November 2021's Writer Support Thread

how goes it?

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A noble goal, sadly not achieved. Just heading to bed now and think the final new word count was about 3,400. That doesn’t count rewrites or code. So maybe 4,000 or a bit higher of actual output.

On the flip side, that must easily be double the amount I’ve ever written in a single day. So I’m actually really pleased.

All I need now is to give up my job and I’ll finish this story in a couple of years! :grinning:

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4,000 new words in a day?

You are a rock star! :astonished:

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I hear you… :sweat_smile:

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I think I’m slowly learning my style for working out plots. Work on it a bit, put it away for a day or two, then hack away at it a little bit more. It’s very slow, but I find that it gives me a more cohesive result than trying to figure out everything quickly.

So this universe is slowly taking shape: an alt-history/fantasy Georgian England where George IV did produce an heir and vampires are real. And now I have another multi-faction war going on. Why do I do this to myself?

Status of Sahara is still completely plotted out… but not written at all. One day :sweat_smile:

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Have been working on other projects for the first week and a half of November. Finally got around to Invite Only today, pounded out 2300 words and finished up another secret chapter. Just went ahead and uploaded it to dashingdon without fanfare; we’ll see if anyone finds it before Invite Only officially comes out of hiatus in December.

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Yesterday, I finally got some real work done. I was working through a backlog of comments and notations and managed to fix a few, and delete a few more that were simply outdated.

I have an online meetup with my writing group in, oh, two hours. I hope to finally get to writing a scene I’ve been putting off. Wish me luck.

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The older I get, the better it feels to make progress of any kind on creative projects.

Also, writing group? That sounds very interesting. Why haven’t I found one of those yet? :open_mouth:

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Halfway through the month, uh, send help. I’m struggling between:

Extensive Planning of Routes

  • Less ambiguity down the road

  • Never have to worry about plans or outlines ever again till the literal end of times

  • Slightly demotivating because I feel trapped further on

  • So. Boring.

Just Let it Rip

  • Fun, free, live laugh love

  • Less work

  • Going to realise I have loads of extra or unnecessary content later on and want to smash my face on a wall

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Hi everyone, I just started writing my IF game today.
Wrote my first 1000 words today.
Good luck, everyone. :heart: :heart:

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is it possible to plan one step at a time, go wild in that planned section and then plan the second step… repeating this process, so you get a healthy dose of both?

For example: in my Emigre project, the Origins is the first part. So, if I were following this plan, I would develop the Origins, then just have fun and write it.

Once the first part is done, then you can plan the second, again letting yourself have fun after that bit of planning and so forth…

Edit:

Welcome to the writing support thread @Sparrow_Agnello

Often starting is the hardest part. Getting that first 1,000 words written is a great accomplishment, as is checking in here.

Happy to have you here :slight_smile:

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Ha! If only - after that one day of writing frenzy I haven’t written another word! I’ve not even edited what I did write.

However, this past weekend I did dive back into python and I’m in the process of coding an automated test engine for Choicescript.

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This made me :laughing:. I’m confident you’ll find the route that works best for you.

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My goals for November are, in addition to doing some studying for the HSC and not letting that stress me out too much is, is finish chapter 6. And maybe doing some editing in my earlier chapters (Chapters 1, 2 and 3). Provided that I’m able too.

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In the parlance of NaNoWriMo, these are called planning and pantsing (that is, “flying by the seat of your pants”). NaNo also distinguishes a third, hybrid method helpfully called plantsing. Historically, this has worked best for me.

Try starting your “planning” by jotting down all the ideas you have for your story, as they come to you. Maybe in bullet-point format (that’s how I do mine). When you run out of steam, copy over the list to a fresh document or page, and start cutting and pasting – put the ideas in roughly chronological order.

Then, go through the list a third time, and change the formatting of the big plot-level ideas to something like bold text, or a bright contrasting color. “Big” ideas are ideas about entire routes, or about major ending variants, or new NPCs. “On the narwhal-hunter route, the queen of the seas dies at the end” is definitely a bold-level idea. “It would be funny if the MC tripped over a banana peel” is… probably not? But you, the author, would know best. You can also change these as you go.

You can repeat the technique as often as you need to, whenever you’re stuck in your “pantsing”. You can also do it for any scope of plot, from the whole story or just one chapter, down to that one particular scenelet that you’ve been stuck on for days. It helps a little to mitigate one of the major problems of pantsing, which you only sort of address: it’s not less work, it’s more work later. As they say in my ADHD coaching, planning is just empathy with your future self. Or something.

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That sounds reasonable, but then I have to figure out the nitty-gritty - pantsing is fun, sure, and it works for certain stories, but maybe not for something like a CoG where there’s just so much to keep track of and getting derailed is disastrous? I don’t intend to plan down to the letter, far from it, but I think I probably have a lot more fun with an intricate sequence of events which I can twist around and add to…

… okay, I’m starting to see where I fit on that spectrum. I’ll continue in the current vein (plan plan plan and await the glorious release of endless Words) till December start at the latest. I really want to try and publish a WiP before or at the new year! That would be like me gifting myself a daydream (of audience adoration, of course).

I really like this. Thanks for sharing. Going to be (one of) my motto(s) through school, uni, and the Murky Depths of Beyond.

(No way. The legend of Eiwynn? Responding to me?) That sounds like a reasonable approach too. It’ll probably vary from section to section but I’ll definitely give it a try.

Thanks, sensei.

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HAHA I love this idea, and I love the term “plantsing”! I found your entire post really helpful and it’s also something that I’ve begun to rely on for most of everything in my life - planning where the “big chunks” should go, and moving within those so-called parameters. Once something becomes to planned/structured, I lose interest and creativity - but without any structure I tend to depend solely upon my on-and-off write-till-3am energy, which is great but unpredictable.

That’s all to say I really liked what you said about flipping between “plantsing” and (big plot-level ideas), and “pantsing” (actually writing the big ideas out), especially when I seem to be stuck doing one or the other. So, “pantsing” when I’m in a 3-am mood, and “plantsing” when I’m not.

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I somehow managed to get my WIP to 23k which includes a prologue, chapter 1 and 2.

Now to start on chapter 3!

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I posted an update to a WIP of mine. It was meant to be out at the beginning of this month, but ah well… now that I’m moving into a new arc, I’m trying to actually write out an outline or some stuff, because there’s serious branching and it’s gonna get gnarly.

Does anyone start reading the beginning of their game and hating it??? I’m just reading back through the beginning and I’m like aggggh I should have started with something more dramatic and gripping…

I guess I need to finish it first before I think of revising it/fixing what might be wrong with it >__>

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Congrats on tthe update @roselilymarigold!!

This is something that many writers (including myself) often feel about their own writing. I find that I feel this way more when I am bug correcting and editing rather than writing new material.

This is a great approach, although hard to follow up with. Getting something completed is always the hardest part.

Edit:

@lyssentome

Remember: updates are ready when they are ready. … just promise yourself to release it once it is ready, and go from there. Setting a goal of this nature is good, but always remember it is a soft-goal, not a hard deadline.

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