50,000 words of cr - pure awesome

November 3, 2008 5:59 AM

It's that time of the year again! NaNoWriMo, previously seen on MeFi here, has kicked off again. If you're stuck, try these tips to lift yourself out of the rut, or feel free to run over to the MeTa thread to grumble about it to fellow NaNo-ers. For the more OCD among us, popular applets to organize your thoughts include bubble.us, seen here previously, to create mindmaps and plot diagrams, or yWriter to organize your prose into chapters and scenes. Other online communities are joining in the fun. Livejournal is donating $1 to the Young Writer's Program for every completed novel. So ignore the deterrents, whip out your thinking hat, and let the logorrhoea start!
posted by Phire (44 comments total)

Huh, that's funny -- I was just looking at yWriter the other day. Not sure it would add much to the mix, but will check it out when I have a moment. Which is looking like December.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 6:34 AM on November 3, 2008

The protocol on your last link is b0rked.
posted by Pope Guilty at 6:38 AM on November 3, 2008

I don't know what's worse - waking up an hour early and not being able to fall back asleep because you're not used to daylight standard time yet or waking up an hour early and not being able to fall asleep because an idea has popped into your head and just won't leave.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:42 AM on November 3, 2008

For the more sonically inclined, there's NaSoAlMo.

Which inconveniently falls right when all kinds of PC games are getting released...
posted by Foosnark at 6:44 AM on November 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

great, another thread in which to procrastinate.
posted by desjardins at 6:53 AM on November 3, 2008

God I'm so far behind already and my main character keeps being a racist jerk.

As for that negative guy, I think this says enough. People use nanowrimo for all kinds of reasons, and some of them are good enough to get published. Good for them, and good for the people who do it and put the results in a drawer. Say it with me y'all, YES WE CAN, YES WE CAN!
posted by Potomac Avenue at 7:03 AM on November 3, 2008

Which inconveniently falls right when all kinds of PC games are getting released...

Tell me about it. Sigh, and sigh.

Another write-a-thon in November opportunity. (Disclaimer: participant.)

Now, back to the grind...really...
posted by gnomeloaf at 7:09 AM on November 3, 2008

I'm doing this, but after a couple of days I've already come to the conclusion that what I would have preferred is SloMoWriNo, where you write no more than three words per day with the aim of completing 50,000 words before dying of old age, inanition, etc. Our honorary patron would have to be Laurence Sterne, the first person to write a novel in which the hero's life unfolds more slowly than real time.
posted by Phanx at 7:24 AM on November 3, 2008 [4 favorites]

Wow, thanks for the link to the MeTa thread. I completely missed that.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 7:30 AM on November 3, 2008

But, but, it already started! Too late for me.
posted by Memo at 7:41 AM on November 3, 2008

I can't tell you all how excited I am to not be doing NaNoWriMo this year.
posted by lumensimus at 7:45 AM on November 3, 2008 [2 favorites]

I'm in. Same username as here.
posted by cjorgensen at 8:02 AM on November 3, 2008

God I'm so far behind already and my main character keeps being a racist jerk.

Sorry, this is the thread for National Novel Writing Month. The thread for National Republican Presidential Campaign Strategy Writing month is two doors down.
posted by flashboy at 8:03 AM on November 3, 2008 [7 favorites]

yeah, me too, same username. good luck accessing the site though.

Okay, I'm going to work, where I can really get some procrastinating done!
posted by desjardins at 8:04 AM on November 3, 2008

....I've got a plot....sort of...

Oh God, I am so dead.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:10 AM on November 3, 2008

I don't have a plot. I don't care!
posted by the dief at 8:13 AM on November 3, 2008

Flashboy: The Republican platform this year has been pretty good and entertaining fiction, if you like stuff that dwells on cynicism and the dark angry undercurrents of America, while continually shifting perspective until the reader has no idea what, if anything, is supposed to be true. I can only hope my pitiful effort is as successful a Satyricon.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:20 AM on November 3, 2008

The site is like this every year. And every year people say "it'll be alright when the traffic stabilizes". I'll believe it when I see it.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 8:28 AM on November 3, 2008

i have no plot, yet! i did come up with some cool things about my characters, and i might have a plot by tomorrow.

MEMO! there's totally time! join up. start now! go go go!
posted by rmd1023 at 8:29 AM on November 3, 2008

When in doubt, just type "And then the ninjas attacked."

It is a Known Fact that these five words make any story 500% more awesome.

Why do you think Twilight is so popular?
posted by robocop is bleeding at 8:35 AM on November 3, 2008 [3 favorites]

"I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.

And then the ninjas attacked."
posted by flashboy at 9:05 AM on November 3, 2008 [15 favorites]

Three days in, and my progress so far:

1) Tore out the last of the tomato plants
2) Changed the burnt-out light bulb in the kitchen
3) Played Chrono Trigger for nine hours

I am screwed.
posted by RakDaddy at 9:06 AM on November 3, 2008 [3 favorites]

Many NANO participants and writers in general have found Neil Gaiman's pep talk to be very helpful.
posted by digitaldraco at 9:08 AM on November 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

Man, I freaking wish Twilight had Ninjas. Ninjas versus sparkly vampires armed with Mary Sues! It would be epic.
posted by Phire at 9:14 AM on November 3, 2008 [3 favorites]

I'm doing it again. About a dozen of us met at a coffee shop yesterday. It was pretty cool to be sitting and writing with a bunch of other writers.
posted by maurice at 9:16 AM on November 3, 2008

I wish I could get in to the write-ins, but I find them terribly distracting. I feel like my dog used to look at obedience class. Sit? Sure, ok. Go there? Why not. But can I please play with the other dogs, now?

However, a bunch of NaNo'ers running Q10, sound on, with the keys clacking away... that could be awesome.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 9:26 AM on November 3, 2008

If you'd rather read one than write one, Defective Yeti's NaNoReMo is an option.
posted by wheat at 9:26 AM on November 3, 2008

When in doubt, just type "And then the ninjas attacked."

It is a Known Fact that these five words make any story 500% more awesome.

This appears to be true.

----------

Paul: I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear... And when it is gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear is gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

Narrator: And then the ninjas attacked.

Paul: Oh shit.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 9:38 AM on November 3, 2008 [3 favorites]

Or knit a 50,000-stitch sweater in a month with NaKniSweMo (TOTAL self link... project founded a number of years ago when I realized I would never finish the damn novels).

But this year my friends have encouraged me to be insane and do both. My plan? Knit the sweater the first half of the month, write the novel in the second.

I suspect December first cannot come soon enough.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 10:02 AM on November 3, 2008

She felt his turgid member pulsating through her ripped bodice and a savage desire took over her senses. Take me, Dread Pirate Armand, ravish me with the passion that sent a thousand ships to the bottom of the ocean! Fair maiden Yvette, breathed Armand turgidly, I have loved you since the moment I rescued you from the clutches of the gluttonous Marquis DeMal, whom you sold yourself to, freeing your sick father from prison. Now I will make you a woman!

And then the ninjas attacked.
posted by stavrogin at 10:10 AM on November 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

Day 1: ...
Day 2: Oh shit! NaNoWriMo!
Day 3: 1000 words. I'll catch up later.
Day 4: And then the dashing Richard swept Alana into his arms and carried her from the burning wreckage that was her home...
Day 5: Soooooo.... 45,000 word left. Maybe I can skip around. "The End." That's two more, at least.
Day 6: ...
Day 7: ...
Day 8: You know what? NaNoWriMo's for chumps. I've got better things to do! Like going OUTSIDE. Hel-LO. GOD.
Day 9: And then the dashing devilishly handsome Richard Darius swept Alana Anna X-ana into his arms and carried her from the burning wreckage that was her home entire species... "X-ana," he wept. "I love you! Don't leave me!" "Ook! Ahk!" she blorped before her eye slits closed forever.
Day 10: Eh... next year.
posted by katillathehun at 10:10 AM on November 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

Day 1: She thought she should see the white light everyone talks about. She kind of hoped it would be a train.

No, seriously, that's the kind of crap I wrote.
posted by desjardins at 10:15 AM on November 3, 2008

Shit, I just introduced text messaging to 1995.
posted by desjardins at 10:26 AM on November 3, 2008

I'm in, same username as here. This is my eighth year. FEAR ME.

Even if I do nothing with the thing after the fact, at least I've exorcised an idea out of my head that was floating around like debris. I think that's what'll happen with this year's novel, but oh well. At least I did something one month of the year, and that's really the goal.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:50 AM on November 3, 2008

I've already finished mine. [pdf]
posted by dmd at 11:23 AM on November 3, 2008

How's that novel you've been working on?
posted by knave at 11:28 AM on November 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

Steve Martin has a pep talk* too.

Call me Ishmael. It was cold, very cold here in the mountain of Kilimanjaroville. I could hear a bell. It was tolling. I knew exactly for who it was tolling, too. It was tolling for me, Ishmael Twist. [Author's note: I am now stuck. I walk over to a rose and look into its heart.] That's right, Ishmael Twist.

* unfortunately, nothing says peppy like Bright Green.
posted by trig at 11:53 AM on November 3, 2008

What’s with this ‘ninja are the bad guys’ or ‘ninja coitius interruptus’ stuff?

-----
'You are improving. Intellectually there is very little wrong with you. It is only emotionally that you have failed to make progress. Tell me, Winston -- and remember, no lies: you know that I am always able to detect a lie -- tell me, what are your true feelings towards Big Brother?'

'I hate him.'

'You hate him. Good. Then the time has come for you to take the last step. You must love Big Brother. It is not enough to obey him: you must love him.'

He released Winston with a little push towards the guards.

'Room 101,' he said. “...W-What!?

And then the ninjas attacked.

“I thought we had always been at war with Eurasia and were allies with Eastasia!? - Arrgh!” O’Brien screamed as shirukin penetrated his eyesocket. Vitrius humor splattered his cheeks and made a bloody froth of tears. His mind stopped making sense of the world as shards of occipital bone and the spike of the shirukin entered his brain. Silenced bullets soon followed.

The guards had been dispatched with similar ease.

“C’mon Winston, let’s get the hell out of here,” one shinobi said, grabbing him up by his collar.

“Who are you? Where’s Julia? Are you from Goldstein?” Winston said. He barely got to his feet.

“No kid, I’m a heating engineer, ” the shinobi tucked away a silenced pistol. “But we’re all in it together.”

They stepped out into the urban wasteland past the flaming Chestnut Tree Cafe. But it was alright. Everything was alright. He hated Big Brother.
posted by Smedleyman at 12:30 PM on November 3, 2008 [6 favorites]

I have about 400 words to write before I hit today's quota. Woot indeed.
posted by Lucinda at 12:52 PM on November 3, 2008

Can I write my novel in Python?

>>> 'Ni!' * 50000

posted by dirty lies at 2:38 PM on November 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

dirty lies -- way ahead of you
posted by dmd at 5:20 PM on November 3, 2008

Hm, maybe I should decide on a genre and give it a belated try.
posted by ersatz at 6:04 PM on November 3, 2008

done!

and while i didn't use "and then the ninjas attacked", i did occasionally use that sort of plot device. and i finished off one chapter with "the rest was screaming"

it's absolute crap. it's disjointed. it lacks narrative structure of any coherence. one character bitched for over a thousand words about the problems of my day on the day i wrote it.

but i cranked out 50K words of story!
posted by rmd1023 at 7:21 AM on November 30, 2008

I finished last night, with 51,710 words. and they actually kind of don't suck!
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:36 PM on November 30, 2008