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Post by Siana Blackwood on Oct 22, 2016 2:46:13 GMT
I see just about everyone is planning a NaNoWriMo thing, so that's probably our starting point. What help/support/randomness do you need from Steve during NaNoWriMo? Same sort of question if you're not doing NaNo, because everyone needs to be included. So, proper questions: IF YOU ARE DOING NANOWRIMO... What's your NaNoWriMo plan of attack? Do you have the month all laid out, or could you use some help figuring out how to manage it? What help/support/randomness do you want from Steve to help you get to 50k?
IF YOU'RE DOING SOMETHING ELSE... What are you doing during November? How can Steve help you stay on track to reach your goals?It would be very helpful if everyone could come up with an answer here. Things to think about: * Do you like challenges e.g. the 'word wars, prompts and sprints' board on the NaNoWriMo forum? * Want accountability e.g. is a challenge to post daily progress on blogs or social media your kind of thing? * Prefer to keep things low-key and just work steadily towards consistency? * Would picture/word prompts do more for you than just a 'write x words in y minutes' type of thing? * What's likely to be your biggest challenge to overcome during the month? Finding time/energy, thinking of stuff, distractions...
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Post by Dec on Oct 22, 2016 21:41:37 GMT
I think just having people to be honest and accountable to for November will be a huge boon. That and, uh... maybe people to word war and sprint with, sometimes. Usually I'd go to a chat for that, but with how flighty my internet is recently, I don't think that that's an option. Might a hard one to negotiate, since people are rarely here at the same time, but if you come into my progress thread and randomly challenge me to a X-minute word war, I'd totally be willing to do it.
That and I think I need someone to word war with to finish the Undertale Crawl, which I'm also going to be doing. Lord knows the likelihood I'm even going to get that far in the thing, but, hey -- worth a shot.
As for prompts... I honestly don't know if that's the best of ideas, since my structure is so heavily dictated by the game, but I guess it's worth a shot? Randomness does the heart good, sometimes.
Biggest challenge... staying focused long enough to get everything done. Since I'm not going by wordcount, and instead going a chapter a day, I'm not totally sure if I'll get everything done anyways.
As for other things, I'm thinking about expanding the comic out into something bigger, even when I'm done with these ten pages. Not sure what you guys can really do to help that, other than be encouraging, but that's that.
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Post by Jᴀy V. Aꜱᴛᴇʀ 💀🐍 on Oct 26, 2016 16:57:07 GMT
Plan? I have a plan, but it doesn't look like anything anyone else would call a plan.
Prompts, wars, sprints, and stuff really wouldn't help all that much. The story is pretty self- contained and wouldn't take all that well to random contrasting details, UNLESS they matched the genre and context exactly, or were high level enough to adapt easily.
I'm going to get stuck. It's going to happen. I will be dooming all over my thread, especially from the 7th-10th day onwards. What I really need is perhaps a reminder. This happens every time, and it will pass. I just need to 1) Stick with it. 2) It's probably happening because the plot has hit a plateau. I probably need to increase the stakes and evolve the problem.
That last bit might prove to be a challenge. It's likely I might not know the larger scale plot, simply because I suck at coming up with that kind of thing beforehand. I might need some brainstorming help. This story takes place over years. I probably need to flesh out the quest-y bit, the one that takes place between everyday life and the war backdrop. This is the proverbial politics-riddled goblet of fire type thing.
Having someone come in with a gun NEVER helps. :-) The problem usually stretches beyond a tug of war with mere human life and relates to making the quest- level problem worse.
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Post by Dec on Oct 26, 2016 23:43:52 GMT
Having someone come in with a gun NEVER helps. :-) Oddly enough, I have to disagree. That piece of advice helped me exactly once, with a character getting shot offscreen and the resulting fallout. It lead to an amazing plot twist I never would have imagined on my own, and generated an entire story that I never would have reached without it. But then, that's the exception that proves the rule, methinks. Most problems aren't solved that well by pulling out the guns.
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Post by Jᴀy V. Aꜱᴛᴇʀ 💀🐍 on Oct 27, 2016 1:31:53 GMT
Hah! Glad it helped someone! It's never helped me, mostly because I pants stuff like that. My usual problems are always on a different level. Killing someone won't typically help me figure out where I should have been going in the first place.
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Post by Dec on Oct 27, 2016 2:57:25 GMT
Eh, the situation was pretty unique anyways -- it basically left the story wide open for a supposedly dead supervillain to step in and take credit, and then make a grand entrance when the hero survives but is bedridden and powerless. Most of the time, the guns are just pointless violence.
That and it totally doesn't even get into the insane plot twist the story went through after that. It practically defined the story, and that scene is so sad -- I swear to God, I cry every time I read it.
Man... you totally just reminded me how much I love that story. I really just need to get back to finishing it, because the fact that I don't have people screaming for my death yet because of that one plot twist is a crime. Maybe I'll commit to editing it for December and start releasing a chapter a week like I'm doing with Kill Your Heroes. Gain back a loyal readership again... only to stab them in the back with that.
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Post by Jᴀy V. Aꜱᴛᴇʀ 💀🐍 on Oct 27, 2016 3:02:56 GMT
Mua ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaaaaa
do iiiiit
Do iiiiiit!
*Has been torturing poor Ane for most of her life and is quite looking forward to doing it on paper*
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Post by Siana Blackwood on Oct 27, 2016 4:48:24 GMT
I don't really have a plan yet except for the one about working on my 'chaos draft' and trying to hit the daily word goals. That's about the same as my usual NaNo plans, though, so I guess it probably works.
As far as the whole help/support/randomness thing... this is one of those times where I made a big long list of things people might like, but that I probably wouldn't use at all. Daily(ish) progress posting on Steve would probably help, but only if we're all doing it so there's not that 'shouting into the void' feeling. I don't mind daily/weekly wordcount challenges, but prompts take more time to set up than they're worth and I've never really gotten into word wars and things like that.
My biggest challenge in November is probably going to be my total lack of a 'plan of attack', unless I can pull one together in the next few days. I describe this thing as a 'chaos draft', but I don't have any real idea what actually might go into one on a day-by-day basis. That's what I need to work out.
Well... that and the part where I'll be joining ADOZ in 100% pure doom for the month...
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Post by Dec on Oct 27, 2016 5:22:11 GMT
Ehh... it's starting to sound like I won't find many people to word war with on here. Kinda disapointing, to be honest, but what can you do?
Either way, if you guys can do me a favor and just like... randomly challenge me to five minutes of writing during the day in my progress thread (and trick me by calling them word wars), that'd be lovely. I don't really need you in the trenches with me writing, but someone to be accountable to for a good, solid five minutes of the day would be lovely to help make sure I don't get in a funk and just stop writing completely.
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Post by Siana Blackwood on Oct 27, 2016 11:15:12 GMT
You could always try Twitter for sprints and word wars.
Or if you like the idea of having people randomly post 'hey, go and write for five minutes' messages in your PPT, that can be arranged.
I feel a bit like I should put an evil grin at the end of that sentence, but all our evil grinning smilies seem a bit over the top.
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Post by Jᴀy V. Aꜱᴛᴇʀ 💀🐍 on Oct 27, 2016 16:00:30 GMT
Sorry Dec. I'm not that great at regularly word warring. I don't mind 5/10/15 minute sprints/wars (I get distracted if they're longer xD) here and there though if we both happen to be online at the same time (I feel like that's happened a few times), and I can definitely prod you on your thread. Have you tried Write or Die? >:-) As for prompts, I have no problem setting them up, if people will use them. They never help me much for actual story work, so I won't be doing them myself. Over the top? Over the TOP? How can evil grins be over the top!? They are the sign of the plotter preparing to torture her creations! ...I might be part evil mastermind.
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maawolfe36
Marvin The Paranoid Android
Omnia mutantur, nihil interit.
Posts: 54
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Post by maawolfe36 on Oct 27, 2016 16:14:57 GMT
This is my first year doing NaNoWriMo so I don't know yet what will work for me. But I'm willing to try anything. I'll be insanely busy during the second half of November, so having you all here to keep me accountable is going to be huge. I wouldn't mind having some prompts as we go along too. I was imagining "what kind of prompt would work best for the most people?" and I thought maybe something like "Write a flashback chapter that shows a pivotal moment in your main character's life that gives insight into why he/she acts the way he/she does." That kind of vague but leading question makes more sense to me, as opposed to "what would happen if your character was suddenly attacked by an intergalactic militia?" which doesn't fit every genre. Does that make sense?
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Post by Jᴀy V. Aꜱᴛᴇʀ 💀🐍 on Oct 27, 2016 16:26:45 GMT
I know exactly what you mean. When I use them, I prefer prompts that develop the story I HAVE rather than try to throw things in there that don't belong. Of course, even this cam get problematic if the problem the prompt attempts to solve isn't for the genre you're working on or isn't something you're struggling with.
However---
You're doing fantasy right? If you can come up with a general list of things that you're drawing a blank on (i.e. getting to know characters, sagging middle,magic system, etc. - can adjust specificity as necessary), I can certainly make a list of little short story prompts to choose from. Something like this, I might do myself. Kind of already have, informally!
Anyone else want something like this?
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maawolfe36
Marvin The Paranoid Android
Omnia mutantur, nihil interit.
Posts: 54
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Post by maawolfe36 on Oct 27, 2016 19:52:47 GMT
You're right, I'm doing fantasy. I'll definitely write up a list of some things I'm struggling with and let you know. One thing that comes to mind is trying to figure out how to avoid Maguffins in a fantasy world, but also avoid deus ex machina. Like I'm finding it's a tough balance to make quests or quest items meaningful without being too earth-shattering.
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Post by Danielle Wayland on Oct 27, 2016 20:02:55 GMT
I'll do word wars with you Dec. I love the heck out of 'em
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