I think my head would explode.

Maybe I should do it anyway!

YOU ALL SHOULD DO IT!

That would be seriously awesome. I would do it myself if I could handle the withdrawal from Lothere for an entire month.

One of my reasons for starting this story in the first place was because my massive senior honours project, inconveniently due the first week of December, foiled my plan to do NaNoWriMo 2005.

I still haven't done it, in fact, unless you consider my writing for this story as part of it, in which case I TOTALLY WON. I think I won twice over in 2006.

If it counts, then I am setting myself a 50,000 word goal for November, and we'll see whether my valiant attempts to post every other day will be sufficient.

ETA: 3259 words in 3 days... *calculates* Must write faster!

I love the idea of a hodge-podge of fairy tales. Fairy tales never get old. I have actually toyed with that idea myself, maybe making a few of my characters experience the "original" version of a story that through the years got altered into stories we know today. But since my world is actually diverging from ours lately, I guess that wouldn't work. I can still use that idea for any events that happened before 1066 though, such as my take on the King Arthur story...

Are you planning on taking this beyond NaNoWriMo? Because that sounds like A LOT of stuff to pack into 50,000 words. 50,000 words is actually quite short as novels go. It has taken me 36 times 50,000 words to tell the story I have so far. (Current word count: 1,805,482.) Not to say all those words have really counted. I have a rather NaNoWriMo-like attitude when it comes to editing past crappy writing.

And of course there's nothing wrong with writing an open-ended story and just doing it within the month of November to give yourself some motivation, as I just did above. It doesn't sound like you really have a beginning/middle/end planned so that may be what you're doing.

But if you want to write something novel-formed within around 50,000 words I suggest you narrow your focus. I haven't counted the words I wrote for it, but I would guesstimate that something like the Mouse + Wyn story arc -- from the rude meeting on the stairs to the party to the amnesia to their undressed wedding -- would probably be appropriate for that size of a work. And when you think about all the other stuff that happened in Lothere within that period... Yeah, I think I have said I am actually writing a dozen interleaved novels at the same time, rather than one work, and that's the proof.

But then again, you have done this before, and I never have... and dammit, Jim, I'm a scientist, not a writer, so what do I know?

I am just really happy to be talking about NaNoWriMo on this forum. Coming full circle!

4926 words.... *frets*

Why yes it is. Part of the fun of NaNoWriMo is obsessing over word counts I think. I only wish it were the word tally for TODAY but I do have a full-time job, plus elections to follow and celebrate.

My chapters seem to run around 1500 words, so needless to say, at 3 per week or so, it's not likely I will hit 50,000 words this month unless I quit my full-time job. Still it's fun to obsess.

And fun to dream that I could write 10,000 words about Vash in the next couple days.

Twice now I have glanced at your comment and thought I saw the word "erection". Uh, I think I need to increase the size of my font. Surely THAT is my problem.

I said it in the chat too but WOOOO! for posterity.

I wonder what Vash would say about all this female adoration. Poor guy. Actually we did get an idea once, when all those ladies were running at him to kiss him under the mistletoe. And Lili climbing his neck. His pointed ears must have been so red.

HELLO EVERYONE I WORK WITH!!!

895 words... *frets*

Hehe, don't worry, Lothere. That's my month's total so far. I assure you, you'll have me totally beat... and I'm not quitting any of my jobs, either, so there's really no chance of me catching up.

And Vash! Words about Vash! Yay!

And President Obama! Yay! (I'd do a celebratory bunny dance and confetti throw, but I don't know how... )

:bunny:

Holy poop, I'm certain that I didn't write that many words in November. Ah well, there's always next year.

You should do it! Everybody should do it!* It's a shame it doesn't come around more often, though like any other holiday I suppose we would fail to appreciate it then.

You sound a lot like me, Cassie. I hadn't written much of anything in so long because I always wanted to get everything perfectly prepared first. The result, as you can see yourself in the first chapters of this story, is that my writing had really stagnated at a high school sophomore level.

That was my second reason for starting this story: throwing planning to the winds and just writing something, no matter how crap. I had to write two years of crap before I started getting to the good stuff I'm writing lately, and two years from now I'll be saying I had to write four years of crap to get to the good stuff I will be writing then. In my middle age I have decided that leaving a long trail of crap behind you is a good sign of progress.

You reminded me of this quote from Art and Fear too:

The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the "quantity" group: fifty pound of pots rated an "A", forty pounds a "B", and so on. Those being graded on "quality", however, needed to produce only one pot -albeit a perfect one - to get an "A". Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the "quantity" group was busily churning out piles of work - and learning from their mistakes - the "quality" group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.

SO go get writing!

* Disclaimer: I still haven't done it.

Creative writing is sooooo much fun. You should definitely get back into it when you have the time

And those were 24 604 very good words. I didn't even bother to keep a tally of my words this month, because I'm one of those scatterbrained, slightly ADD people that attempts to do about a billion things at once and rarely finishes even one of them (currently working on two novels that I've planned as the start of two completely unrelated trilogies, about six lower priority novels, my blog, and this script I write in math when I'm supposed to be taking notes on logarithms and permutations, and making very little progress all around). So I can't even remember WHAT I've written this month, let alone how much. The writer's block doesn't help, and then add the fact that I have my diploma exams this year...

But anyway, yay for anyone who actually tried it!

If you can write a good research paper, you're pretty much golden all the way through school

Essay-writing skills would help me so much with English 30 AP, but unfortunately, I'm pretty fail at anything that involves planning

Not that my creative writing is any better, but it does come more easily.

Lothere, you did really well, considering you had a few Dante-Eithne chapters and the new a perplexing Vash-Kraaia chapters which we all felt the need to weigh in on. I think they ought to get word-and-a-half credit, like when you work overtime and get time-and-a-half. Good job, that means you're much closer!

My tally was a little less than 2,000... which I guess I expected with all the other stuff I've been doing, but still disappointing.

Ach, I would love to! If only I could add 10 hours to every day in November.

I mean... I could do NaNo, but then there would be no Lothere for a month. Pros, cons. We'll see, maybe Shimon will come back and tell me November is his turn.

I don't count KoL since it's not written in a novel form. I think it would do me some good to write an actual novel, and be obliged to come up with a beginning, middle, and end.

I'm not too keen on ambiguous endings unless it is quite clear from the start that the book is part of a series that will actually get written -- not just an author leaving himself room for a sequel just in case *crosses his fingers* the first one sells really well.

I think a reader approaches a book with certain expectations, and it's up to the author to fulfill those -- it's part of the contract. There ought to be a solid story arc, with ever-increasing conflict and a satisfying denouement. I'm not talking about "literary" fiction, since I'm an unlettered science geek and know nothing about it, but about STORIES. A good story has a payoff at the end. I don't think an author ought to leave too much up to speculation, that just seems lazy to me. Or pathetic, like "I couldn't think of a good ending" or "I hope my readers will write to my publisher and beg for a sequel".

I don't really care if it's a "ride off into the sunset to possible further adventures" ending so long as the main conflict of the novel is resolved. The protagonist doesn't have to be struck by lighting and killed at the end. (Though it makes one helluva story if he is.) I will take a warm fuzzy feeling of happily-ever-after contentment, or I will take a "zero at the bone" stunner, but I don't want to be left feeling all muddled and unsure whether I missed something.

I think if an author wants people to read the sequel, he should make an effort to write a book so good that his readers will want to read more of them. Not just by leaving unanswered questions.

But of course, that is just me. Like I said, I think it would do me some good to write something in novel form, because KoL allows me to cheat in the whole story-construction process.

I agree. Do people really do that? That does take a lot of the "happily ever after" magic out of it.

Didn't Jane Austen do that at the end of P&P? Or was it Emma? (Must reread.) I suppose if one is Jane Austen, one can get away with that sort of thing. But otherwise...

Thanks for clarifying! I was wondering. I haven't read any Harry Potter.

P&P is one of my favorite English language books, though as you can see it's been many years since I've read it. I have it on my shelf... need to read it again. Maybe next time I catch a cold. (And I have yet to watch the movie with the Mr. Darcy-in-the-Lake moment!!)

I actually did and finished NaNoWriMo in 2004. (Oh my gosh, was it that long ago?? I never even went back and edited the dang thing. It was, I fear, ridiculous and irredeemable and my husband was the only person who ever read it.) It was an extremely cool experience that I wish I could recapture, but it actually really upset my husband because he felt I abandoned him for the whole month without warning. That took a lot of the wind out of my sails and I could never get a lot of enthusiasm back after that. Since then, I've done very little writing except for my sims blog, which is now basically dead.

I am like you, Lothere, in that I am a story lover turned science geek. English was always my favorite subject but I was good at science and math and went the practical route, telling myself I could write in my spare time. I told everyone I would be a writer when I grew up when I was in kindergarten, and I used to write all these stories when I was a kid...now I'm all sad. This is tempting me to jump into it again this year, even though I have many good reasons not to. I've managed to write little teeny paragraphs of stuff this year but I get so frustrated by it not being "good" that I never go farther. NaNo is all about crushing that "not good enough" feeling. You don't have time for good at 1500 words a day!

Whew, I guess I had a lot to say about this topic...

Hi, I’ve been a reader for a couple of years now. Mainly lurking in the background cause I’ve never had enough time to comment.

Just wanted to say that I completely agree with Van on the Harry Potter thing. I read all of the series and really enjoyed it, but the ending was a real let down. Not so much the fact she’d skipped to the future just the way it was written as one huge cliché. I think that’s the difference with any of Jane Austen’s endings, she only ever concluded the main story and gave it closure, as opposed to detailing her characters lives and children years down the line.

Not having read HP, all I can contribute is my blushing presence over here in this corner.

But in KoL I do have the advantage of being able to write about SECKS. (Unless I have not been keeping abreast of recent innovations in YA literature.)

We seem to have a unique twist on Godwin's law around here:

As a KoL discussion grows longer, the probability of a mention of sex, kilts, or sex with men in kilts approaches 1.

I hope for your sake that it was the good sort of kilted men. A while ago, my half-Scottish mother dragged me to the highland festival in my hometown and... *shudders* Let's just leave it at I had no desire to play tunes on any of those bagpipes

It seemed to be a rule there that men were not allowed to wear kilts unless they were balding, overweight, and over sixty years old

Oh! This is wonderful, I'm glad other people are doing NaNoWriMo. I wasn't sure if anybody else was this year, but it's nice to find others who will submit to the torture of 50,000 words in one month. I'm going to be writing this month, too, good luck everybody!

Whenever I think of men in kilts, I always think of these guys who seem to play at every Ren Faire I go to. They put on a really good show!!

(something about short hair + kilt seems really weird to me though)

And I am so off topic from the Nanowrimo Sorry... but.. kilts!!!!!

Mmm kilts...

BUT back on topic, I told myself I was already stretched too thin with writing on my own time and all the credits I've crammed myself into this semester, but then I went onto the forums the other day and basically had my mind changed for me. I'm not sure where I'm going to go since I have like...three ideas in my head on what I could write about. Basically they'll duke it out and come midnight on Halloween/November 1st, I'll just start writing and see where it goes. I won back in 2007 (I actually finished by like the 20thsomething of the month too, which was kind of amazing), though I've attempted this each year since 2005. We'll see how this year goes, yeah?

If you do, I will cry. And CRY. And CRY AND CRY AND CRY.
I DON'T THINK YOU WANT MY TEARS ON YOUR CONSCIENCE!
For real, though, it does sound awesome and I would love to do it at some point. Most of the fiction ideas I have percolating in my head are for short stories, though. Would a bunch of short stories count, do you think?
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I'm romantic, literary, cynical, and a diehard Alred Sebright groupie.

And back off topic, the kilted gentleman on the left is like a real-life Shirtless K!

You could definitely do a collection of short stories since that's one of the ideas that's floating through my mind right now. I think my favourite thing that really got me through when I won was doing Word Wars-- basically you pick a time amount (15-20 minutes was where I usually fell) and you start at a certain time and all you do for however long you picked you'd write. Sometimes I'd get other people on the NaNo forums to run with me and we'd just post how many words we got at the end of the time bracket. I could care about actually winning but I liked that it kept me writing for certain amounts of times to try and get my word count up.

Lothere, I think we'd all be sad if you put KoL on hold for November. Especially with the Malrua reuinion coming up. I know I'D be sad. You could always live vicarious through the ones doing NaNo ;] Otherwise I know some people don't go for 50k but set lower goals for themselves like maybe 20k or 15k and see how far they can go with that in mind. It might make this seem a little less like such a monster to tackle, y'know? Also, for anyone who's actually doing it, I highly recommend the No Plot, No Problem! book that Chris Baty put out. I'm bringing mine back up to school with me when I go home this weekend because it was a big help for me when I used it before.

http://uga.edu/gm/ee/index.php?/single/2009/09/549/

I wonder if you've got him beat.

Ahhhh, to hell with it. I'm not going to let NaNoWriMo taunt me anymore. I'm sooooo going to try it. I managed to update two different blogs tonight, so I take that as a positive sign. I'll probably fail, though, since I don't want to neglect my online stuff for a whole month, but I figure I don't have to officially sign up in order to attempt a 50 000 word novel in one month, right? Also, that will probably make failure seem like less of a big deal

So who all is doing it this year? Cassie, Van, star... and Lily is SO TOTALLY DOING IT now that I have given the pep talk. Ann? Anyone else?

I would love to, but I guess KoL wins out again. I could NOT wait till early December for MOAR Egelric+Finn. *breaks out pompoms for sideline cheering*

Yep, that's what I'm doing. I think it'll be a lot of fun.
NaNo party!!
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I'm romantic, literary, cynical, and a diehard Alred Sebright groupie.