Alpha Centauri 2

Community => Planet Tales => Topic started by: Valka on March 30, 2016, 03:12:45 AM

Title: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on March 30, 2016, 03:12:45 AM

NaNoWriMo is a short way of saying National Novel Writing Month. This is a story-writing competition where the goal is to write a novel in 30 days. The November event is the main one, and the most ambitious: Participants try to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days (from November 1-30).

There are two other NaNoWriMo sessions besides this, though. They take place in April and July (August? I'll double-check that), and are known as "Camp" events. These sessions are easier, because participants are allowed to set their own goal for the month, as long as it's a minimum of 10,000 words.

That sounds like a lot, right? But when it's broken down over 30 days, it adds up to less than 400 words per day. Most of us can easily write a 400-word forum post without thinking about it. Even the 50,000-word stories are doable if you break it down into daily sessions of 1667 words per day.

NaNoWriMo operates on the honor system. Nobody on staff actually reads the story, but there are forums where you can ask people for advice and feedback. The goal is quantity, to encourage people to write a little every day. Editing comes later.

So how is this a contest, if there are no judges? You're competing with yourself, to see if you can meet the minimum word count. I managed this once, a couple of years ago during the April event. My goal was 10,000 words and I ended with over 12,000.

If anyone else wants to sign up, the address is http://campnanowrimo.org/ (http://campnanowrimo.org/)

This year's event starts April 1. I've got several ideas but am not sure which one to pursue yet. That's part of the fun - some people plan very carefully in advance, while others wing it.

This thread is meant to offer encouragement to the participants. And if you don't meet the goal, that's okay. The objective is to get into the habit of writing every day.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 02, 2016, 06:20:19 AM

Okay, I'm signed up for this year's April Camp event, with a modest goal of 10,000 words between April 1 and April 30.

Day one: 361 words (ahead of the daily minimum of 334 words).

The rules say that this time around it doesn't have to be a proper story, and people can edit an old story.

So my 10,000 words will be a preparation for the actual stories to come later, possibly in November.

It's fanfiction, set in the Hulzein Saga universe, created by SF author F. M. Busby. I can't recommend these books enough, since they're as relevant now as they were over 30 years ago when they were first published.

Busby glossed over a lot of the minor characters' backstories, and there is a LOT of room for "fill in the blanks" stories. So that's what the plan is: Fill in the blanks and explore the minor characters.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 03, 2016, 03:52:34 AM

Day 2 word total word count: 1406. NaNoWriMo tells me that if I keep this rate up, I'll be done on April 15.

It was a productive day. I got over 1000 words more than my daily minimum, which is great.

This is a project I've wanted to tackle for YEARS - putting together a reference work for Hulzein Saga fans, and doing fanfic. I've got scads of story ideas already.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 04, 2016, 06:49:59 AM

Day 3 total word count is 1769. Obviously I didn't have as productive a day as yesterday. I still did more than the daily minimum, though, so that's what matters.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 05, 2016, 06:15:33 AM

Day 4 total: 2290 words. I'll be 25% done by this time tomorrow.

Got another idea for a story in this series (whatever did happen to that slimy Welfare supervisor whose Lottery scam enabled Rissa Kerguelen to buy out of Total Welfare and escape from UET? Nothing good, heh, heh, heh...).

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 06, 2016, 06:48:19 AM

Day 5 total: 2780 words. I'm just past the 25% point. 

At this point I'm still mostly working out the timeline for when everything happened. I've found a couple of whopping huge continuity errors that Busby made, so will have to make a decision which novel has the "right" information.

When I met Busby at a convention in Calgary back in the '80s, I mentioned the worst of the continuity errors, and he seemed a bit embarrassed and irritated. Apparently it's one that completely slipped past both himself and his editors.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 06, 2016, 12:44:17 PM

I'm following this - just, nothing to say about word count and a series with which I am unfamiliar...

You can do it.  I'm rootin' for you.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 07, 2016, 07:05:10 AM

Day 6 total: 3285 words.

If you want to know more about the series I'm dissecting in order to write canon-faithful fanfic, look up the Hulzein Saga, Rissa Kerguelen, or F.M. Busby. It's a fantastic series that combines space opera with dystopian fiction, and some of the elements are completely relevant with what's going on in RL.

One of Busby's basic setup elements is that the U.S. government got to the point where it was unable to function financially. So the multinational corporations took over running everything. Every four years there would be a bidding round to see which of them would govern the country. In the Hulzein timeline, this would have begun sometime in the '80s or so.

One of the corporations was called the Synthetic Foods Combine. They annexed Canada and Mexico (the books don't say how). Then in 2004, United Energy & Transport (UET) won the bid... and stayed in power for the next 99 Earth years.

UET is the stuff of nightmares - fascism at its finest. One of the things it did right away was construct Total Welfare Centers. Anyone who was unable to stay afloat financially ended up in Welfare - literally. The Clients were taken to locked prisons where they basically became slave labor for the government. There was a tiny amount of money credited to the Client's account, and the theory was that the Client could save up enough to buy out and be free again. But the system was set up so that this was basically impossible.

One of the main series characters, Rissa Kerguelen, was put into Welfare at the age of 5 (yep, age was no barrier). By the time that happened, UET had been in power for 28 years and 30% of the population was in Total Welfare. It wasn't only people in financial difficulties by that time; Welfare also contained political prisoners and pretty much anyone convicted of a crime that didn't carry the death penalty.

By this time UET is in control of most of Earth. The only holdouts are Australia and Argentina (where the Hulzein Establishment is in control).

What also happened in 2004 was an alien spaceship crash in Oregon. UET investigated, killed the aliens, reverse-engineered the ship, and started the Space Academy. They soon sent ships out to explore and colonize (since Earth was really overcrowded; that's part of what led to the downfall of the U.S. government in the first place; it couldn't afford to take care of everyone).

But some of the ships never came back, and word got around that they'd mutinied and were setting up their own colonies on planets UET didn't know about. Another of the main characters is the captain of one of these Escaped Ships.

One thing Busby did in this series was make space travel STL and use time dilation as a major plot point. A ship might spend a year subjective time traveling from one planet to another, but on the planet itself, anywhere from 10-20 years might pass. So there are a few situations where people who are originally the same age end up with vastly different ages, if one travels on a ship and the other doesn't.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 08, 2016, 06:45:10 AM

Day 7 total: 3735 words. I've started on one of the short stories that occurred to me a couple of days ago.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 09, 2016, 06:43:59 AM

Day 8 total: 4121 words. I'm still working on the short story, and hope to finish it this weekend. Then it's back to prep work for some of the others.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Dio on April 10, 2016, 02:37:29 AM

It sounds interesting except that it requires a huge time commitment that I cannot make at the moment.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 10, 2016, 07:01:14 AM

Day 9 total: 4576 words. I got so involved in a YT argument with someone, I nearly missed my deadline.

Quote from: Dio on April 10, 2016, 02:37:29 AM

It sounds interesting except that it requires a huge time commitment that I cannot make at the moment.

The time commitment sounds huge, but really isn't. You're allowed to prepare beforehand, which is what I usually do.

I did my word count tonight in less than 20 minutes. Even if I were going for the full 50,000 words instead of a modest 10,000, it still would have taken less than an hour.

Some people go into NaNoWriMo cold, but that's not something I can do. I usually do a month's preparation beforehand - making notes and outlines, deciding where the story is going to start, where it's going to end, and a few highlights along the way. After that, it's trying to make sure things lead more or less in that direction.

Sometimes it doesn't, though. Some characters get ideas of their own, and next thing you know, you've got a subplot you never intended.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 11, 2016, 05:32:53 AM

Day 10 total: 5064 words. More than halfway done, word count-wise. I'll keep going for the whole month, though.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 12, 2016, 06:48:22 AM

Day 11 total: 5528 words.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Dio on April 12, 2016, 03:26:27 PM

The whole project sounds as though it prepares a individual to write a master's dissertation. :)

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 13, 2016, 06:36:19 AM

Quote from: Dio on April 12, 2016, 03:26:27 PM

The whole project sounds as though it prepares a individual to write a master's dissertation. :)

It can be that complicated.  :) For me, this is part prep work to do a small Wiki for the series, and part actual story-writing. I'm not someone who just makes up details that aren't at least plausible extrapolations of the source material, so this is mostly to help me with future stories and I won't have to keep looking up details. And if any other Busby fans find it interesting or useful, that's great. There's someone on Livejournal who posted years ago that he was frustrated at not being able to find any Hulzein Saga fanfic. I'd like to be able to remedy that situation, as it's something that frustrated me as well. I'd have thought that somebody would have written some by now...

Anyway, It's Day 12. Word count is 6200. I'll be three-quarters of the way to the end goal before the end of the week, though the project itself will still have a long way to go. I started another story yesterday that's still in longhand form (it helps to keep some looseleaf and a pen by the chair while I'm watching TV, so I can do a few sentences during the commercials). That one isn't part of the totals I've been reporting here, though it will be once I get it typed up and added to the other material.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 14, 2016, 06:30:31 AM

Day 13 total: 6893 words. That's for the material I'm doing on my computer, and I also got a couple of handwritten pages done on the other story.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Rusty Edge on April 14, 2016, 03:53:19 PM

Okay. I'll give it a shot. 10,000 words sounds like a bit much for my aspirations of a short story, but the month has a head start on me, so maybe it will work out about right. I am in the process of re-reading the stories, writing notes that evolve into paragraphs or dialogue, re-reading and re-writing what I've written.

I don't have an Office program, because I see my machine as being for gaming and e-mail. I write in e-mail drafts, so word count is awkward. I don't write in linear fashion, I start with a premise and plot and develop it.  Too many distractions at the moment for a word count, but I'll get back to that today.

I'll be traveling again by the end of the month, so who knows? Regardless, this is a move forward.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 14, 2016, 08:37:08 PM

10,000 is 334 words/day. I can knock that out in 20 minutes.

I usually do more than 334 words/day, though.

You don't have to have a specific program. I use Open Office but have to do more words because that program counts differently from how NaNo counts.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Rusty Edge on April 14, 2016, 10:30:41 PM

Just added a 366 word anecdote. Great idea about the wiki, Valka. It's helpful with details I forgot, and a link to a World of the Ptavvs wiki, even if there are some new wrinkles revealed in the Man-Kzin Wars. Oh well, better to find out now while there's still time to change things without starting over. I'm going to get back to my research, then re-consider my assumptions.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 15, 2016, 06:26:21 AM

Day 14 total: 7355 words.

My writing streak tonight got interrupted by another false fire alarm.  :mad:


@Rusty Edge: I'm glad you found a wiki. :) Most of the popular series have something, though sometimes they're out of date. Way back about 10-12 years ago I found a Darkover wiki in progress, and they were asking for volunteers to help. Since I'd already started writing one by hand years before and knew the series very well, I replied... but never heard back. I've no idea if that site even exists anymore.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 16, 2016, 06:32:57 AM

Day 15 total: 7907 words. I'm working on two stories simultaneously now, and have just typed up the first two pages of the one that I've been writing in longhand.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Rusty Edge on April 17, 2016, 03:51:34 AM

Didn't write much yesterday, did some more corrections to fit the wiki. A bit of googling some science.
Between previous writings, rewritings, and what I wrote today, I have a total of 2,185 words.

I still have some details to reconcile between my plot and the wiki, and need to give it more thought. I'd like to keep it as another Known Space short story, and not allow it to grow into a  novel to solve the problems. That's for Larry to do, not me. 

More dialogue and monologue than action, really. Do you think that's a problem?

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 17, 2016, 03:59:20 AM

...I couldn't say without knowing more...

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Rusty Edge on April 17, 2016, 06:26:28 AM

Quote from: BUncle on April 17, 2016, 03:59:20 AM

...I couldn't say without knowing more...

I understand. I'm doing this more as a progress report at this point, to keep me focused. But since you want to help -
 I want your input on this excerpt,  which serves two purposes, 1) Niven stories usually have some anecdote about future styles, such as nudity, Belter hair styles, asymmetrical Wunderland beards, etc. 2) This is essentially my attempt to rationalize why people in the future smoke so much in Known Space.

The main character in this story is Garvey ( from The Handicapped ). It is told from his perspective. In this scene he is talking with his great grandfather, affectionately known as "G Squared".

"Take this, it came from the Belt, you can have it if you don't ask any other questions of me," G-squared said, handing me what must have been an open stasis box, apparently smuggled, which he had taken from his desk drawer. It contained a plasticized claw with 4 fingers, some cubes of meat, an electronic device, an empty drinking bulb, and a canister of amber beverage. "It should provide some clues in your quest. The labs say the meat is toxic and the bottle contains a unique ethanol liqueur. "

"Truth be told, I'd rather smoke than drink," continued G-squared.

"How has this dangerous smoking habit endured in humanity for over a thousand years, if you don't mind my asking? It doesn't make sense that it would," I said, following his lead and changing the subject.

"I suppose not. You might have reasonably expected the habit to die out with the smokers after the Surgeon General's warning first appeared on the product, and they banned advertising from TV, around the time of the Moon landing. Maybe they should have outlawed it altogether, but Prohibition on alcohol didn't work, and besides, the government was a partner in crime with the tobacco companies through vice taxes. So it survived.

" Well, obviously it's an acquired taste, but an addictive one. Like all acquired tastes, the pleasure exceeds the pain, at least in the short to intermediate term. So a lot of people continued to smoke, and a lot of people got curious enough to find out for themselves. Meanwhile the commercial interests were trying to revise their business plan with healthier, smokeless, and electronic versions of cigarettes, to grant themselves an extension. When marijuana was decriminalized in the early 21st century, the big tobacco interests muscled in, and added tobacco to regulate the strength of the product, and make it more addictive, too.

"Eventually medicine caught up, and you could use the auto doc at the pharmacy every week when you dropped by to pick up your cigarette supply, neutralizing most of the harmful effects.

"But the biggest reason smoking survived the intervening centuries was those kidnapping organ legger gangs. To them, a person was either a potential product or a potential black market customer, and smokers make way better customers than marketable product."




I went slack jawed. "Damned if you do, and damned if you don't!"

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 17, 2016, 07:05:56 AM

Day 16 total: 8341 words. I barely made it (got into an argument over on CFC and then the cat threw up...).

@Rusty Edge: I got right into your excerpt, even though I don't have a clue who the characters are or what the story is about. It's been many years since I last read any Known Space stories.

The only things you need to be aware of with paragraphs that consist only of dialogue is that you should occasionally remind the reader of who is speaking and have the character do something besides speak. Have the speaker sit, stand, take a drink of something - any small thing to give the reader an indication that the speaker isn't standing center stage making a speech, and making sure the reader doesn't get confused as to who is speaking.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Rusty Edge on April 17, 2016, 06:02:13 PM

Thanks, Valka.

The characters only appeared in one short story," The Handicapped." They had a family business, making dolphin hands, and other prosthetics for sentient species who were unable to do things like
use tools or communicate audibly.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 17, 2016, 08:00:29 PM

...I would have guessed that it was either/and the bad health effects being cured -which you mentioned, though someone probably bread a non-toxic tobacco, too- or a gesture of libertarian civil disobedience on the part of Belters against an oppressive Earth authority that caught on as a fashion...  Spread back to the Flatlanders, what with heroic (smoking - there was a brief vogue for actual authenticity in entertainment for a while) Belters so often being the protagonists of adventure vids.  After a while when the autodocs got good enough, the authorities gave up fighting it...

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Rusty Edge on April 17, 2016, 10:07:27 PM

Quote from: BUncle on April 17, 2016, 08:00:29 PM

...I would have guessed that it was either/and the bad health effects being cured -which you mentioned, though someone probably bread a non-toxic tobacco, too- or a gesture of libertarian civil disobedience on the part of Belters against an oppressive Earth authority that caught on as a fashion...  Spread back to the Flatlanders, what with heroic (smoking - there was a brief vogue for actual authenticity in entertainment for a while) Belters so often being the protagonists of adventure vids.  After a while when the autodocs got good enough, the authorities gave up fighting it...

Your way is more plausible. My way, is more Nivenesque in an "Ethics of Madness" / "Safe at Any Speed" kind of way. Ironically, people smoke to prolong their life.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 17, 2016, 10:18:08 PM

I dunno - he never did much more with it, but the mutual antagonism between Earth and the Belt was a major plot-point in World of Ptavvs - so there was definitely a time when it would have made perfect sense in that universe...

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 17, 2016, 11:50:24 PM

Hmm. All this talk of smoking makes me realize I have a decision to make. Drugsticks are part of the Hulzein Saga but I really don't want to write about them...

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 18, 2016, 07:23:07 AM

Day 17 total: 8851 words.

I ran out of prepared notes for tonight's material and am currently winging it.

Hopefully a better idea occurs to me than the stuff that just got written.  :-\

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Dio on April 18, 2016, 02:01:59 PM

Quote from: Valka on April 17, 2016, 11:50:24 PM

Hmm. All this talk of smoking makes me realize I have a decision to make. Drugsticks are part of the Hulzein Saga but I really don't want to write about them...

But. But. The presence of drugs and sex often appear in the majority of adult fiction and make the piece read in a slightly more crass manner. A memorable line from a novel involves a character that literally [intercourses] themselves to death because of an artificial drug. :D

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 18, 2016, 06:42:45 PM

Quote from: Dio on April 18, 2016, 02:01:59 PM

Quote from: Valka on April 17, 2016, 11:50:24 PM

Hmm. All this talk of smoking makes me realize I have a decision to make. Drugsticks are part of the Hulzein Saga but I really don't want to write about them...

But. But. The presence of drugs and sex often appear in the majority of adult fiction and make the piece read in a slightly more crass manner. A memorable line from a novel involves a character that literally [intercourses] themselves to death because of an artificial drug. :D

Since my project involves a wiki and fanfic of someone else's work and parts of the story from another character's pov, that's meant one rape scene already - of a 14-year-old girl. It's not the only incident between those two characters, and since they had long-lasting consequences for the girl, I decided to do a story where the rapist gets his long-overdue punishment. Busby let him get away with this and other crimes, but I won't.

Some would consider this story to be child porn and miss the reason for writing it.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 19, 2016, 05:59:42 AM

Day 18 total: 9430 words. The website informs me that to finish on time, I will need to write 44 words per day for the rest of the month.

I daresay I can wrap up the word count part of this project by the end of the week. I'm still going to keep on, though, because that's not going to be anywhere near enough room to really finish.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Rusty Edge on April 19, 2016, 08:07:35 PM

I've been putting time and thought into it, but I don't have a word count, but I plan to do that today. I tried to incorporate the advice. I think I could post the beginning of the story in draft form  somewhere.

So, should I start a thread in the Author's forum? I don't have a title for it yet.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 19, 2016, 08:15:33 PM

You may start a thread in Planet Tales or Adult Fiction, whichever you feel is more appropriate.

I assume thread titles can be edited, so if you want it changed later, that shouldn't be a problem.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 19, 2016, 08:53:07 PM

He can edit the title himself, in fact - just edit the OP.

I pointed out the possibility of using Adult Fiction as a somewhat private place, if Rusty wants to workshop it.  It can always be moved later.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Dio on April 20, 2016, 02:44:44 AM

I find titles easy to create for a written work.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 20, 2016, 03:07:53 AM

^Writing-related posts only, please.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 20, 2016, 06:49:54 AM

Day 19 total: 9804 words. I will be finished my 10,000 minimum by tomorrow night.

It's going to be a hard scene to write, though... my character is being told of the deaths of his sister and brother-in-law and then he has to go to their home and tell their kids.

At which point the psycho government these people live under promptly takes the kids into custody and hauls them off to Total Welfare, where they spend the next 10+ years of their lives.

Not all fanfic is cheerful, unfortunately...  :-\

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Rusty Edge on April 20, 2016, 07:23:24 AM

Well my word count is 3,453. I'm sure that's not exact, but I hope it's accurate.  I began thinking the story would be around 6,000 words. Then I realized I'd should explain the terms, that's what Niven does, and my wife, at least, asked to read this when I'm finished, and she hasn't read the author.
So she doesn't know the races, planets, et cetera, in Known Space. I've drafted most of the stuff I had for my written notes. Now more has to come out of my imagination/memory and onto the screen.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 21, 2016, 06:51:01 AM

Day 20 total: 10,164 words. That's by the word counter in the program I use (Open Office). NaNoWriMo counts words differently, so to make absolutely sure I've got the full 10,000 I'm going to keep going.

I got an email this morning from the NaNo site; they're accepting word count validations now. It's too early for me, but I imagine plenty of people have already validated.

The email says:

Quote

Winning has officially begun! Whether you're hours or days away from reaching your creative goal, we believe in you—keep writing! Once you do hit your goal, here's what comes next.How to Win Camp NaNoWriMo

• Reach your word-count goal.
• Click the "Validate Word Count" button at the top of the Camp NaNoWriMo site.
  • Don't see the button? Make sure your time zone setting is correct (http://campnanowrimo.org/user/settings).
  <snip graphics>
• Copy and paste your project into the pop-up window, then click "Validate". (Your project will not be saved to our site after being validated.)

Make sure to validate your win by midnight on April 30!

Why should you validate your win?

Because you achieved something incredible, and worth celebrating!

Official winners also receive a beautiful winner's certificate designed by DangerDom Studios, awesome winner goodies from our sponsors, a coupon to the Camp NaNoWriMo store, and, most importantly, unimpeachable bragging rights.

Waiting to celebrate your bountiful harvest,

Tim Kim
Director of Communications

I didn't get anything from their online store last time because of the shipping charges to Canada. Some of the downloadable writers' guides and other things are helpful, though.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Rusty Edge on April 22, 2016, 03:41:11 AM

Let's see, new stuff from yesterday and today- 1718 words.

At this point, I'm thinking I have 3 more scenes and an epilogue.

*Wunderland

*Institute of Jinx

*Lowlands of Jinx

*Epilogue

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 22, 2016, 03:51:05 AM

-And I keep giving him more homework...

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 22, 2016, 06:52:29 AM

Day 21 total: 10,507 words. I've hit a bit of a snag, trying to guess what was in Busby's mind when he wrote certain paragraphs. I have to figure out how some characters found out certain details that weren't public knowledge.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 22, 2016, 02:01:53 PM

Congratulations on already being ahead.  -And it sounds like you're getting something substantial done out of it, to boot. ;b;

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 23, 2016, 07:00:17 AM

Thank you.  :D

Day 22 total: 10,873 words. I had to rewrite some of it, as I realized that I veered off from the author's canon, and then I hit one of those situations where the protagonist somehow knew a piece of information that hadn't been mentioned on the news. So I had to figure out how he found out, which required a rewrite of part of what I wrote yesterday.

That's okay, though - the story makes more sense now, and I got to introduce a member of the Committee Police, who may or may not show up later. I didn't bother giving her a name yet.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 24, 2016, 06:38:58 AM

Day 23 total: 11,234 words. This was a tough one to write, dealing with a fascist police force gassing an entire building full of people. Hopefully my online research into nerve gas doesn't make anyone wonder if I'm a terrorist...

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 25, 2016, 06:44:20 AM

Day 24 total: 11,637 words. It's a good thing I've got my minimum because I've hit that Week 3 oh-my-god-is-this-ever-gonna-be-over stage. It's getting harder now to make the story go forward.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 26, 2016, 06:36:57 AM

Day 25 total: 12,243 words.

Busby could have used a wiki of his own work. I just found a HUGE continuity error.

Dammit.

 :mad:

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 27, 2016, 06:11:02 AM

Day 26 total: 12,760 words. I'll be over 13,000 by this time tomorrow.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 28, 2016, 06:02:35 AM

Day 27 total: 13,220 words. I've passed the word count I had the last time I did this.

Tonight's material was pretty depressing stuff, though.  :-\

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Rusty Edge on April 28, 2016, 08:16:16 PM

Quote from: Valka on April 26, 2016, 06:36:57 AM

Day 25 total: 12,243 words.

Busby could have used a wiki of his own work. I just found a HUGE continuity error.

Dammit.

 :mad:

Reminds me of Stephen King's Gunslinger novels. I started reading the first one on the recommendation of my best friend. I thought of it as the novel King was born to write, once he was sufficiently experienced. All that had gone before was simply practice. I thought it would become the "The Great American Novel", and then discovered continuity errors between books. Maybe it wasn't HUGE, as far as changing the outcome, but since it was about which handgun a character had, it was glaring in a "I forgot which ship they were using in that Star Trek or Horatio Hornblower novel" sort of way.

Or maybe it's like changing the main weapon of one of the characters in a game of Dungeons and Dragons or something.

Anyway, I got the distinct impression that King wasn't keeping notes and couldn't be bothered to re-read the last two books before writing the next one. Well, maybe in this age of e-books where things can magically get "updated", it has already been fixed. Who knows if I'll ever bother to read his stuff again until I'm senile.

****
I've got a decent internet connection again. I have been working on my story, and  I'm up to the climactic scene. It will be more of a Charlie Chan or Sherlock Holmes style AHA! moment than an action sequence. I'm awaiting delivery here of a Niven book that may have a bearing on my story, although I think it will be more in terms of description. I've also been re-writing, trying to give each character a different "voice," so I have no clue about the word count.

As an example, the great grandfather uses the terms "Bleep!" and "cigarette", while the younger characters who are almost contemporary with Louis Wu according to Known Space timeline use the terms "TANJ!" and "tabac sticks"

I guess at this point, each session I'll simply continue to read through my entire story so far, then start writing. At least that should polish the continuity and make sure that all of the questions raised are resolved. I'll get my ideas down in text and then keep working on them.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 29, 2016, 05:44:46 AM

Day 28 total: 13,629 words. I'm really going to push this for the next couple of days and try to make it to 15,000. That will be less than my personal best for the November event (minimum 50,000 words required; my best in that is somewhat over 22,000 words), but more than the last time I finished a Camp event.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on April 30, 2016, 06:11:22 AM

Day 29 total: 14,222 words.

Well, by this time tomorrow, it will all be over. Then will come the real challenge: To keep this up.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on May 01, 2016, 07:15:57 AM

YAY, I DID IT!!!

By my count, on Day 30, I ended up with 15,629 words. Because the NaNo site counts words differently, I was only credited for 15,605 of them.

But still... it's better than I could have hoped for when I started this 30 days ago. I've already downloaded the free winner's goodies (various sized badges that can be used as avatars or sig images; I won't do that here, though since I'm partial to my sig and avatar ;)).

If anyone is interested, here is the daily word count graph they do for everyone. I did more than the minimum every single day, and really pushed today. I'll also post the badges:

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Buster's Uncle on May 01, 2016, 01:32:26 PM

  :wave::1st: :unworthy: :adore: ;worship :1st: :wave:

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on May 02, 2016, 08:12:14 AM

*curtseys*

I didn't write a word on the story tonight. Not one word.

I did, however, continue making notes for when I do continue it.

And I found another whopper of a continuity error... this time from the SAME BOOK.

Honestly, how did Busby not realize that he had such a discrepancy in a specific character's age? There's no way that Camilla Altworth could simultaneously be in her 40s and 20s unless she went off-world and had two ages (7 of the 8 Hulzein Saga novels have STL travel for their spaceships and relativity plays a huge part of the plot in all of them, even the novel that does use FTL). Since she spent her entire life on Earth, even if I went with the most extreme interpretations of how young people could possibly be when they marry and have children (16 is legal age in these books), it still wouldn't reconcile.

Apparently when he wrote these books, he didn't expect that nearly 40 years later one of his fans would dissect them paragraph by paragraph...

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Rusty Edge on May 04, 2016, 03:28:58 AM

I was comparing the problem of changing facts that have ripple effects on my re-writes to having a mischief making time traveler on the loose. It happened this way...but now it's not!

If we can separate the author errors from what you've admirably accomplished for a moment-

How do you feel about your story?  ( No I didn't intend to sound like that computer testing Spock in the movie )

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on May 04, 2016, 03:56:29 AM

I'm actually rather pleased with it. The wiki portion is off to a good start (in the data gathering stage right now; to do a real wiki I'd need to refresh my memory on those as it's been a long time since the last one I worked on), and I've managed to get going on stories I've wanted to tell for over 25 years. I think it's good that I waited, because I really wasn't as knowledgeable about some things back then as I am now.

There are so many secondary and tertiary characters in these books with interesting backstories or incidents that happened to them, and since Busby didn't think they were worth writing about, I finally figured out that if I want a story about a certain character or event, I'm going to have to do it myself. I've searched online, and nobody else has posted Hulzein Saga fanfic. The only reference I ever found was a forlorn post on LiveJournal years ago, from a fan who was in the same boat as me - looking for information.

I'm fleshing out some of these characters, extrapolating the parts of their lives that were just mentioned in passing or glossed over entirely, and it's interesting to see where that leads. Sometimes the story is going places I hadn't originally intended, but it seems that some of the characters had other plans.

Of course I'm concerned about where it would be appropriate to post some of this material. Because this is a gritty series that takes place in a dystopian future and Earth is mostly governed by a facist dictatorship that cares absolutely nothing for the rights of women, children, or the poor, there are some things that would be inappropriate to post on a site like fanfiction.net. They would very likely remove any story that goes into child rape and incest, but that's a key part of three of the main characters' lives. I can't do this justice by ignoring these parts of what Busby wrote.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Buster's Uncle on May 04, 2016, 04:10:02 AM

Post here, of course - Adult Fiction, if it's all that dicey.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Valka on May 04, 2016, 04:17:52 AM

It is. And there are instances of the word "fuddle-duddle."  :-\

That's not my normal style of writing. But it's a normal part of some of the characters' dialogue, so it's necessary in order to be true to these characters.

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Buster's Uncle on May 04, 2016, 05:00:36 AM

...That's what Adult Fiction is for...

Title: Re: NaNoWriMo - April 2016 event
Post by: Rusty Edge on May 04, 2016, 06:27:31 AM

I'm glad to hear it!
I'm starting to see that writing fan fiction is like playing Civilization, in that allows you to gain a measure of control over the universe, albeit an imaginary one, to insert some sense and justice into it  or gain a new level of understanding of it.