Magpie wrote:

Oh, all right, I know - optimism. Optimism.
So, instead, it'll say, "He took a shortcut through a plot hole and ended up in the next place where I know something's gonna happen (and it conveniently took him back in time, too, because he should have been there a month ago)."

Hehe... I've now actually done that! Sort of.

As part of a NaNoWriMo group on writing.com, I was charged with this week's inspirational email.  Just thought I'd share for the NaNo'ers here.

Greetings all you intrepid NaNoWriMists!

Here we are in the midst of the second week. If you’re on target for the goal of 50,000 words by the end of November you should be reaching a little over 18,000 words today. Good on ya if you are there or past that number.

But what if you’re not? For some, the word count becomes more daunting as it climbs ever further away. Some of us have everyday life crowding in on our creativity and our time. However, as Peart once said, a dream is never over unless you give up or it comes true. It is time to persevere! Each word is a success.

It could be that you’ve reached the point where your plot is going haywire. You know a scene further on but not the connective scenes to get there. Well, my NaNo-ing friends, it is time to do the time warp. Jump ahead, write that scene further on; just keep the words going. As you write it out clues may come to you that you want to plant earlier on, and you may have the inspiration you need to write the previous scenes.

Tried that? Still stuck? Then here are some more suggestions. A few you may already know and have tried, but hopefully one might spark a writing frenzy:

1. Describe the weather, or your room, and adapt it to your story. Environment can play a major role in a tale (think Dickens’s London).
2. Throw Elvis out the window and do a little more conversation and a little less action. If you focus on the dialogue, just writing the exchange of words between characters, you can add the details later.
3. Change character point of view. For those using perspectives other than completely omniscient, turn a scene around and play it from another character’s point of view. Or, write a scene from a marginal character’s perspective.
4. Read quotations about a thematic element; loss, death, triumph, war, peace, etc. Even use some of those quotes as chapter headings or scene headings (be sure to make appropriate references – there are more words if you tell who said it and when)!

In that vein, here are a few quotes to close this letter out. All the best!


Writing a book of poetry is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo. – Don Marquis

Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go. – E. L. Doctorow

... no writing is a waste of time,—no creative work where the feelings, the imagination, the intelligence must work. – Brenda Ueland

Last edited by Kiema (2008-11-11 13:11:52)

Still horribly behind but not too fussed. My goal was never 50k, just a good start. 25k would be lovely :)

Still have 25k as my aim. Haven't even reached 15k yet, heh.

I'm still struggling to reach my 1667 words every day. And I'm getting pretty impatient now, I finally want to get to the end.

Stupid test yesterday slowed me down, but luckily, I had written a bit more than necessary during the weekend. Writing at the inn was fun - my grandparents were celebrating their golden wedding, and after lunch at the inn, and after many people had left, I took pen and paper out of my pocket and started writing. When I ran out of paper, I pondered writing on a napking, but somebody pointed out the paper that had been used to decorate the table, so I stole some of that and turned it into a scroll. *giggles*

Almost there! I'm at 48k. I hope to reach 50k and more tonight!

Congrats Kiema!

Done as well - yay for Write or Die. With the 50K at least, but not with the story. But now I need to open the plotbunny cage and play with the annoying, lovely beasties for a while. The last two weeks, I had to do this to them.

*makes a last tally mark on the wordcount tally on the NaNo folder*

Now I can finally go to bed. Which doesn't necessarily mean I will go.

Thanks, Sahi! *giggles*

I have now officially started editing my story from last Nano. There are a few red scribbles where I want sentences to be slightly different and I'm indexing everything from my story in a wiki. Characters, location and story events.