...huh. I think I may try this. Starting a novel is never the hard part, it's that finishing thing I have an issue with!

I will of course be returning for a second run at this. My first attempt last year was a rousing success - and in fact, should be going on sale on Amazon soon, once I sort out gettingmy tax paperwork sent to the right people. The joys of dealing with a US based publisher when you live overseas.

Anyways, yeah. I'll be doing it again. 8D

Already fully plotted out my fourth novel, to be entitled "The Eternal Optimism of the Exceedingly Average Craig Bayfield", in which we see Craig's first chapter of the MFW lodgeworld stories. I'm looking forward to it, it's not only an adaption of my earliest MF RPs from 9/8 years ago, but also a way of tying the past to the current RPs Trish and I are doing.

At the moment I'm juggling on wether to make Craig learn about the lodge's existance from a job interview at a corporate interview with a down to Earth and young businessman (who may or may not be Matthias) to tie into the earliest RPs of the MFW or to update and conect it to Tricia and I's side universe and replace that with a new story concept for the lodge's existance.

Hope you guys post your progress in Carni Isle. I'm interested to read other's progress day by day.

that's wonderful terg, i know some of the details of what you'll write about and i cant wait to read it. i love your ideas a lot its gonna be very entertaining.

craig, silver i enjoyed reading your stories last time you're very talented and even though i admired them before i got to know you guys, i'm gonna enjoy reading your stories propably more now. i'm gonna make sure to read trica and triggerkiddo's story too. so good luck everyone i'll cheer for you.

and craig, trica told me some stuff about what you'll write, i been looking forward to it since then. i wanted to know how it all started with detail. you're really good at writing and i'm not exaggerating i wont lie you'll be top of my list. use that one of a kind craig story telling talent.

btw the title sounds nice, waaaaaaaa why did you have to talk about this now when nanowrite is still weeks away >_<  i'm not a patient person.

I don't know if I'll be joining Craig in NaNo-writing this year, mostly because I don't have a clue what I'm gonna write about. On the other hand, I didn't know what I was writing about last year until... I opened Microsoft Word that day or something? XD

If I don't write a novel, I will be doing one of the following instead:

~Drawing a picture a day (either a sketch or a full picture) based on Craig's novel.

~Drawing approximately a picture a day based on the Major Arcana of the tarot deck (22 cards, so 22 pictures)

~Writing stories based on the Major Arcana (22 short stories, approx. 2-3k words each)

I've always loved tarot and its mythology. Combine that with my recent obsession with Persona 3 and creative things might happen. Of course, it wouldn't be Persona 3-related. Craig and I decided to assign one character to each of the Major Arcana. Because it just wouldn't be a NaNoWriMo without RP-related things XD

But we'll see what happens. Either way, I'm gonna be reading what everyone else posts 😀

~Shadowednavi

waaaaaaaaa supergirl i was hoping to read your story   you got a great way of writing a story thick with emotions, only female writers can be so satisfying that way, like mangas made by women. though i'm happy to the thought of you making the cover for craig's story i love your art its gonna be so cool. but.. please reconsider, i love your work make another story with a cute guy or 2 pleaase!! <bows in respect>

I'm trying to decide whether I really want to or not. Last year I got all of 5 pages done so I don't know if I'm up for trying again. I do have an idea and it would be fun enough for me to do it...but we'll see.

*dramatically emerges from underneath a cardboard box* It's showtime.

I'm also going to participating this year. Like Craig, I already have prepared my title and plot synopsis, and intend to post my daily progress in Carny Isle. I've had a legitimately sound idea knocking about since the summer and am eager to begin. The only challenge will be having the time around preparations for my law school exams.

I...actually don't really know 100% what I'm going to be writing about, yet.  I've got lots of ideas (including the official adaptation of the Tergonaut stories in novel format), but none of them have really stood out to me yet.  I'm planning to write by the seat of my omni-pants this year and see how that goes.

This may also help the Tergonaut stories I've been posting on my DA as well as in Carnival Island get finished, since getting in the habit of writing more regularly would be easier to continue once I've got it started.

I've been thinking of setting down a few of the ideas in a poll and then
writing the one that gets the most votes.  Either that or just starting
out with some kid stuck in the middle of a swamp and figure out how
he/she got there and what's going to happen next.  What do you guys think?

I'd say pick whatever seems to be the most interesting idea from which you expect to get the most storytelling yield. For anyone not yet in possession of an idea, I refer to excerpts from Chapter 8 of The Writer's Guide to Fantasy Literature: From Dragon's Lair to Hero's Quest by Philip Martin, on generating ideas:

"One writes such a story out of the leaf-mould of the mind."

--J.R.R. Tolkien, in J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, 1977, by Humphrey Carpenter

Poet Gary Snyder called this unconscious source of ideas a compost heap, much the same idea as leaf-mould--perhaps more accurate, as a compost heap is human-made, and should be turned on occasion with a garden fork to help the process along. In either case, the source of ideas is jumbled and of uncertain origins. It is nutrient-rich with the broken-down matter of the past. All previous work and every real-life episode is drawn into the writer's compost heap.
The Hobbit, for instance, according to the astute Carpenter, includes fragments of a youthful Alpine trek in 1911, the goblins of George MacDonald's books, and an episode from Beowulf in which a cup is stolen from a sleeping barrow-dragon. For the battle scenes, Tolkien must have drawn on memories of his service as a signalman during the First World War, where he saw first-hand the horrors of the trenches. Tolkien also was a lover of nature, especially venerable trees, and would create a whole race of trees, the Ents, and a leader Treebeard--whose booming voice, he admitted, was reminiscent of that of his friend, C.S. Lewis.
From his 1911 Alpine trek, Tolkien brought home a postcard. He saved it, eventually placing it in an envelope that he marked as the origins of Gandalf, the great wizard of Middle-earth. That postcard showed a painting of the spirit of the mountain: an old man with flowing beard, broad-brimmed hat and long cloak, sitting on a rock under a pine.
Every intriguing item or curiosity is a starting point. The writer is always asking not "What does that mean?" but "What could it mean?"--if transferred to another context. Like rich compost, the origins of an idea are less important than the nature of the new growth that springs from it in the writer's garden.
From the leaf-mold of the writer's imagination come fantastic ideas--at all hours of the day and night. The clever writer knows to jot them all down as soon as possible. Anne Rice admits that she has risen on occasion late at night to write down a half-dreamed idea on her room's wallpaper, so she could remember it in the morning.
When Tolkien started The Lord of the Rings, he did not know where the story would go. He only knew that the magic ring carried over from his prior story, The Hobbit, would play a role. So he started by writing the first chapter, a feast. Afterwards, he started a trio of Bilbo's descendants out on a new journey, not really knowing where or why. In the initial draft their names were Bingo, Odo, and Frodo. Only while writing the early scenes did Tolkien conceive in a blaze of inspiration the true power of the ring--that of three magical rings, it was the mightiest, the one that ruled the others. This became the means to bring all the forces of Middle-earth to bear on that journey of Bingo, Odo, and Frodo. Later, the trio became a duo--Frodo, now with his faithful servant, Sam Gamgee.
If Tolkien had not started writing and sent his threesome off on an unexplained journey, The Lord of the Rings might not have taken shape. The first idea became the next idea, and so on. The act of writing is its own story generator; a story underway creates its own surprises.

In his book about the writing process, Zen in the Art of Writing, Ray Bradbury tells how he used this same process in his early twenties. He found he could get his creative juices flowing by sitting down immediately upon awakening to write down a word or several words. "I would then take arms against the word, or for it," he said, "and bring on an assortment of character to weigh the word and show me its meaning...." As he wrote his meditations on these words, after a few pages, a crystallizing idea or character would emerge, interesting enough to reshape into a story.

In Writing the Natural Way, Gabriele Rico presents a related technique called clustering. This technique begins with placing one or more key words in the middle of a blank page. Then, by associating freely with any of those central words, strings of new words are created, each word suggesting the next, radiating outwards in clusters of association. Eventually the page is filled with words, a spider's web of far-flung words, ideas, and tenuous connections.
In a follow-up stage of the exercise, the writer looks back into the web of words. What kind of a story might be drawn from these clusters of words? Are there possible meanings--real or imaginary? Often the key idea will appear off in the margin, in an unexpected cluster of words, as spun strands of associations begin to weave their own images.
While every attempt at this exercise may not create a great story, you will be surprised at how effectively this technique can tap into the powers of imagination that lurk in the nonrational hemisphere of your brain. And it often takes only one brilliant, unexpected association to suggest a great story.

A lot of text, but hopefully useful to anyone struggling to come up with an idea.

I was gonna participate this year and use it as a chance to flesh out a story I wrote a looong time ago-basically start it from scratch, keep some source material, but make it an honest to goodness true novel. Alas, I will be travelling way too much in Nov, and so I will just enjoy reading all of yours

I think some of the advice that Rapid passed on, as well as various other thoughts and inspirations in the past month, have finally led me to forming more or less the idea of what I'm going to write.

I guess one question I have for the other authors is, are you going to show what you write for NaNoWriMo on the MoFo, and if so, why?  Are you at all worried that someone else will take what you've written and publish it themselves one way or the other?  I'm hesitant to make a post in Carnival Island for this reason, as well as if I do end up trying to publish my story, I'd like a lot of it to be a surprise to people who buy it, rather than giving away the entire story before it's even available for sale.

I'm posting in Carni Isle on the offchance someone might read it. I've no grand illusions that my story will find an audience outside of my friendbase.

I might give the thing a second go, I haven't done so since like 2006 and that was a very shortlived attempt. Could always use the practice and effort, I s'ppse.

  that's great mike, good luck i didnt read your RPs so i'll be happy to see how you write. 
 

I'm posting in Carni Isle on the offchance someone might read it. I've no grand illusions that my story will find an audience outside of my friendbase.

>_<  waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa i'm not your friend but still a fan of your writing and an admirer of your brain   it'll be a pleasure to read your writing, so do your very best! i have really high taste in stories, i rarely enjoy common works, your stories so far werent common at all. show that one of a kind fun story telling you're so great at.

I'm not too worried about my ideas being stolen. I don't think they're all that great yet anyways and this is just good practice. I don't think I'm ready for any story of mine to be published yet anyways. Maybe in a few years. I'll try to post it in Carnival Isle but won't be shocked if I forget to update it.

It begins.

It's 9:15am on Monday, the 1st of November, and I have a word count of 1,714 words already, with more to do later on today.

Life is good

2,403 words as of 7:18am here.  I was pretty excited and couldn't sleep much, so I got up really early and decided to get started.

And I'm suddenly being caught off-guard by how quickly the story is coming out of my mind and onto the page.  I haven't even finished the present action scene I paused in the middle of.  I'm trying not to be too overconfident, as when the story lags later on I'll probably lose the extra time I've gained, but right now I'm sort of surprised at how relatively easy it was to get that many words out in the space of only a few hours.

That said, I'm going back to bed.

Profile on NaNoWriMo

My profile on the site. I got a little headstart as soon as midnight passed and did almost 1200 words in about half an hour or so before I retired to bed. I'll try to do some more either before work or once I get home from work.

I've decided to undertake my Major Arcana Drawing Challenge in lieu of NaNo this year, but I'll be posting my progress in Carnival Island as well 🙂 And good luck to all of you who have hit the ground running! Craig is busy working on his novel right now, and I'm sure he'll post his results as soon as he's done.

**waves flag cheering you all on**

~Shadowednavi

So how is everyone doing so far? I've been managing to do 3-400 or more above the daily amount so far but if I can keep this up, I'll be pretty happy. I know the goal is about 5000 words at the end of day 3 but I'm at 5773 now and can probably make it to 6000 if I wanted to but will hold off for now.

Doing well so far, able to keep abreast of the goal fairly easily.  It's just making sure to sit down and do it that becomes a challenge, even when I have nothing especially pressing at the time to distract me.

But it's been fairly enjoyable to do it as by-the-seat-of-my-pants as I've been doing it so far.  A refreshing change from writing stories where I've planned out the plot for years in advance.

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/229982 for those who wish to add me to their friends.

I'm up to 6,257 and just about to start writing the next segment. I'm on fiiiiiireeeeee.

Not really. I'm bored, lazy and distracted.

I've kept well ahead of schedule, mostly in part to my high enthusiasm and anticipation for writing this novella. I submit for the thoughts of those hard at work on their novels some words from the same book as before, The Writer's Guide to Fantasy Literature:

Garth Nix, author of Sabriel (1995) and Lireal (2001), popular books for young-adult readers, creates a simple outline. Just a note for each chapter helps him break the work down into manageable chunks, none of which is overwhelming.

"I'm often asked by would-be writers how I can write a full-length novel which takes a year or more to get done. My stock answer is that I never sit down and think, "I have to write a novel today." I sit down and think, "I have to write a chapter," or "revise a chapter," or "finish the chapter." That way, it's only ever 2,500-5,000 words that are the immediate goal.
As a further motivational gimmick, I always use the word-count utility when I've finished typing a chapter, and write that down, with a running total of words and the date in the front of my first notebook for the current work....I also write down the music I've been listening to as I write and anything else that might be interesting to look back upon....
The word count is a relatively small thing, but it has an amazing psychological effect, particularly as more and more chapters appear and the word total grows. I find it very encouraging, particularly in the first third of the book, which always seems to take me half the time."

***
Terry Pratchett gives some good advice on how to get the writing underway. He calls his first version of a novel: Draft Zero. In an interview with Claire E. White, Pratchett says that he just tries to let it all flow out:

"The thing now is to get as much down as possible....It's all a technique, not to get over writer's block, but to get 15,000 or 20,000 words of text under my belt. When you've got that text down, then you can work on it. Then you start giving yourself ideas."

Pratchett's term for that floaty, misty feeling is "The Valley Full of Clouds" - reflecting the writer's need to start a story before everything is clearly seen.

Day 6 of the challenge and according to the site recommended word goal, by the end of today you should have broken 10,000 words 😀 So far I've heard nothing but good things from everyone I've spoken to (Craig is on FIRE with just over 13k). How are you all doing?

I'm four pictures down in my own challenge with the next three or four sketches underway. My goal is a picture a day, but between my real job, college, and the work in between, I'm kind of stretching that a bit ^^; But I'm still putting up the good fight, and encourage all of you to do the same 😀

~Shadowednavi

10053 on last check. That's after being a day behind, so I've written a tonne of words today. I reckon tomorrow's writing will have me going beyond the goal, as I just reached a key point of my story. We'll see.

Reeeeeally far behind. Haven't broken 3k yet. We'll see if I can change that tonight. 

I had my slowest starting day yesterday (Because I like to go out and do things since there's no work that day) and had my most productive day, doing nearly 2300 and hitting the day 6 benchmark a whole day early and then some. I still haven't written my average amount (around 2000) but I like being ahead a day or more so if I have to miss a day for some weird reason, I'm not hurt by it. Not catching Craig though, he's like a machine.

Ever since Thursday I've been lagging behind - I'm at a bit over 8,000 words right now.  It's just been a matter of not sitting down and slugging through the three-five hours it takes to get about or over 2,000 words in a day, so now I'm trying to play catch-up all the time.  But I'm not too worried - I have plenty of time to catch up, as long as I don't waste time doing the things I was wasting my time with last week.

Skipped my first day yesterday and do not regret doing so. Was quite productive this morning. Feel I have enough fodder to pad the middle portion of the book now that the first act is officially over. Second act is mostly character building, fluff and the most random scene I ever RPed so if there's a time for me to start falling, it's now.

Hit the halfway point and am about 3 or 4 days ahead, yay!

I wish I could take a day off but my subconscious orders me to continue writing.

Just remembered I haven't posted any of my story in Carni Isle. I will try to do that.

Sorries for the double post/bump but too happy to share...

NaNoWriMo 2010-Conquered! 7 Days early I might add. Of course I've found that the halfway point is nowhere close to being reached but it's a good start. It'd kind of be nice now to keep a daily word count of at least 1000 just for kicks. I already write almost every day but having a steady production is a...nice feeling.

Sooooo how is everyone else doing?

Right now, I'm past forty-one thousand words. I'd probably have more done if I didn't feel the need to procrastinate so much and if I wasn't also devoting most of my days to reviewing for my exams and writing long legal memos. All the same, I am pleased by the fact that I've been consistent and never fallen behind schedule.

Congrats, Tiggerkiddo!

I've managed to claw my way up to 29,000. Which I know is really far behind, but it's a lot better than I was doing.

Had to stop mine in the end. Fell too far behind - but that was due to the once-every-two-years and has-to-be-booked-nearly-half-a-year-in-advance awesomeness that was Auchinawa. So I don't regret having had to stop in the end, because the cause of it was totally worth it :3