NaNoWriMo is here!

[dadevvtsvre]

And so it begins.

 

[Perihelion]

nanonanonanonanonanonanonanonano!!!!!!!!!!

Post your first paragraph or two, NaNo participants, and explain context. Yes, they are bad--that's the point of NaNo. It's okay! Look, I'll start!

Governor Eurion Ingaran stood at the edge of the abyss and stared down. Old snow crunched under his feet as he shifted his weight, the only sound save for the distant howl of Eshna's trade winds in the void and his own ragged breathing. He strained his eyes as he did every time he came here, but he could find no end to that expanse of sky beneath his feet, and he wondered if there even was one. If you fell into that abyss, maybe you fell forever, wrapped in the soft arms of Eshna.

No clouds marred the vista, and the sky was that incredible shade of blue that only comes a few times every year. It looked so hard he could reach out and touch it. Gods, but the day was gorgeous, and it made him sick. His hands clenched and unclenched, fingernails digging into his palms until they bled, and it was only with a sheer effort of will that he restrained the urge to throw back his head and scream until he was hoarse. His mouth was dry, his throat tight, his eyes burning.

Spoiler: context

This man has just executed his only son as a traitor, only to learn immediately after that it might not have even been necessary. He's fairly unhappy about this and is thinking about throwing himself off of this nice cliff, except he really shouldn't because he has responsibilities and shit. Emotions are hard to write, guys. :'(

 

[Venetia]

:O!!!!

As you can't revise things during nano, I'll bar myself from critiquing but I will say that it's an interesting start Peri :D
If he's truly pissed off about that turn of events you could probably expand this section out to describe the visual aspects of his anger, like shaking, being teary-eyed, muscles spasming, etc.

I've got a lot more than a few paragraphs already (uh I think 1200 words so far, not bad for 3:40 into the day) but I'll post the 1st two. We share a similar opening setting: winter

Her first memories were of twinkling, star-kissed nothings; white absences in a looming negative space. Sounds of cold, tinkling locks of languid, pale expanses, burning frozen waste upon her lips, tasting fields of fading grey sheets, expanding out forever. If she paused long to think as far back as her mind would will it, she would envision the spectres of freakishly tall, old men, black as coal, with thousands of pincer-barbed fingers needling into a blue-black abyss. And, in haughty contrast, a heartbeat: soft, warm, and reassuring, nestled within a swatch of fur and leather. The longest-stretching days of her life were spent moving, and her tiny, hungry feet had their first nibbles of ground in the dead of winter, upon frost-glazed powder. Back then, people were dancing circles of faces on impossibly-tall iron stilts, grinning warm smiles, cooing backwards-speak, saving their solemn gazes for the sky and whatever was in her opposite direction. Through the thick, pink faience of time, most of the details of the Nomad Days were washed out in clouds around the edges, too difficult, and not important enough, to dwell upon into clarity.

Her first clear memory was of a bazaar. The noontide heat was rising up and away as the sun was put to rest somewhere beyond the city walls. People, familiar and not (mostly, not) shuffled from vendor to vendor, ogling and haggling in a clamor. A little fountain rested near a baker's stand, and the girl was seated upon its outer sandstone rim. It was waxing on a pleasant burble but the serenity of it was drowned out by the milling crowd. She was staring down between her toes, which were wriggling with sugar-charged anticipation. An arid, wholesome scent hung low in the area and a clovish aftertaste wandered among her molars. She was a patient girl, but waiting for this moment was a bitter pinch to her young discretions.

Spoiler: Context

Nephthys's biography, beginning from the very first glimmers of her consciousness in life.

 

[Perihelion]

If he's truly pissed off about that turn of events you could probably expand this section out to describe the visual aspects of his anger, like shaking, being teary-eyed, muscles spasming, etc.

Yeah, I was planning on it, and there is more of that later, but that's how I wrote it, so I should probably leave it for now. Trying to write what is possibly the worst moment in this character's life when I don't even really know him yet isn't working out terribly well, but I'm most likely going to rewrite the entire scene on the second draft anyway (or even scrap it entirely), so I'm trying not to worry about it for now. I dislike 90% of the prose, but it's getting me started, so whatever. I'm pretty excited about my characters, though, and I think this could go in interesting directions!

Your start is interesting! You are, indeed, starting from the beginning, which is a good place if you're doing backstory. Also, bazaars are cool. And I wish I had 1200 words. I'm at...425. I spent most of my time making a world map instead of writing, haha.

Also, my guy lives in a glacier city, so snow is pretty much the norm. I haven't decided if the world has seasons, but I'm thinking probably not. Well, not seasons in the traditional sense, anyway. Maybe variations in weather patterns and animal migrations (although why they migrate if conditions don't change substantially is beyond me) and things like that so they can track time.

 

[Perihelion]

Oh yeah, the world map!

Spoiler

The black lines border empty space, not water--the blue is water. The faint colored lines are veins of the world aspects.

 

[dadevvtsvre]

I know it's terrible :x

Ethan awoke.

He was on the ground. Suddenly aware of his surroundings, he tried to make sense of where he was, find out where he was.

The space was small, barely enough room to fit his body. He was in an awkward position, and his back was sore. He knew he’d been laying there for several hours, and he felt as if he’d been contorted in a way that he shouldn’t have been.

Groaning, he sat up and opened his eyes. It was pitch black, save for a weak light shining in from a narrow crack on the ground, underneath a door. Groping and reaching for something to hold onto, he found some sort of metal shelf. Using it as a support, he lifted himself up.

“Unh...What the hell ?” he said to himself. He knew now that he was in some sort of closet, but tried desparately to remember how he had gotten there. Searching his memory, he tried to recollect the events that had happened earlier in the day. But his mind was blank, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t remember a thing.

Basically, he finds himself inside a closet. With amnesia. Yes. I know it's cliche as all hell and just lazy on my part but I've had this idea in my head for over two years now and I know that if I don't write this damn thing now I'll never forgive myself.

This is my first serious attempt at a novel. I'm expecting lots of laughs to come when I reread this thing in a few months time. :]

(also, I managed to get 1 000 words done in the first hour! :toot: )

 

[Venetia]

im at 1640 words ~

 

[dadevvtsvre]

I made myself a little chart so I can keep track of where I am and how much farther I need to go. Yay me :3

 

[Perihelion]

I'm at 1449 right now. Finished the first scene and dunno what to do now. I figure I'll intro the fun character, who is a selfish, vengeful bitch, but I'm not sure exactly what she's doing. @_@ My goal for today is 2000.

 

[Daxis]

6000 words in one day! I'm feeling good. I'll fizzle out and quit by the end of the week(like I always do), especially when school starts, but I'm feeling good right now.

 

[Venetia]

wow, 6000? nice work
i ended up with 2048 by day's end. i wanted to get a stronger start because this week will be crammed with overtime but I've got a lot of launching points in mind.

we should talk about the ways we keep focused on it

i find that when i write stories i'm really interested in, i'll think about potential scenes constantly. i act them out in my head, and sometimes will say thought-out lines out loud to myself in the car or shower, to make sure they sound realistic. i also think about hand and face gestures and may mimic them IRL occasionally to get a deeper-immersed feel for the scene(s). Anyone else do that?

I made myself a little chart so I can keep track of where I am and how much farther I need to go. Yay me :3

i did that too :blush:



edit: woo almost to word 4K B)

 

[dadevvtsvre]

i find that when i write stories i'm really interested in, i'll think about potential scenes constantly. i act them out in my head, and sometimes will say thought-out lines out loud to myself in the car or shower, to make sure they sound realistic. i also think about hand and face gestures and may mimic them IRL occasionally to get a deeper-immersed feel for the scene(s). Anyone else do that?

I do this too, and I'm glad I'm not the only one! I find it helps to imagine my book as a movie, and how the scenes would be filmed. This is especially helpful for the exciting scenes. And sometimes when I'm bored I'll do what you do - act out scenes in my head, say lines out loud and imagine myself as a character.

I sometimes draw pictures of what my characters look like, too. Anything to immerse myself in the universe I've created~

 

[Daxis]

my words per minute is ~80, proven thanks to this word typing program my sister has. I round it down to 50 to make it easy to multiply.

50 wpm X 60 minutes and hour X 24 hours a day = possibly 72000 words a day!!!!! :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

Realistically, I do about 1000 words an hour, absolute max. I'm just adding long, drawn out dialogues and monologues with very occaisonal humor to make the reader intresting. Woot! Go word count!

 

[bacon]

Im still here, slowly writing my way to victory. Though, I am behind, as I have been super busy. Though, I was to find a nice comfy rock today and write out a good 1000 words before it got dark. While I do have some catching up, Im sure with a little effort I can do it.

 

[Daxis]

I reccommend doing a whole lot. I mean, a whole lot. When you put off stuff like this, and procrastinate even a little, you're doomed to fail. I've had way too much experience in that.

Is it just me, but when you do a third person story, and you do the story in 15-minute sprints and then take breaks, when you go back you accidently type in first person a whole lot?

 

[Venetia]

i never lapse in POV but yeah i'll typically do it in sprints of 15min.

 

[Perihelion]

my words per minute is ~80, proven thanks to this word typing program my sister has. I round it down to 50 to make it easy to multiply.

50 wpm X 60 minutes and hour X 24 hours a day = possibly 72000 words a day!!!!! :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

Realistically, I do about 1000 words an hour, absolute max. I'm just adding long, drawn out dialogues and monologues with very occaisonal humor to make the reader intresting. Woot! Go word count!

Some people did a 50,000-word novel in a day sometime during the off season. It's insane.

Man, I haven't done my words for the day, and it's already 11 pm. @_@ Can't be behind this early... I finally figured out where to go next, anyway.

 

[Venetia]

you still have an hour left~

 

[Perihelion]

3187, and I'm calling it a night since I'm at a scene break. Still a couple hundred words behind, but it's not a big deal. All my friends are at like 4k, though. Screw you guys!

 

[dadevvtsvre]

It's been surprisingly difficult to resist the temptation to go back and edit some of my stuff. When I browse what I just wrote, for the most part I feel really bad about it and am constatly berating myself for the sloppy writing, until I realize that there's no way I can write at the top of my game like this (lol). And I'm not trying to make to be a well-written thing, anyway. I still feel ashamed sometimes, though :down: