Greysen is a "spiritual tree-hugger". Huh. Who knew?
Today = 1930 words
LuckiCharm325 is charmed!
How I did it: Tried this last year. I did not have a novel in mind but used the opportunity to journal, just to see if I had what it took to write 50,000 words in one month. I was not able to do it. But I finished up the month with a better understanding of what it takes to write that many words in a month and plan on trying again this year. Read how I did it…
How I did it: I worked out beforehand that I'd have to write 1667 words a day, then I somehow managed to stick to that by churning out the first random storyline that came into my head. (although what was meant to be about an arsonist ended up being about an evil twin arson faerie with mind control powers who was plotting to take over the faerie kingdom)(and HappySad means in this context "Glad it was over, but sad too." Read how I did it…
germander My run last night was great!
How I did it: I bought a laptop so I could write at meetups, and I figured out how many pages I would need to write every day to keep up. I kept up with how much I had written as I went so I could stay on track. I wrote every day, and I followed my own interest in choosing what to write about. This was never about the needs of others, though eventually, I'll turn that back on again when I do some editing. Read how I did it…
How I did it: Just by working hard and loving the characters whose story I was telling and not wanting to disapoint them! It got to the point where these characters were real people telling their story to me and i couldn't wait to hear how it ended. I had no clue how the first or second or even third book would end and they always surprised me. I got angry with them, cried with them and everything in between. So I had to finish their stories and that m… Read how I did it…
How I did it: Stick-to-it-ivness, using the suggestions sent to me weekly by the site. Passing up social events to focus on writing. Everyone I started it with dropped out by the end but me. Read how I did it…
Loki and Pet Serrano is trying to STAY ahead on NaNoWriMo.
Aha! I found it. I guess it was from me. On a hunch I searched my old computer for “genie” and found this article from the manuscript I made from my Grandfather’s scrapbook. It’s probably from 1936 or so. I emboldened the part about the skull genies, so to speak. I give this book to people who seem to need it and they always find something in it they can use.
Originality: by Major General J.G. Harbord
(Retired in 1922 as Major General and promoted to Lieutenant General in 1942, so this probably came from the 30’s after he retired from being president of RCA. During his presidency they created NBC and started broadcasting TV.)
A DEFEATEST once said, “There is nothing new under the sun.” Perhaps not— nothing that is new to nature. But, from man’s point of view, the sun itself is new— an unexplored star. When it is brought close enough to be analytical study, it will be through the genius of some astronomer or physicist. He will devise a new instrument out of things as old as the universe— and what he creates will be original.
Originality is the ability to put two things together, not to make the third thing equal to the sum of the other two, but superior to the sum. The motion picture is not merely the sum of film and light. It is one of the most delightful illusions created by man— a report of life in action, a splendid dream under control. In the perspective of man’s history it is utterly new. And there are even more wonderful sums yet to be struck from the simple addition of old and ordinary things.
IT IS a common mistake to believe that creative achievement is the product of inspiration— that some good genie, evoked by rubbing the skull, suddenly appears with the manuscript of a great novel, all completed, a finished electric light, or a radio tube echoing the mysterious voices of the air. Original accomplishments are not delivered to us ready-made. With hard work and solicitous cultivation, they grow out of commonplace earth, like flowers. They are the result of patient addition of commonplace things— usually by ordinary hardworking men.
For thousands of years most of the human race has contented itself with routine, in the belief that new things and new ways can be created only by geniuses— super-brilliant men— who were “born with the gift”. The gift of genius is the gift that every normal child has at birth— energy, activity, curiosity, the capacity for labor. A genius is merely an ordinary man using his powers. He is not just eating, sleeping and walking the treadmill of ancestral habit. He is acquiring knowledge and adding it up into amazing new totals. He does not acquire all of his knowledge through personal experimentation. He may strike a total from the discoveries of generations of discoverers.
EVERY HUMAN being is original. He needs only to work with patience and pains to create. He does not need a flash of inspiration. He needs only to explore, to imagine and to add. In one of 10,000 totals he may find a sum that is useful to man. He must not despair of the other 9,999 efforts. They are not wasted. They are most necessary. They have proved what cannot be done— an original discovery in itself. They will save future generations unnecessary journeys into barren lands already charted.
Everything under the sun is new to him who does not know it. In childhood we are our own good geniuses, prying and peering into the unknown, adding up old things into the world’s old sums, but surprising and delightful to us. As we grow older and learn what is known, we may still keep our childish and original hearts— and go on seeking that which is not known. And when at last we find it— the new sum, the original achievement— in that moment we are gods, standing upon the summit of creation.
Loki and Pet Serrano is trying to STAY ahead on NaNoWriMo.
I had only a few minutes in the house today so I only got, what, a couple hundred words? I ended up at 15996 so I added a 5-word sentence before stopping back here. I’m still ahead, but I have less leeway if I crash.
I got a manuscript in the mail today I promised to edit, but I was hoping it wouldn’t arrive until December. Luckily it’s entertaining so it should go quickly. I suspect since it’s a first draft and she just wants it cleaned up for submission it will only require proofreading and not full-on stylesheet editing—because the latter can take up to 80 hours and I don’t have 80 hours this month with NaNoWriMo and stock to make for the holiday season! Arg.
ElleLyzette is writing, writing, writing.
Faithfully working on my novel. Taking a break for a bit, then back to it. Want to get to 10,200 words before the day ends.
rovingjack is putting too much on his plate.
Seriously, I’m trying my hardest to keep things going in a life I just pulled from the crapper, and part of that is after making sure I won’t get sick for the day, driving to a place I can get computer access for certain hours in the day.
Only today the doorknob to the house breaks. causing the door to be closed and unopenable.
Handy pocket tool and an hour and a half later the door opens and closes, but is just knobless and using the deadbolt to close it.
Seriously, you just ate nearly two hours of my schedualed writing time. What’s worse is I’m going to have to go over this all over again tomorrow. Running errands to get peas, because the two stores I’ve gone to haven’t been stocking them and they are one of eight foods I can eat. Then I’m going to have to price check door knobs and locking systems and possably buy one and install it.
Then I have to ask for and wait for reimburcement from the landlord. Because dang it I intend to get my own computer if I have to do somethings I wouldn’t normally do in an effort to scrape together the money to pull it off.
goodwolve You are a Romantic Organized Believer today.
I don’t think this is in the cards for me this year- it was one of my 40/40 challenges, but I am just not feeling it. Maybe I am not a novel writer. Which is ok. I’ll think about it for a few more days before I officially pull the plug.
Loki and Pet Serrano is trying to STAY ahead on NaNoWriMo.
I had a lot of trouble today. Since I had thought I wouldn’t have time, I wasn’t prepared mentally to write. I finally broke down and asked my coach if he had a trick to use when your main characters are all shouting at you at once and not letting you get any work done, even if you know what they should be doing, he sent this text, “Follow c3po”.
One of my main characters is an android, so I went over an over what I should do with her, but nothing came of it because there isn’t anything any more special about her than anyone else, and still the other characters were shouting, “Look at me! No! Look at ME!”
Eventually I gave up and asked, “huh? not the droid im lookin 4”.
Turns out I totally misunderstood, because what he really meant was when his main characters seem overpowering, or like they may be lying, what you need to do is ask what one of the minor characters think. Like C3PO. Or one of the peasants in the Seven Samurai. I started following Deva Perkins at about 9:30 PM, a reporter who turns propagandist, and she started by reporting to me that one of my main characters had gotten engaged the night before the ship blew up.
Something I didn’t know!
Turns out Deva has been bitterly wallowing in her position as sports gossip reporter and never gets a chance to cover any real news because her pedigree is designed for media support, not lead anchor. It’s kind of like being genetically designed for liberal arts and therefore limited to that by law.
rovingjack is putting too much on his plate.
many pizzas actually and I got paid to do it too. and then I ate, and now I have to get to a late night grocery store to get the few foods I can actually eat on my illness enduced diet which is going strong at year three now I think.
Then maybe I’ll look over my past writings tonight, and do some rough edits on paper so when I retype them it will be like retelling a story so that it’s better and more streamlined with each telling.
Then I’ll brainstorm where my supernatural teen novel goes from it’s start.
and then think about where to start my fantasy story. Though with that one I may do something I’ve never tried before and write nonlinerally. Jumping around to the parts that have already formed in my head. It’s not my style, because for me I’m often on the journey with the characters and discovering what happens, so first things first.
Tomorrow is important, it’s my first day off in a while, and I intend to make up for lost time by sitting at a keyboard for at least 8 hours.
Loki and Pet Serrano is trying to STAY ahead on NaNoWriMo.
This is adapted from a poster I made which was adapted from an article I wrote before I turned down my first Faustian Deal novel contract. My coach (who says he has been doing NaNoWriMo every month- I curse him silently for this) wants me to post the article about the skull genies I sent him once but I’m not sure I can find it, so here’s this one for now.
Anyway, I have done NOTHING today. Yet. I thought this was the Honey’s day off but it isn’t, so my brain is totally wiped clean because I didn’t expect to have time today. Sigh.
(BTW, the real problem with finding an article about skull genies is that I don’t recall any articles about skull genies. I would think I would remember that.)
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Orange Park
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PinkCoffeeMug asks,
“NaNo is due to start soon and I want to be prepared. How do I begin writing an outline? I pretty much know the story I want to tell, but I'm not sure how to tell it and in what kind of order or whatever. How do you create an outline?”
— 1 month ago |
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Newcastle
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firepoppy asks,
“I've just heard of NaNoWriMo and would love to join in this year but I'm beginning a maths degree this October. Will I be able to fit it in?”
— 2 months ago |
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Poulsbo
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Cheryl asks,
“How can I update word count? I know that the NaNoWriMo site is slow right now with everyone getting started, but the place where I can update word count is greyed out, when I can even reach that place without the site timing out. Any advice?”
— 12 months ago |
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flutter is full of wonder asks,
“do we really need to scramble your manuscript before uploading it for a word count, because the "way simple way" they have for us to do this, just isn't that simple for me”
— 1 year ago |
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Volcano
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mahinui asks,
“Can anyone tell me how to submit what I've written to NaNo? I know it should be obvious, but no... And as shweffy says, the site is oh so slow...”
— 2 years ago |
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Europe
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{Turandot} asks,
“Do you have prejudices against some words? There are words I would never use. They are not vulgar, just words that describe an attitude to life that I don't like, like "posh". Do you have taboo words? And what are they?”
— 2 years ago |
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Second Star To The Right And Straight On Till Morning
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Katie's running as if she has a choice. asks,
“*Ahem* Do we start just in November or can we get a head start in October too? Because i'm really confused... can I start now? Or is that cheating? Even if there's really no basis of "cheating" I want to know when most people start. When should I????”
— 2 years ago |
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Illinois
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cafegroundzero asks,
“I intend to start today, because I was participating in elections campaigning and family before (I know, excuses, excuses!). Will NaNoWriMo let me start today, and try to catch up?”
— 2 years ago |
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Portland
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Alana Post asks,
“how do you fit NaNoWriMo into your extremely busy schedule?”
— 4 years ago |
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