Just checking to see if Scotland and I are the only ones doing it this year.

If you see this and don't know, NaNoWriMo is a thing in November where you try to write a 50,000 word novel. In JUST November. It's a grand exercise in the seemingly impossible.

Feel free if you ARE doing it, to chat about your novel, and so on.

I'm in, just under 5k right now.

I was sick all weekend, and now I am behind. I have written 8849 words so far.

It's funny though, I am writing in third person narrative, a first for me, and it seems that I am not writing as much dialogue as is usual for me.

My story has already changed a bit from what I had initially intended.

KR, I would LOVE to read your story, when you have completed it of course.

CWMI, what kind of story are you writing?

Scotland--sure, if you'd really like to. I can't promise that it'll be all that great though.

Have a segment for now:

I'm excited to read it. Mine is turning out to be pretty dry right now too but I am just trying to get it done and then I will go back and make it better. This is also the first time that I am writing for an adult audience. And lemme tell you, it's very adult so far.

I've never actually done adult scenes myself...I've tried, but they usually end up either two paragraphs long, or five pages long.

How's it coming, group?

I have been very bad, and not writing. I need to get my butt in gear. I did have the flu, and then I started working a bit more. No excuses though, I need to get writing.

How about you?

22,000+ words right now. It's getting so difficult.

What the heck was I thinking trying to write a story intertwining Dracula, Van Helsing, and a handful of people from Arthurian legend?

It's like oil and water sometimes.

Hi! Sorry, I'm bad about checking Other Topics unless something grabs my eye on the main forum page.

Plus, I'm swamped with school.

I'm writing a psychological thriller about ordinary people put in an extraordinary situation. Testing their mettle, messing with their heads, etc. Fun! I'm just past 16k now, have found that weekends truly suck for me as far as writing goes. I need a good block of 2-3 uninterrupted hours to squeeze out 2-3k words. That happens about twice a week.

Karma, did you read Erin Morganstern's pep talk? Go read it if you haven't.

I also find it much easier to write with wholly new creations. Towns that don't exist, fresh characters, new legends. Maybe you could introduce a new character with a new situation, see where it goes ala The Night Circus?

Hrm...perhaps I can do that! I've already brought in so many characters that are set virtually in stone and changed them, perhaps I should bring in someone new who's NOT already cemented in people's heads.

I've just been so caught up about my word count that I've not thought too much about new characters.

a time traveler, a stoner, a woman whose arms and legs are backwards so she walks on her hands but looks upright, a wise Roomba, a genius from the Apple bar, the quintessential 'hooker with a heart of gold', someone who was forced out of a Dickens novel, a hipster, a child who burps butterflies...

Now I want to write about a character who was forced out of a Dickens novel and is mad as he!! about it. He meets the upside-down woman (who was discarded by Kafka), they fall in love and enlist the help of a hipster (thrown out by Cheever) and a child who burps butterflies to go back in time and force Dickens, at gunpoint, to publish the novel with him IN IT.

rofl.

Oh my god. And here I was worried about Dracula talking about how Stoker "over-exaggerated" the cobwebs in his castle and had a flair for the dramatic and so on.

Your idea sounds strange, but epic.

Less than 19,000 words to go! Then again, that's if I stick to the quota...

WOOOHOOO go KR. I only have about 35000 so I better get cracking eh? HAHAHAHA My book will definitely become longer than that in the end but that would be after Dec1st of course.

Did anyone else finish?

And does anyone have tips for editing/getting in contact with publishers/agents etc?

I didn't finish, but more than halfway. There's always next year, and this time, I am prepared for the amount of time, and work that needs to be done.

Unfortunately, I do not know how to help you edit/etc. Mayhap some of our resident authors will have advice to you.

You can let whomever know that you have at least 2 people who would LOVE to buy your story(I told my friend about it, and she said, "I would read that").

Thank you for mentioning this, it has been a hoot and a half.

If you want to go the self-publishing route, there's lulu.com. I think they have editing services there.

CV

I did not finish, but am still working on the book! I have three weeks vacation starting next Friday, and really want to finish this story.

Editing: I think it depends on how you wrote it. :P But Self-editing for Fiction Writers is a book you should have and keep. Other than that, hit the 808 section of your library and look for books by Donald Maass, Sol Stein, any great teacher or agent or editor.

DO NOT self-publish. You may have issues since you used other people's characters. You'll need an agent. For that, look at agentquery.com AND google for preditors and editors. But don't bother talking to any of those people until you have edited the book, workshopped the book with experienced writers, and edited it again. Once you are ready to begin querying, follow the dam directions! I just finished going through a couple hundred submissions to our magazine, and I cannot tell you how much I LOVE the authors who followed the very simple submission instructions. Trying to go around them, trying to be 'artsy' with fonts and "Oh but look I added ART to my cover page, isn't it pretty?" omg!!!! No, it's not pretty, because I have to remove it, which makes more work for me, which means if you are too much work, your work won't even be considered.

I had one woman submit a bunch of stuff in LANDSCAPE orientation. I turned one of them for her, but the second one? Trashed it. It might have been good. Who knows. I just know that it required more work on my part than I was willing to give.