NaNoWriMo Contest

You may have a 6000 page notebook detailing all your characters, the plot, the setting etc, as long as you haven't written the actual story...so yeah, making up words is all good (:

Making up words sounds fine to me, the only bit of advise that I would give is to make up lots of small words instead of fewer big ones - that way you reach the target quicker.

Remember, it's about quantity not quality. Clueless has managed to twist my arm in to at least seriously considering trying for 50,000 words. The one thing that I can garuantee about it is that it will be utter drivel, but at least there will be more PS-related fiction.

Hands up if you are considering accepting the NaNoWriMo challenge?

I'm considering it, but i'm not entirely sure if i'll go for it yet.

For starters, that's a lot of effort to expend. And to publish i would have to go through TSR/WotC/Hasboro due to Planescape still being owned by them, at least AFAIK. (Cursed ownership of our culture!)

But so it goes.

And you could always remove the Planescape references in a later draft. And it's good to expend effort.

1180 words since shortly after Midnight, about three hours ago. It's going very well, and I like the story so far. I'm going to bed.

Don't be too down on yourself. It's really a competition against yourself... kind of like playing golf

Starting is always the difficult part. Once you've got in to the swing of things it gets easier (or so I've been told).

All the best,

Simmo
unofficial NaNoWriMo cheer-leader

"Clueless" wrote:

Yep yep - heck, most of you area probably better off than I am - with my no-outline-yet self.

I didn't bother to outline. My outline was my previous post, up there, where I listed a few things I thought I might work into it. Already the story is taking turns I didn't expect. I used a character I had been trying to write up as an NPC in the City of Brass - she works much better in a novel than as an RPG plot hook. If I hadn't used her, I would have reused a character that I've used a few times in previous stories I've written, probably with some heavy modifications.

If I get stuck, I'll just rifle through a few books and find an interesting site, sect, or monster that would work well with the plot.

Glad to hear that a number of people are going to give this contest a go. Now can everyone please start posting what they have written so far? Perhaps not every day, but how about at least once a week?

Anyway, all the best with your writing. Don't worry too much about a clearly laid out plot, editing too much (or even at all) - just keep on writing. I've made small start as well, but it's really just a planescape adaptation of another novel. Does that count? :shock:

Simmo
Unofficial NaNoWriMo cheerleader

Obviously, do what you wish, but I'd rather wait until the illustrations are done before reading it. I'm a huge believer in the effectiveness of pictures in setting a mood.

Woohoo! 1682 words! Ugh. I still can't believe it's only four pages. I'ma go drink some tea.

You seem to be making up words again. Still in NaNoWriMo mode?

Hey, it's Smeazel! Long time no smee. Good to see that you're probably involved in this.

"Clueless" wrote:

More writers! w00p!! So - when you folks going to start posting your chapters into My Planewalker? We've got a word counter and a neat 'who's ahead' tracking device...

I'll post my first 'chunk of words' this evening when I get back form language class. The book that I am adapting (quite a lot actually now that I have started writing it) is called... well, you should be able to guess it form the title:

"Around the Planes in Eighty Gates"

I'm a good few thousand words in to it already and they have yet to leave the Cage. This could take some time... probably around 25 days to finish :shock:

Actually I managed to get it off my laptop at work and to my desktop and so have submitted it to the web site.

DISCLAIMER: PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS TO REACH OR EXCEED 50,000 WORDS. THE AUTHOR TAKES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE CONTENT, QUALITY OR LEVEL OF EDITING IN THE DOCUMENT.

Sorry for shouting, but I just wanted to set the record straight that this is more of a brain-dump-style-work' of keep writing for a month than a serious attempt at a novel.

Were I to post a story here, what is the policy on "four-letter words"? There are a number of instances when one of my main characters, a Prime, reverts back to the vernacular of his homeland and I'd rather not use "blexty" when other, more pungent, words are available...

I can't get the submission form to work anymore. Before, I didn't have any problem submitting things (in Mozilla); I had to add HTML tags to make paragraphs, but at least something appeared.

Now I tried to edit what I had in My Development area, and it seemed to work at first, but every time I checked to look at what I had done after saving it all that came up was the previous version of the chapter.

So I tried submitting a new chapter and deleting the old one. Again, it seems to work fine, but after saving it and checking to see how it looks afterwards I get the title, but the text is entirely blank.

I'll try using Internet Explorer.

Edit: Okay, it worked perfectly in IE.

I sent three chapters in with Mozilla. I'm pretty sure it worked this time!

For reasons that will become obvious once I submit it, I can't post any partial progress on my story. But don't worry! Some day, it will be complete! And then... yes, my pretties, such postings will I give...

Quick question:

In the rules to the competition it states "...First one to hit minimum length in word count wins (Prize To Be Determined)..."

Will there be any prizes for the others taking part (aside from achieving the 50K word count)?

Thanks,

Simmo

I've got a number of future chapters done, but I feel like I can't post them until I "catch up" with myself.

I haven't really been planning ahead as such, but occasionally I'll get an idea that doesn't fit into this part of the book, but I think will fit into it later on. This is also a big help when I get frustrated or stuck with the part I'm working on - I'll just go on to something else, and come back to it later.

Clueless - Thanks for the answer Re: prizes. How far have you got with your writing? I.e. how many words?

Kaelyn - are you on track for making the 50K words in 30 days deadline? I'm currently quite a few thousand behind.

Anarch - hows' the writing going? I'm really curious now to see what you're working on, but I can wait until the final product comes out. As long as it's on the 30th November :twisted:

Rhapsody in Pink - I hope that the fact that you have been quiet for awhile is a sign that you are bust writing away.

Good luck everyone,

Simmo

I was on track, but I fell behind in the last week. I haven't gotten much done in the last few days, though I'm hoping to catch up over the weekend.

Woohoo! Its great to hear that you have got started on writing Smeazel. I am looking forward to reading your story.

When you submit the story it does not immediately appear on the web site. I suspect that Clueless or one of the other editors has a quick look through it to see if it complies with the contest rules or whatever it is that editors do. It should appear on the site soon. All the best

Simmo

It is not the end of the world. The main thing that I make sure that I do is to check that the title of the book is submitted with each chapter. As well as setting the correct chapter number.

Happy writing and have a great week,

Simmo

Its the 17th and I have just found out theres a contest on, damn holidays. Time to write my fingers to the bone and then keep on goin'.