"Old" People Writing for Teens V

darrtwish

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Happy NaNo to those participating! I won't be-- NaNo makes me anxious just looking at it. I've failed enough times to know that it's not for me. I am writing again, for the first time in months though.
 

Ellaroni

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No NaNo for me this year - I'm editing on a deadline, and coincidentally the deadline is the end of November or early December, so in a way I'm NaNoing, I guess.
GOOD LUCK to those participating!

In other news, the book that started as my 2015 (?) Beta project was published yesterday :)
 

DanaeMcB

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In other news, the book that started as my 2015 (?) Beta project was published yesterday :)

Congratulations! I took a look at it, and decided to buy it, because I'm outlining a novel about a trans girl, and want to keep up on what other people are putting out there.
 

Sage

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I love when you add an element you hadn't planned on, just to cause conflict in the scene, and then you have to incorporate the element later on and it's a beautiful thing, and then you realize exactly how it's going to affect your climax, and you're all in :Sun:
 

edutton

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I love when you add an element you hadn't planned on, just to cause conflict in the scene, and then you have to incorporate the element later on and it's a beautiful thing, and then you realize exactly how it's going to affect your climax, and you're all in :Sun:
That is fun!

The antagonist in my first book started out life as literally just a name drop in the second chapter... then she started showing up on the edges of important scenes, then finally jumped up and down waving her hand, going "Notice me, senpai!" :greenie
 

JFitchett92

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Hey,

I did post something, but it appears to have deleted itself? My phone threw up some weird error while I was trying to edit it so who knows :/

So I'm finally buckling and giving Scrivener a go. I've been using OpenOffice for the last 5-6 years (ever since I started writing) and my note-taking and general outlining is, and always has been, an absolute state. I rely on my noggin too much, so I figure I need a space to actually put stuff down as I'm almost certain one day I'm going to forget everything. Giving the trial a go to see how I get on with it, if I like it this may be the first christmas I actually know what I want.
 

CoffeeBeans

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then she started showing up on the edges of important scenes, then finally jumped up and down waving her hand, going "Notice me, senpai!" :greenie

How can you not notice her!? (I have an increasingly name-and-personality filled cast of background characters who better turn out to be useful at some point...)

JFitchett92, I love Scrivener but I seem to never use it for notes. I keep my references handy in the research section, but I mostly love the way it allows me to structure my MS and visually represents my progress. The good part about it is how flexible is it. Hope you enjoy it! If you find something difficult, there are a bunch of great youtube tuts about using it effectively.

I have a lot of words for nano, but I'm hoping they are making a story. We'll see.
 

Sage

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Scrivener is amazing for major structural edits, the way I did with Taylor-Made. The notecards and color-coordinating are my savior during the Beta Project. I also like how I can have things in the same file that aren't being counted towards my word count. In this case, I have 10K words I brought from another novel to start off this novel, but they're all outside the "Manuscript" folder, so they aren't counted towards my NaNo words.
 

JFitchett92

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My first 30 minutes of Scrivener have already made my mind up, purely for the tracking and being able to see the whole MS at a glance. Plus being able to split the screen and have the MS on one side and my outline on the other is going to be crazy helpful. And to think I've only scratched the surface...
 

Will Collins

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Wondering how long I should wait before following up with an agent who requested a full? Is four weeks okay?
 

Sage

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If they didn't give a time, I'd say 3 months is expected.
 

Sage

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I love my niece, who we're babysitting this week while her parents are in Costa Rica. But when the time changed, I started this great habit of getting up an hour earlier and using the early hours before anyone was up and I went to work to get some quiet writing time down. My problem is that in my parents house, I have trouble finding a comfortable place to write that's also distraction-free. They watch TV all day long, so the couch is never distraction-free, and tables can irritate my tendinitis. So getting up at 5:30 to knock out some words on the couch was really nice. And only once in a while did that mean Mom was up because sis was coming over with the baby. But the baby's on my schedule, so getting up at 5:30 means she's running around the room wanting to see what I'm doing and poking at my keyboard. Even if she's not interested in me, Disney Jr. is on and Mom's playing with her, so my writing space is ruined, and so my motivation to bother getting up that early has just flown out the door.

I know it's a temporary thing, and there are plenty of writer parents who have to deal with when to write, but, damn, I just developed the good habit, and I know it doesn't take much for me to lose them.
 

Sage

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ION, I went to the 2016 favorite lines thread for NaNo and read through them, and I had some really beautiful writing in last year's work. I really should revisit it some time.

My boys are always fun to write about, but I really suck at everything beyond banter and feelings for them.
 

JFitchett92

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@Sage: As a writer parent, I know the struggle all to well. I have found recently that writing at a table is better for me in regards to concentration, but my big headphones help me write almost anywhere 99% distraction free (I am a serial people-watcher)

I'm really not liking the current scene I'm writing because I feel my MC is too passive. It makes sense that she wouldn't be making commands and leading because it's a battle scene and she's a novice fighter at best, but it's in first person and she mostly speaks in her thoughts rather than communicating with everyone else in the scene.

I'm feeling blocked by it, and now I just want to finish it so I can move on to her more active scenes.
 

Sage

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Hope you've gotten to an easier, scene, JF!

So day 16 of NaNo is the day when everything came together. I know the bad guy's motivation, and I know how the climax is more or less going to go down. I still have to get there. Even with the 10K opening that's not part of NaNo, I'm only at 38K, so there's a lot more to go. I feel like the story's moving a little fast, but goodness knows, I'm great at detouring my novels.
 

JKRowley

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It has been so long since I logged in here....I forgot my password. Luckily, I got it in under 5 tries.

Yup, I am doing NaNoWriMo, and it is going well, but not without some setbacks. Like my computer died hours into the first day. I stayed up until midnight on Halloween night to kick off Nano, wrote 1500 words, and got the blue screen of death minutes later.

So I had to buy a new computer, and get acquainted real quick.

Sage, I've been following your progress. You are one of my writing buddies from years ago, when I wasn't serious about it. You are doing so well! Glad the bromance is working for you.

JFitchett, I saw a demonstration of Scrivener and really want it. That is one of my motivations for "winning" Nano....winners get 1/2 off Scrivener. Even if you don't do Nano, they have a 20% off or something discount because of Nano, so this is a good time to buy.

Ellaroni, congratulations on Mick and Michelle!

I think it was coffeebeans who told me about MLs for Nano. Thank you SOOO much! I got in touch with my ML and she has been super duper helpful. The Write Ins at my library have been going well and I am making some connections with a local group of writers who seem to LOVE Nano.
 

CoffeeBeans

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JFitchett, I saw a demonstration of Scrivener and really want it. That is one of my motivations for "winning" Nano....winners get 1/2 off Scrivener. Even if you don't do Nano, they have a 20% off or something discount because of Nano, so this is a good time to buy.

Yup, the discounts are great! I bought my copy with my winner's coupon, and gave away my winner's coupon to a friend the next year since I already owned it.

I'm so glad your ML is awesome. People love nano, and groups that support it are the best. The new bookshop in my town is hosting us once a week and we are bowled over by how kind they have been.

Also, we have a thing like an hour from me that is a writer's cottage and it is amazing. It has writing themed mystery rooms (like escape rooms, but you're looking for clues) and writing themed social events. I want to move in. I wish I had more local writer friends.
 

Sage

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I really tried not to turn my bromance into a romance, but the route I'm going, it's clear that Blake, my slacker human who doesn't want to believe he even cares about things, is going to realize he probably has feelings for Ren, my feels-everything-on-extreme ghost, before the book ends. Ren has always loved Blake, and in my brain it was unspoken but true that he was in love. I meant to have hints of that here, but nothing spoken, all trying to preserve the bromance. But instead, all signs are pointing towards Blake being the one to realize he might be in love with Ren.

It's funny how the characters sometimes decide for you.