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Underground > Creation >

Sometimes Quantity Is More Important Than Quality

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23:05 / 21.11.04

Thanks, betty. Hang in there!

18:58 / 23.11.04

production has slowed to what not even I, with my exceptional gift for self-delusion, can call a crawl: ten words or so per day

and yet: hope is not lost, nor determination

can one produce 25k in a week based on sheer scrappiness?

YES

I tell you it can be done, and I am the man that will do it

12:12 / 24.11.04

You go, Dwight. You're already a bigger man/woman than me.

Be proud!

15:27 / 24.11.04

I put out over FOUR HUNDRED words last night. I tell you, it was like nothing to me. It was like drinking a cup of tea. Pfft. This thing's in the bag.

15:29 / 24.11.04

I always want to thank everybody here for being really encouraging. Online friends beat out offline friends handily in the ecouragement and faith sector.

20:23 / 24.11.04

Barbelith rocks!

00:11 / 26.11.04

Agreed - you guys have been great!

With just six days to go, how is everyone faring?

I'm about 5K away from finishing, although there's closer to 15K to go before I wrap up the plot, and I've already got a stack of rewrite notes which I'm trying not to let distract me as I push through the last few days.

01:07 / 26.11.04

I've finished. It's more or less total rubbish, though, I'm actually so ashamed of what I've written that I'm not, I think, going to submit it for the word count thingy.

I think I'm going to move to somewhere sunny and just, y'know, keep pigs instead.

08:51 / 26.11.04

About 9k left for me currently, which is perfectly doable.

11:27 / 26.11.04

Alex, it doesn't get read when you submit it, it just gets counted by a computer.

15:50 / 26.11.04

Only 24,300 words to go! Just a flesh wound, really.

16:25 / 27.11.04

I have finished and have printed out some pictures of trees from the certificate.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

19:15 / 27.11.04

I lost all of last week and the weekend before it due to a problem at work. I am the director of a group home, and there was a major incident between residents that had to be investigated by the authorities, and kept me either in meetings or having groups from 8 am to 10:30 at night or later, but here I am, three days left and I'm at 47,000 words. Of course, I think I am at least 10K from ending the story, but I can get the 50k by the end of tomorrow.

Damn, it was harder this year than it has been the previous two due to work issues, so this one will be much sweeter.

21:38 / 27.11.04

See, that's the thing: I'm 43k into it, but so far away from ending the story. I'm currently 12,000 words into an extended digression--a digression that is, by itself, longer than any work of fiction I've ever actually finished--and by my estimate, the novel as a whole will be, like, a quarter of a million words long when complete.

So I'll hit 50k for the first time, which may make me a winner technically, but still not actually finish the book! It's a whole new way to suck!

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

02:57 / 28.11.04

I know the feeling. I have decided that the novel is actually a long series of novels. Kind of the anti-Left Behind...

I also spoke with an agent about first time novelists, and was told that most publishers won't even LOOK at a first manuscript that is over 90,000 words.

I CAN'T WRITE A NOVEL THAT SHORT!!!

Hattie's Kitchen

11:22 / 29.11.04

*tries to avoid the "it's not the winning but the taking part that counts" cliches but failing miserably*

C'mon guys, one day left, I'm willing all of you on, it doesn't matter if it sucks, at least you got your arses into gear and did it!

11:44 / 29.11.04

I CAN'T WRITE A NOVEL THAT SHORT!!!

Correction: you can't write a first draft that short.

Good rule of thumb: a second draft should reduce your total word count by a third, unless you're writing very, very tightly from the get-go—and in a breakneck race like NaNoWriMo, trust me, you're not writing as tightly as you think.

And honestly, man, most books are too goddam long. You know it to be true. I know mine is: I'd originally planned to tell this story in 88 pages of comics, a VERTIGO POP! style thing, but I let it get toaslly away from me...

Now, to keep it to 50k (and more importantly, to hit the deadline) I'm not just trimming the fat—having wasted many many many of my alloted words on atmosphere and wit, I'm actually omitting great chunks of muscle. Indeed, as I get nearer the deadline the later chapters are starting to read more like a plot synopsis—downright skeletal.

I think my thing is that I got so immersed in this fictional world I was creating that I wanted to wring every drop of experience from it before leaving. It's totally self-indulgent, yeah, but I think it's a necessary self-indulgence at this point.

After tomorrow I'm going to go back and put back in all the stuff I left out in the interest of, y'know, finishing by the end of November: I figure by February or so I'll end up with a big baggy, flabby mess of 150,000 words or so, which I'll set aside for the Spring and spend the Summer knocking back to a lean, humming 90k.

Because I like it that much.

16:32 / 29.11.04

23k behind. Have had, I think, about 15 writing days. Despondent is not too strong a word.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

19:40 / 29.11.04

I just passed the 50K barrier.

W00t!

As for editing...I'm sure I coudl edit down one of the action or character driven novels I've written, but my Big Serious Novel that I was working on before NaNo is just oo big for that sort of thing. It's a Tom Wolfe novel. It's Irving Wallce big.

I may have to get someone else to hack away at it.

00:54 / 01.12.04

Done! At least, done the nano official goal; I still have about 8-10K left to finish the novel itself, which I must do, if only because my hero will never forgive me if I leave him stranded in the middle of his enemies with nothing but a matchbook, a baseball bat, a 14th century sword-girl and the painful realization that his clever plan wasn't quite as clever as he thought.

I think length is one of the reasons I'm currently attracted to the young adult genre; publishers are typically looking for books in the 60-80K range, which is about as long as I'm capable of focusing on one story before getting distracted by something else.

11:27 / 02.12.04

Congratulations to everyone, even if you didn't finish! The important thing is to sit down and try to do the work. I tip my cup of hot ginger and honey green tea to you! (applause)

.

21:07 / 02.12.04

Alas, I made it to 30k and no farther, but still am glad I took a crack at it. Very much worth my while. Thanks to everyone for your encouragement, and yes, congratulations to all of you. If anybody would care to post excerpts, I'd be most interested in seeing a sample of your work. I'm trying to find something suitable for excerpting from my own stuff, not that I think cancer or dildoes will shock any of you.

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