Venefyxatu Posted October 9, 2007 Report Posted October 9, 2007 It's not just known as the Time of Madness, but also as the NaNoWriMo. Those of you who need a reminder are hereby warned Last year did teach me something, so this year I'm joining in with An (almost) empty calendar Mental preparation Preparation on paper An idea for a plot that has more thought put into it than last year's An almost, but not quite, more or less, not entirely, junk-free desk.* The start of an outline (if I don't watch out I'll end up becoming ... *gasp* ... structured) The last two weeks of November off. Yay for holidays! And catching-up-time, of course! * Who am I kidding? It's got some available space at this moment, but there's no chance in Hell that'll last more than a week ...
Venefyxatu Posted November 28, 2007 Author Report Posted November 28, 2007 (edited) So what did this year teach me? The empty calendar : very helpful. I would almost go as far as to say that it is required Mental preparation : definitely on the required list. Preparation on paper : The best battle plans last only until the first arrow flies. The same holds for paper preparation, though notes can come in handy if you get stuck Plot idea : Quite useful. Characters would've been useful, too, though The junk-free desk had to be dug up from under piles and piles of stuff, which took me about two days in which I didn't write even a single letter. The break was nice though. Hrmmmmmm ... The outline : I blasted through it in about three days, and had to skip a quarter of it because it was useless (way too high-level). No structure for me! The time off was great to do a 5k-per-day ending sprint, but also the cause that I got so far behind (as in : "I'll have time enough in the last two weeks".) If I hadn't had those, I would've forced myself to stay ahead, like I did in the first week-and-a-half. I think. In conclusion : *screams and does the happy dance* I WON!!! :hyper: :hyper: :hyper: Edited November 28, 2007 by Venefyxatu
Katzaniel Posted December 1, 2007 Report Posted December 1, 2007 (edited) 1. An empty calendar : Working half-time definitely helped me. 2. Mental preparation : Yeah, you've gotta be determined or you're screwed 3. Preparation on paper : I had plans for about 15 chapters which I liberally changed when necessary, but was still glad to have. After that, I sat down and made new plans for another 15 chapters or so. 4. Plot idea : Necessary, I'd say! 5. The junk-free desk: Pfft! I bought a desk halfway through november - had been working off of a filing cabinet next to the couch until then - and even though it started out junk-free, it's still piled in stuff now. 6. The outline : I needed it, personally. Turns out one of the harder parts of this (aside from the dedication and long hours) is knowing what to write! 50,000 is a lot in terms of time, but also in terms of brainpower. 7. I had to take the last day and a half off from work (above and beyond my usual half-days) but that's also because I didn't have the night of Nov 30th to work with - office Christmas party. Bad day for it!! I didn't finish 50,000 words, but that was never my goal, not this year. After planning for 50k last year and managing 30k, my intention this year was 42k, or 50k with the help of the 8k that I had already written toward this story - and having an already-started story is *already* cheating according to NaNoWriMo rules, never mind using the words I'd already written toward the goal. But it was a more realistic goal for me. The other problem was when I realized that my wordcount, for the editor I was using, was inflated from the wordcount that is officially used - in mine, apparently, "Van-ya" (one of my main character's names) and K'Retan (another main character's name) both counted as 2, but they should have only counted as one. So according to NaNoWriMo official count, I wrote 40,500 words this month - not bad considering last year. According to my own wordcount, I managed my 42,000 and 50k total. So I lost.... but I also won. Yay! Major congrats to Vene for *actually* winning - I know how hard that must have been! PS. When I say "last year" I mean 2005, as in 2006 I was taking my last or second-last semester of university, and I had just enough sanity left not to even attempt NaNoWriMo. Edited December 1, 2007 by Katzaniel
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