Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire

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Welcome to the end of Nanowrimo.

Today is November 30th. For those of you who have been busting your asses to survive National Novel Writing Month, this is it; this is where the deadline looms, and you suddenly scream "BUT I'M NOT READY!" as you begin frantically paddling your boat backward up the stream.

...or maybe that's just me when I see a deadline looming. We all react differently. Now, I didn't participate in Nanowrimo; it's always Nanowrimo at my house, and to avoid wear and tear on the Machete Squad, I'm usually rotating two to four projects at any one time, allowing me to deliver them the next segment for review in a convenient 10,000 to 30,000 word chunk, rather than dropping a complete unedited novel on them every few months. But I respect the people who decide to find out first-hand how difficult it is to write a single full-length work. And in honor of your efforts, here are some links you might find helpful.

First off, here are my fifty thoughts on writing, many of which have been turned into essays. Some of them may strike you as useful. And if you're really morbidly curious, here are fifty more thoughts on writing, bringing it to an even hundred. I am not currently planning to turn the second set into essays. That way lies madness.

Now that you're living in Writerland, you may want to reference this handy phrasebook to help you get around. If you've been here before, this more advanced phrasebook may be what you're looking for.

And of course, wear sunscreen, and do research. (I don't care if "Sunscreen" parodies are no longer cool. I am not fixated on cool.)

Happy writing!
Tags: editing, geekiness, silliness, writing
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  • 43 comments
What blows my tiny little brain is how I can write 2500 words in an hour whenever I get writing--but I still never finished Nanowrimo.
We are weird creatures.
I know writing is hard work! I know how hard it can be. Please do not punch me in the face over coming too close to:

You Say: "I always wanted to be a writer."
We Hear: "How hard can it be?"
I won't punch. :)
I'm about 1100 words away from finishing and I feel like the very beginning of my story is good and the very end... but the middle from like chapter 4 to chapter 26 is a quagmire of muddled thought and plot holes. A bog of eternal writing stench if you will.

>.>

But it was fun to put forth the attempt.
*gets out the pompoms.* YAY!

nightfalltwen

5 years ago

winters_queen

5 years ago

stasia

5 years ago

seanan_mcguire

5 years ago

I LOVE THE SUNSCREEN JOKES OK.

i think people forget this exists:

Sunscreen parodies - and the above song - will ALWAYS be cool in my head.

rhodielady_47

5 years ago

seanan_mcguire

5 years ago

I need to find me some radioactive scorpions.

And I think this is the first year that I actually crossed 50k early. There have been many years of the flailing arms and running around in circles, screaming that I'm not going to make it.
YAY!

Go team you!
maybe that's just me when I see a deadline looming

That seems to be the case for a few writers I know.
We are panic-driven creatures.
I finished yesterday and this is my 4th completed - 3 in a row.

So I have the bare bones of a nice little English fantasy series if I choose to go that route, which isn't a burning ambition. I just find I need to let my muse out to play every so often and I have at least one non-fiction project I am suppose to be working on with some folk in London.

Still I have more confidence after reading Herbie Brennan's books that it isn't impossible to work the fiction/non-fiction divide. NaNoWriMo has helped me gain confidence in writing dialogue - the magic comes easy.
Awesome!
Well, I completely blew off Nano this year just because my brain was not functioning. This is the first time in. Well. A decade that I haven't completed it and honestly, I don't care. What I care about is having a novel doing the rounds with agents.

And now I wait for the inevitable hilarity that comes when people immediately try to submit their Nano as a novel to agents/publishers without revisions come 1 December.
And now I wait for the inevitable hilarity that comes when people immediately try to submit their Nano as a novel to agents/publishers without revisions come 1 December.

People do that? o.O

I had to stop posting chapters of my NaNo on my livejournal because it got too unedited and plot hole-y. So half of it hasn't seen the light of day.

loki_dip

5 years ago

seanan_mcguire

5 years ago

I've never been this close to the deadline without finishing. I guess taking ten days off in the middle and also aiming for 100k might both be factors in that...

Anyways, I'm super-excited to bang out my last 6k. I'm really pleased with a great deal of my work this year!
Awesome!
Don't know if you've seen this...seems an appropriate segue from Nanowrimo to Christmas...and I thought "Seanan needs to know this exists!" as soon as I saw it....

http://www.etsy.com/listing/85513641/zombie-nativity-set-six-clay-figurines?ref=sr_gallery_1&ga_search_submit=&ga_search_query=zombie+nativity&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_facet=handmade
Hee, yay.
Thank you so much
Very welcome.
I wanted to do it this year, but I had 2 problems, I wasn't sure that I had the dedication or the time required to knock out 1,500 words a day and still have a life outside of it or that the idea had the legs to make a full length novel. I did force myself to sit down and write something every day for all of November, though and it kind of worked out. So much so that I'm going to keep it going through December and up the word limit. Maybe I'll even be up to 1,500 words a day by next years Nanowriomo.
Good luck to you!
Congrats to anyone who finished NaNo! I only managed 30k but I have the whole thing planned out and will keep going through December. I did rack up a death count of 6 billion though which I thought was quite fun. Now to remember that my characters don't have the microbiology / immunology knowledge that I do. :)

The links look brilliant. Bookmarking them all!
Hooray for killing six billion people!

loki_dip

5 years ago

I can't remember the author now, but I was at a writerly conference a couple of years ago, and one of the authors on the panel mentioned the, "I'm going to write a book when I'm done with working for a living" thing. All of the authors winced sympathetically. Then one of them said, "The last time someone told me that, I asked what he did for a living. He was a brain surgeon. So I said, 'When I retire, I'm going to become a brain surgeon.'"

I'm paraphrasing, obviously, but the concept stuck. I can't wait to have a chance to use it.
Heh.

So true.
Thanks for posting this! It will make for great reading this winter once I am finally done with my fall chores. (If I ever am!)
:)
Yay!
This wasn't the year, unfortunately. As in, I seriously considered starting but wisely did not attempt.

I am SO glad this month is over. And I'm also glad that my friend's baby decided she wanted to be born in November so as to make this month NOT a complete downer.
Hugs to you. I am sorry you had a bad November.
I had honest doubts about my making it, but I did. In the last 10 minutes. This breaks my "no odd years" streak. I am so happy.
Yay!