Fic Talk > General Discussion
The Writing Thread: Orlando Passaggio (aka The Writing Thread 3)
nicksgal:
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on April 29, 2021, 09:13:01 PM ---LOL Oh Nano... at some point, it's okay to lower your expectations and just say, "Well, at least you tried. Set a new goal and try again next month!" There's no way I could ever write 11,000 words in a day either. I think the most I've ever written in a day was like 7000-8000 words, but that would have been one of those times where I stayed up all night feverishly typing in a caffeine-fueled frenzy of inspiration. I don't think I could do that now, but back in the Broken/BMS era, maybe.
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It does after the NaNo events end, or it used to message you and say, "want to add a new goal?" at least. I can't recall what the new servers do. But that's what I've been telling myself. "If I can finish these two chapters I wanted to finish, then I will feel great about Camp NaNo even if I didn't finish PNecklace."
I think in my PBox "feverish typing" days, I would go a long time without updating and then end up writing two chapters in a night near the end, so those would have been around 6,000-8,000 words. Now that I'm a little more consistent, those multi-chapter from start to finish days don't really happen anymore. I'm much more likely to finish a chapter and start a new one, but end up finishing that second one on a different day. I think I had one weekend back in the November NaNo where I wrote most of the chapters I just finished posting. I finished chapter fourteen on Saturday and then chunked through to chapter eighteen by the end of Sunday and may have even started chapter nineteen that Sunday too. And they all ended up being some of my favorites in PNecklace overall and still are, except for chapter sixteen -- it's not bad or anything, just less fun than the awesome chapters surrounding it.
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on April 29, 2021, 09:13:01 PM ---This was an interesting prompt, something I've never really thought about before. I write mostly realistic fiction, so magic is not an element I use often. But now that I think about it, I have incorporated some of those small fantastical elements into otherwise realistic stories through dreams and/or hallucinations that have some kind of symbolic purpose. I've used both in MBK, and AHTIM had a whole subplot that played out in a series of near-death experience "dreams." Those work for me because, while fantastical, they can still be explained as figments of the sleeping/unconscious/drug-addled brain.
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I thought it was interesting too! Fantastic elements and speculative fiction are obviously things I think about a lot, but I thought it was true: sometimes there's magic in the mundane even if it doesn't seem like magic at first glance. So I was curious on everyone else's thoughts.
I think it's fitting that dreams and/or hallucinations would be your fantastic element, because you're right, it's this crazy part of the brain that we don't really have a lot of research on the "why" of it, so it's in this gray area. And how much we really remember about our dreams is fuzzy at best. It's usually a picture or a word or two, but not prolonged details. I think dreams are really interesting.
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on April 29, 2021, 09:13:01 PM ---LOL Good luck with that!
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10,186 words to go today! lol
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on April 29, 2021, 09:15:31 PM ---So here's what I get for succumbing to the temptation to take a nap at 6 p.m. I woke up at 7:20 in a total panic, thinking it was 7:20 in the morning and I'd overslept. That is literally the latest I can leave my house and still make it to work on time. Thankfully, I only made it as far as the bathroom before I realized it was still evening and I'd only slept for an hour LOL.
Here's hoping my nap will help me get some writing done in the next hour or so.
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Oh no!!!! That was my greatest fear when I worked at a bakery and it happened to me a lot, lol. So I made the switch the 24-hour clock and never looked back. Then there's no question of whether you slept for an hour (18 to 19:20) or did in fact sleep straight through to the morning. I once got in the shower and found new clothes while frantically brushing my teeth before I looked outside and saw that it was night time, lol.
I believe in you! You'll make your goal!
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: nicksgal on April 29, 2021, 09:50:49 PM ---It does after the NaNo events end, or it used to message you and say, "want to add a new goal?" at least. I can't recall what the new servers do. But that's what I've been telling myself. "If I can finish these two chapters I wanted to finish, then I will feel great about Camp NaNo even if I didn't finish PNecklace."
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Good for you! You should feel great! You've written almost double what I have, and your goal was three times mine LOL.
I was ready to give up for the night an hour ago, but I kept pushing myself to write another sentence, and I ended up with 449 words instead of the 67 I was on when I wanted to stop LOL. I'm now within 1,000 words of my goal, so wish me luck that tomorrow night's writing session goes well! Even if I don't make it, I've written more this month than I probably would have without Nano, especially the past two weeks. On nights like this, I would have quit much sooner if I didn't have a goal beyond writing at least one word a day LOL.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on April 29, 2021, 09:50:49 PM ---I think in my PBox "feverish typing" days, I would go a long time without updating and then end up writing two chapters in a night near the end, so those would have been around 6,000-8,000 words. Now that I'm a little more consistent, those multi-chapter from start to finish days don't really happen anymore. I'm much more likely to finish a chapter and start a new one, but end up finishing that second one on a different day. I think I had one weekend back in the November NaNo where I wrote most of the chapters I just finished posting. I finished chapter fourteen on Saturday and then chunked through to chapter eighteen by the end of Sunday and may have even started chapter nineteen that Sunday too. And they all ended up being some of my favorites in PNecklace overall and still are, except for chapter sixteen -- it's not bad or anything, just less fun than the awesome chapters surrounding it.
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Wow, 4-5 chapters in a weekend! That's impressive! I haven't had a two-chapter day in a long, long time. These days if I can finish one whole chapter in a day, that is a rare feat. But as long as I'm writing consistently, it doesn't matter. Like you said, we're still more productive that way than when we would have bursts of inspiration followed by weeks without writing anything.
Sometimes those chapters I write all at once do end up being my favorites because they're usually emotional and exciting, or I wouldn't be as inspired to keep writing and writing. But usually the day after one of those late night marathon writing sessions, I wake up and am like, "WTF did I even write last night?" Then I'm afraid to read it, in case it's nothing but a series of delirious ramblings LOL.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on April 29, 2021, 09:50:49 PM ---I think it's fitting that dreams and/or hallucinations would be your fantastic element, because you're right, it's this crazy part of the brain that we don't really have a lot of research on the "why" of it, so it's in this gray area. And how much we really remember about our dreams is fuzzy at best. It's usually a picture or a word or two, but not prolonged details. I think dreams are really interesting.
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Absolutely! It is interesting, and even if we don't usually remember our dreams in great detail when we wake up, they can still be described in great detail in a story. And then sometimes we do have those really vivid dreams that linger even after we wake up.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on April 29, 2021, 09:50:49 PM ---Oh no!!!! That was my greatest fear when I worked at a bakery and it happened to me a lot, lol. So I made the switch the 24-hour clock and never looked back. Then there's no question of whether you slept for an hour (18 to 19:20) or did in fact sleep straight through to the morning. I once got in the shower and found new clothes while frantically brushing my teeth before I looked outside and saw that it was night time, lol.
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I used to do that a lot, wake up in the middle of the night thinking it was morning and start getting ready, only to realize it was like 2 a.m. Sometimes I didn't realize it until after I'd already showered and had to go back to bed with wet hair LOL. It was probably stress-related.
Once of my Facebook friends, a girl I went to college with who's also a teacher, posted about doing the same thing, except she went as far as packing her lunch and driving halfway to work before she realized it was only one in the morning LOL.
nicksgal:
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on April 29, 2021, 11:02:53 PM ---Good for you! You should feel great! You've written almost double what I have, and your goal was three times mine LOL.
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I just really wanted to finish, haha. I wish all of those words were for new chapters and not whatever I felt like writing or editing. I did finish up four chapters so far though, plus one and a half OF PBox chapters. I probably also have about 1,000 words left to write (I read everything and then respond, lol), so let's cheer each other on tomorrow! :)
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on April 29, 2021, 11:02:53 PM ---I was ready to give up for the night an hour ago, but I kept pushing myself to write another sentence, and I ended up with 449 words instead of the 67 I was on when I wanted to stop LOL. I'm now within 1,000 words of my goal, so wish me luck that tomorrow night's writing session goes well! Even if I don't make it, I've written more this month than I probably would have without Nano, especially the past two weeks. On nights like this, I would have quit much sooner if I didn't have a goal beyond writing at least one word a day LOL.
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I'm glad the push was worth it! Sometimes I do that too and sometimes, I just let myself stop. That's a lot of my 100 or less word days in the middle of the week. I'm glad you found it productive and sustainable. That's what I like about the camp months, setting my own goal. It makes it a little more writer focused and less "first draft of a novel feeling." Don't get me wrong, I was super happy about my almost 52,000 words in November, but this is nice too, though I probably should have been more realistic and picked 40,000, lol. Next month's goal is a little less than 42,000 words. I will finish this novel. The end is near, lol.
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on April 29, 2021, 11:02:53 PM ---Wow, 4-5 chapters in a weekend! That's impressive! I haven't had a two-chapter day in a long, long time. These days if I can finish one whole chapter in a day, that is a rare feat. But as long as I'm writing consistently, it doesn't matter. Like you said, we're still more productive that way than when we would have bursts of inspiration followed by weeks without writing anything.
Sometimes those chapters I write all at once do end up being my favorites because they're usually emotional and exciting, or I wouldn't be as inspired to keep writing and writing. But usually the day after one of those late night marathon writing sessions, I wake up and am like, "WTF did I even write last night?" Then I'm afraid to read it, in case it's nothing but a series of delirious ramblings LOL.
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I'm a little bummed it hasn't happened again, but it was an accomplishment! I'm the same as you, finishing one chapter in a day start to finish would be awesome. I think I average four to seven days per chapter? During NaNo I was doing two or three days per chapter depending on how much of it was already written from random bursts of inspiration, but it was very tiring. I'm not sure how I thought I could do it again, lol. I agree, the consistency is what's key now. We're consistent and ahead of ourselves, that makes the product we put out much more reliable.
Yes! They're the author excitement ones for sure! I usually fear the same and end up rereading everything I wrote in the last writing session for that reason, but I didn't let myself do it that weekend or any of the other times I've written chapters back-to-back because I worry it would destroy my groove. But, then after the groove is gone, I typically go back and hack and slash a lot of it.
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on April 29, 2021, 11:02:53 PM ---Absolutely! It is interesting, and even if we don't usually remember our dreams in great detail when we wake up, they can still be described in great detail in a story. And then sometimes we do have those really vivid dreams that linger even after we wake up.
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Those are my favorites when they happen. Though most of them these days are the anxiety fueled ones, unfortunately.
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on April 29, 2021, 11:02:53 PM ---I used to do that a lot, wake up in the middle of the night thinking it was morning and start getting ready, only to realize it was like 2 a.m. Sometimes I didn't realize it until after I'd already showered and had to go back to bed with wet hair LOL. It was probably stress-related.
Once of my Facebook friends, a girl I went to college with who's also a teacher, posted about doing the same thing, except she went as far as packing her lunch and driving halfway to work before she realized it was only one in the morning LOL.
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Oh I'm sure. After my bakery stint, I always look at my phone and nine times out of ten, I do not have to panic. When it's time to panic though, I definitely panic.
Oh no!!!!! That poor friend! That's even worse than getting in the shower! Thankfully, I have never gotten as far as my car, let alone my coffee when that has happened.
nicksgal:
Alright, today NaNo says I need 20,238 words to make my goal from the beginning of the month. Wish me luck. ;)
In reality, I'm calling it a win if I finish two scenes I have in progress and write four more short ones to finish the two chapters I wanted to complete. I'm around and writing if anyone feels a word sprint calling them, so just holler.
nicksgal:
Alright, 1,400 words down and one chapter finished! I think I may be able to finish my other in progress chapter as well. ;D Back to the grind. Hope everyone's having a great writing night on this last day of Camp NaNo.
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