Did someone say MarNoWriMo?

VP_Benni

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Guess what guess what? I actually wrote something today! :D It was only 251 words, but it's something... :tongue

~Amber~
 

Caitlin Black

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Whoops... I've put it off and put it off, and now I have 7.5 hours or so to get my vote in for the Western competition...

If I don't vote, as an entrant, I will be disqualified.

And it doesn't help that I've been out all day... Must go read more entrants soon.
 

Caitlin Black

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Okay, I voted.

Now I have to look forward to writing an essay, due next week... Must be done by Sunday night (I don't know exactly what day it's due next week, so I'm gonna go with Sunday night as an artificial deadline).

It's only meant to be 500 words, so it shouldn't be too bad. We'll see how it goes...
 

eternalised

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Good luck on writing your essay. I have a 10k words essay due in two weeks. Yes, my teachers are insane. That's like...half a novella!

I'm at 15k words for my Ghostslayer manuscript now. Had a sudden urge of inspiration yesterday. I'm also working on rewriting my Angel of Death MS.
 

VP_Benni

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I'd hate a 10k essay... That just SOUNDS painful. >.<

I took my friend's iPod and messed with all of his settings today. :D I even set an alarm to go off in the middle of his English class. He caught it before class, but it was still fun messing with him. :tongue

That's about as producive as I've been all day... Oh, and I laughed at people who tried to make a triangle with sides that are 2 cm, 10 cm and 12 cm in length. It's impossible... :)

Going to get caught up on TV and then try to add a little to my new WIP so I can say I did something today... ;)

~Amber~
 

wishflower

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Um, it seems like ever since I decided to get down and work on my wip, I've done anything but. Actually, I think I've just spent the past couple days on AW:e2bummed:

But I did get woken up somehow at 5:30am, and ended up staying up til 7 writing a scene that turned out rather well. Of course, then I slept til 1 because I'd gone to bed at 3, but at least I wrote something. ^_^
 

Caitlin Black

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I envy people who can wake up in the middle of the night, decide to do something, and actually stay up and do it before going back to bed.

Whenever I wake up in the middle of the night, all I can think about is going back to sleep...
 

Caitlin Black

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Read 1 chapter of Jane Eyre. Now I have to type up my essay question from the book and the poems for the essay (so it's all on computer, for ease of actually writing the essay) and type up my novel's outline.

Then I suppose it'll be time to read more Jane Eyre, then come back to the computer and write notes for the essay...

My plan is to have all relevant notes made for the essay today, type the 500 words of it tomorrow, edit on Sunday, submit on Monday. That's doable, right?

Mixed in with that will be a good 150 or so pages of Jane Eyre... And hopefully making progress with my edits of the novel. Oh, and do some other reading for the 2 philosophy classes...

I'm going to sleep for an entire week when this semester is over, I tell you!
 

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I envy people who can wake up in the middle of the night, decide to do something, and actually stay up and do it before going back to bed.

Whenever I wake up in the middle of the night, all I can think about is going back to sleep...

I used to just be like... ah... I'll remember tomorrow. But I never would. Now I scratch a note down. This morning, though, I was wide awake. There was no way I was going back to sleep until I wrote that scene, so I just booted up the comp and accepted it. I think part of the reason was it was storming, and the thunder was just echoing around the house, like it was right on top of me. Hearing all that fantastic noise just put me in the mood to write, even if the storm is probably what woke me up to begin with.
 

Silver-Midnight

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What is it about? Maybe we could help decide on novella or novel length. :p

It's an Urban Fantasy. A witch has to help break the spell on this guy she's in love with and that guy's girlfriend. So, I've gotten to the part where the spells are broken. The guy and his girlfriend are werewolves by the way. Anyway, the spells are broken, and the woman finds out that it was actually an old childhood friend seeking revenge against her that did it. She was actually hoping to kill the guy and girl, at least the guy anyway because she knew she meant something to the protagonist. So, now, she finds out who's cast the spell, but doesn't know where the old friend is or anything else other than she's after her still. She has to deal with all of that plus trying to get rid of her feelings for the werewolf guy, and her feelings for this warlock/male witch character I have. She already knows that realistically she won't end up with werewolf guy, but she still has feelings for him. That's one of the reasons she's skeptical of her feelings for the warlock guy, who is also an old friend of hers.


I'm pretty sure that I some errors in the WIP relating to logic and how/when people met and/or stopped talking to one another. So, I know I'll have to fix that, but I wanted to finish it first. That way I'll know most, if not all, of what I want to do. I say that because this did start off similar, but my idea slowly morphed from what was originally in my head. So, I want to see how much more it changes from what I'm envisioning now.
 

VP_Benni

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I was going to stop watching TV, but then I found Family Guy on in Spanish... So, I called it studying. ;)

Feeling sicker... Feeling like there's a 40% chance I'm not going to school tomorrow...

~Amber~
 

Caitlin Black

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It's an Urban Fantasy. A witch has to help break the spell on this guy she's in love with and that guy's girlfriend. So, I've gotten to the part where the spells are broken. The guy and his girlfriend are werewolves by the way. Anyway, the spells are broken, and the woman finds out that it was actually an old childhood friend seeking revenge against her that did it. She was actually hoping to kill the guy and girl, at least the guy anyway because she knew she meant something to the protagonist. So, now, she finds out who's cast the spell, but doesn't know where the old friend is or anything else other than she's after her still. She has to deal with all of that plus trying to get rid of her feelings for the werewolf guy, and her feelings for this warlock/male witch character I have. She already knows that realistically she won't end up with werewolf guy, but she still has feelings for him. That's one of the reasons she's skeptical of her feelings for the warlock guy, who is also an old friend of hers.


I'm pretty sure that I some errors in the WIP relating to logic and how/when people met and/or stopped talking to one another. So, I know I'll have to fix that, but I wanted to finish it first. That way I'll know most, if not all, of what I want to do. I say that because this did start off similar, but my idea slowly morphed from what was originally in my head. So, I want to see how much more it changes from what I'm envisioning now.

I'd say it needs a little extra to fill it out to novel-length.

I could be wrong, depending on your writing style and how long things take to happen... But if I were to pick up a novel, I'd expect a longer end-goal than what you've described. I'm only one reader, of course, but there's have to be more going on the whole way through than just trying to complete one goal... I think.

That's not to say that you haven't thought of more stuff that could happen, or that I'm right, or that you couldn't start to think of ways to expand it.

Intrigue, obstacles and tension are what need to really come through in general. If you write it with such in mind (complementing or contrasting whatever artistic intent you have) then I think you could just write it and see how long it turns out.

One thing I've been warned of by published writers is that you shouldn't set yourself a word count and just add fluff to make your story that length. Write what's true to the story. Again, that doesn't mean you can't expand on things, and the story isn't set in stone until it's published, but if you write only what needs to be written, then whatever word count it comes in at, there's a greater chance of capturing an audience.

At least, that's the theory. I'm unpublished as yet, so take what I say with a grain of salt. (But yes, I do have a hunch that your story would be novella-ish.)

/long post
 

Caitlin Black

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I've typed up all my lecture notes pertaining to this essay.

Next step is to do the notes on what I'm going to say in the essay... it's only a 500-word essay, so it shouldn't take too long to get some notes done...
 

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I'd say it needs a little extra to fill it out to novel-length.

I could be wrong, depending on your writing style and how long things take to happen... But if I were to pick up a novel, I'd expect a longer end-goal than what you've described. I'm only one reader, of course, but there's have to be more going on the whole way through than just trying to complete one goal... I think.

That's not to say that you haven't thought of more stuff that could happen, or that I'm right, or that you couldn't start to think of ways to expand it.

Intrigue, obstacles and tension are what need to really come through in general. If you write it with such in mind (complementing or contrasting whatever artistic intent you have) then I think you could just write it and see how long it turns out.

One thing I've been warned of by published writers is that you shouldn't set yourself a word count and just add fluff to make your story that length. Write what's true to the story. Again, that doesn't mean you can't expand on things, and the story isn't set in stone until it's published, but if you write only what needs to be written, then whatever word count it comes in at, there's a greater chance of capturing an audience.

At least, that's the theory. I'm unpublished as yet, so take what I say with a grain of salt. (But yes, I do have a hunch that your story would be novella-ish.)

/long post


Yeah, that is true. I just kind of want to see how it ends though. I mean I already know that I'm going to have to rewrite some of it anyway. However, when I novel-length, I immediately think something huge and daunting. I know that I probably shouldn't go with a word count in mind, but at the same time, I just feel a bit more comfortable with it that way. I truthfully haven't written anything really longer than a short story. So, all of this is new to me.
 

Caitlin Black

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I see.

To be honest, I've written a novel to a specific word count before, and yes, it did become novel-length. That's not to say it's any good (it was my first novel, long before I found AW)...

I think perhaps it's okay to aim for a word count, so long as you don't fall prey to "chapter padding". That's an error I made - "Oh, this chapter's supposed to be 4000 words, and it's only 3000 right now... I better add 1000 words!"

While it is second-hand advice (from a published author to me to you) I do think that my writing has gotten a lot better by simply trying to write only what is necessary (even if it's not specifically necessary to the plot, and is more a character-development thing - if it's necessary in one way, it goes in).

And I hear you about novels being daunting!

Do you use an outline? They've really helped me in the past.