisions that she doesn't like, but that are my voice in the way I write my stories.

That said, there's one sentence from the first draft of my first novel, that she STILL repeats with cackles and coos, when she wants to bug me. I took it out three drafts back, and am STILL revising that particular project, and she still won't let me live that one mildly offhand cliche down. If that had been the first project of mine that she read, I might not have let her read the rest, either. I swear, if I hear that sentence one... more... time...

_rebeccab wrote: "I came to an unhappy realization last night. My detailed plotting notes for the 2nd half of my book...where things get really interesting and fun to write...pretty much need to be thrown out.

I ha..."

I hate that when that happens. The story goes on a new twist, and all the old storyline you have all set out and planned....gone!

Tabi (Natasha Romanoff) wrote: I hate that when that happens. The story goes on a new twist, and all the old storyline you have all set out and planned....gone!

I'm trying to power through it now - but I just don't know. The problem is is that my plot is big, like planned for 3 novels big. So trying to sit down and explain it with friends to find out where I went wrong just doesn't work.

I tried talking it out with my SO, but his eyes just kinda glazed over.

hahaha

It's awkward to admit this... But I think I'm psyching myself out. I've been writing for YEARS. Really, all my life I've been practicing shaping stories. I only have one project that I've finished revising, and put out for real consumption. Serialized first-draft blog novels don't count, except as sort of an interesting "behind the scenes". I have at least 7 of those, that I'm still trying to revise.

I've spent years trying to enlist feedback from everyone I know, trying to assimilate the useful bits, but wishing for more educational points from most of it. So I'm nervous, and second guessing myself now that I've started getting reviews.

My instinct is to look at them as the targeted critiques I always wanted, but I've seen enough other authors say that's the road to madness, that I am honestly a little afraid to. I don't care if people don't like my writing, or don't understand me, stylistically. But I don't want to be overlooking valuable comments that could help me grow, because I'm concerned about diluting my voice by listening to too many.

I think, especially while I'm actively writing new projects, I may need to actually enlist the fiance to handle correspondence for reviews/critiques, and boil it down to what's useful, and what's a difference of opinion. She's usually pretty discerning and pointed in her analyses. I still sort of feel like I've taken those first few steps on the road to insanity. I've been building up to this, sharing my work in a more cohesive form, for years. But I don't think I'd really considered how I'd actually handle it when people actually start reading it.

I've still kept pushing forward, but it's REALLY hard writing on the Singularity, with this hanging over my head.

Nicolas, I think you're pointing out a very important aspect there. In my mind it is crucial to draw a fine line between comments and reviews on your books that give you hints about inconsistencies or incoherent spots and those who just tell you they don't like you. Often there's a big part of jealousy in these comments. After all, you finished a book project and got it to be published. And it is not too rare that book reviewers would like that too.

I can also see the difficulty in actually having to deal with real reviews after all those years of hard work.
The positive as well as the nevative reviews are focussing on your work only, not your personality. It is unnecessary to take them personally though I absolutely understand if you do. Believe me. I do.

But I'd like to encourage you to keep on working, and keep on believing in yourself! Apparantly you have come so much further than any of us here have so far. And you can be very proud of that, no matter what some stupid reviewers might say about it. You conquered yourself and won! Keep believing, keep writing. And learn to navigate in this stormy ocean of "real" critiques. I am sure you can learn that. Maybe it is exactly what you are supposed to learn now. After you know how to write and finish a book and get published... that's your next step :)

I don't think you're insane. Overwhelmed maybe. :)

Greetlings, SteinFussel

SteinFussel wrote: "Nicolas, I think you're pointing out a very important aspect there. In my mind it is crucial to draw a fine line between comments and reviews on your books that give you hints about inconsistencies..."

Well, e-published. I've had some graphic novels and journalism published through traditional means, and while I enjoyed the experience, I haven't been interested in utilizing that process to get any of the current novels out there.

I think that the reviews aren't anything personal. I'm lucky to have a few people who comb through for inconsistencies... At this point, the points under discussion are mainly stylistic. (Reviewers who prefer high literary works aren't always impressed with my terse writing. Background in journalism, graphic novels, and screenwriting. Totally different beasts). It's not too tough to shrug off, since I'm not really trying for mainstream appeal. It's just hard trying to weed that stuff out from genuine concerns over the shape of the project, though. You know, what one person says is too much exposition may leave someone else feeling uncommitted to the characters, and desiring more. You really can't please everyone, and I KNOW I shouldn't try.

:/ ok so i have a problem. My FMC has a curse on her back. I want the curse to kinda be a big deal but idk what the curse does! I can't think of anything! -.- please help, she is a dragon and she is special among dragons (idk why she is special I'm still thinking that through too!)

Victoria wrote: ":/ ok so i have a problem. My FMC has a curse on her back. I want the curse to kinda be a big deal but idk what the curse does! I can't think of anything! -.- please help, she is a dragon and she i..."

Hard to without knowing your novel. Think about what effects you want the curse to have on her rather than the shape of it. Do you want her to be unable to fly at times, or at all? A curse that makes her wings slowly rot, turn to stone, or vanish completely with each full moon might help.

Is the curse something that actually marks her as special among dragons? Where they think it's a curse, but it's really a sign of a chosen one? Maybe it's a sigil that only the last of the elves can decipher.

Do you want her to be an outcast? Shunned by others? Think of a curse with ugly manifestations. This is often what I do when I don't have imagery in mind for a particular thing. Good luck finding a resolution!

Thanks D.M.! you helped a ton!