I'm going to be attempting NaNo for the third year this year. I'm going to keep plugging away at my apocalypse novel. I manage about 1/4 of the required words each time, but I'm going to try to finish it this year.

The story is broken into three stories that are interwoven. One is about the scientist who accidentally create a plague, the second is about a man trying to get back to his family during the outbreak, and the final bit is two children who have lost their parents and are struggling to survive in it's aftermath. I plan on somehow tying them all together in the end.

Will you be my writing buddy? http://nanowrimo.org/participants/phaenoh

I didn't do very well last year, but I'll try again this year!

I've decided that I'm going to spend this November planning a story ready to write during 2014's NaNoWriMo. I think a big part of not succeeding last year was that I hadn't planned anything in advance

I'm definitely having another crack at it this year, hopefully this time I won't grind to a halt like I did last time. However, I've got no idea where to start this time around...

.. hmmm... I have been interested in NaNoWriMo for years but have never participated. My lack of participation in the past was lazyness (mostly) and the fact that November is often very busy for me.. I have several 'book' outlines on the back shelf waiting to be filled out with content.

A fun one to work on would be a light hearted romp about a Texan who went to Ireland and got suckered into buying a rare Pooka horse hide rug. Pookas are immortal Irish Fae creatures who shift between Horse and Human shape. This Pooka wanted revenge on the Texan because he was a direct descendant of Fin MacCool who had shamed him centuries before by riding upon his back and surviving and who had extracted promises. The other Pookas ridiculed him. This humiliated Pooka sought revenge for his humiliation but Fin's descendants had emmigrated and were no longer in Ireland. With the 'help' of his brother, the Pooka shifted into rug form on the spur of the moment while his brother 'sold' the rare rug to the Texan.
So the Texan brought the rug home and put it on the floor in front of the fireplace - In old Irish culture, a place by the fire was a place of honor for visitors. So the Pooka relaxed and plotted. Soon the Texan's liberal minded daughter came home from university and was presented with the rug as a present. Of course, she was somewhat aghast at a horse hide rug and felt bad for the horse. She also could not let her dad know how she felt because she didn't want to hurt his feelings.

It goes on with scenes of the Texans various family members and switching to the Pook's viewpoint and plotting. Once the Pooka learned who was who and had plotted his revenge he tried to shift his shape and found out he was stuck. The trick was on the Pooka in this case because once he shifted into rug form, he couldn't shift out of it on his own.


Anyway, there is a lot more that I had fleshed out a few years ago and then set aside.... I can work on that, I guess. Any proofreading volunteers? (I'll have to get out the typo checker.)


I signed up to be a writing buddy of you Phae but it says you're my writing buddy.. so not quite sure how to set that up. (It might help if I gave it 100% attention. ) http://nanowrimo.org/participants/porkypine/buddies Sign up if you want to read/opinionate on this bit of Pooka silliness..

Maybe if whoever is interested in doing so, create a new thread and post parts of your novel in it if you want feedback. I think each novel should be it's own thread so things don't get confusing.

Update on mine - I've now found inspiration!

I'm hoping I've not inadvertantly nicked some already-published title, but considering the content I'm thinking of, it serves the purpose...

Phae, I like your 3 story lines that merge at the end. Makes it interesting.. Are we just a cheering section or did you want us to read your work? I'm not really sure how writing buddies function.

I've known about NaNoWriMo for a couple years, but never really considered participating. I'm so glad I saw this thread, though, because now I want to try it!

I figure I'll write something involving vampires, since that's kind of all I write... you can laugh if you want, I don't mind. The real issue for me will be the length; I seriously have never written any single story longer than 18,000 words. This'll be a nice challenge, methinks.

I hope we can all reach the 50k mark! ...And stay sane in the process, of course

So I "won" Nzano two years ago, in that I cracked 60 thousand words, but ever since -- I've been working on the same book, tough I've written shorter things in between. It's probably nearly 200 thousand words now, minus the words I'm taking out with revision. I'm in a major revision phase currently.

What I hope to do this November is finish revisions enough for beta readers to get hold of it. I have a lot of them promised to me.

It's up to you if you want this just to be a love and support section, or if you actually want readers. I'm not sure I want readers just yet, but I definitely want a place where I can go that people I know are struggling with the same darn thing! Only a few more days! Eeek!

I'm actually doing it this month @_@ I mean, I consistently write 50k words every month anyway since I'm rping with a ton of people or writing Skyrim stuff. It should be pretty easy for me to do 2k words a day, right? I've done my planning but it's definitely crunch time on getting those character sheets and plotline overviews done.

I'd better get a handle on the planning quick sharpish - I've worked out the rough timescale and novel type I'm going with, but I still need a NAME for my flippin' character!

I hate it so much when that happens. How do you usually name your characters? Me personally, I use Behind the Name's Random Renamer which is actually a very useful tool. I don't know what kind of culture or setting your work will be in, but I think that it might help.

lol. I have a relatively easy time coming up with names and titles. It's perfecting the dialog and 'show' sequences that I need help with.

The local NaNoWriMo group (Pocatello) is having a kickoff write-a-thon at Denney's on Halloween evening. We are taking over the back room. lol It should be fun. (I've scrounged up a laptop for that evening.)

I loathe coming up with names for my characters. I use baby name websites and that random name generator to come up with mine.

I'm getting nervous about this whole thing. If I can't come up with a way to make the story last 50k words, I'll barely last a week going at 2k words per day. Eeee. Positive thoughts, Mary, positive thoughts...

(Also, Rainy Mood. You're welcome.)

I mean, usually I can come up with my own pretty easily but sometimes you have to lurk around until something really clicks, you know?

3800 words in, and I went to my first write-in today! I'm a bit behind, but I'll catch up.

How's everyone else doing?

Seriously badly - in terms of word count anyway!

However, thanks to one of my RL friends teasing me, I got my character's name sorted, although it did then mean altering another character's name (not so difficult that one). I've also decided that due to the style of what I'm writing, it may be a case of scribbling things down any old how, then putting them into some semblence of order later on.

I've been doing ok. Not doing as much writing as I'd like. Life has a way of distracting one from one's intent. The local group's write-ins are fun. AND, they are doing a 12 hour marathon on the evening of the 15th. :D

I've been wicked sick and haven't been able to do anything yet. >.< Unfun.

^ Aww, I hope you get better soon!

Passed 8k words this morning. I've been averaging about 1k words a day the past few days... I'm counting on at least one or two marathon days in the next couple weeks, otherwise I won't finish at this rate.

I've also decided that, should I reach a point where I can't think of a way to extend the story to reach 50k words without it dragging, I'll just end it where it feels right.

Got write-ins on every coming Sunday, plus a possible one on the 21st. Happy writing!

Aww not nice Phae, hope you feel better ASAP! xx