PopSyndicate.com

Glad to hear you’ve got it started.  I’m like you, I don’t think I have anything ready to post as an excerpt although once I finish my prologue, I may post that.

Just reached 3,361 words.  I’m right on target for day 2!!!

The hardest part for me is having the patience to let the plot unfold naturally, when I want to get to the fun stuff.

I think the hardest part for me is building in surprises and cliffhangers.  I tend to see the story in a very linear point a to point b so it’s a challenge sometimes to jump ahead and let things happen in a way so as to elude to things or drop hints or red herrings instead of just letting it all happen as it’s happening in my head.  But I’m trying to do better and make the story more entertaining.

It’s like Stephen King says in On Writing; take what you have and cut 10%. The natural instinct is to just follow the characters but if it’s not truly relevant to the plot or characterization, it’s not necessary. What’s really sucks is that some scenes you just love, but you still have to scrap them.

Everyone writes differently so I wouldn’t recommend it universally, but what I do is make separate documents with character backgrounds and plot analysis. Even if I’m not sure on the plot, I pick out specific themes I want to focus on and draw connections between them and motifs. It gives the thing some sort of structure that I can use to come up with direction.

I’d say don’t stress too much about it—when you go back at the end you’ll see what isn’t necessary. It’s easier to trim a scene than add to it, so lay it all out.

I’m pretty happy with my first chapter so I might post an excerpt but I don’t want to be the first. I’m a follower like that.

I’m actually writing my novel in the pre-production suite celtx, which allows me to have an indepth character catalog, a rough outline, a bunch of notes and a writing schedule all tabulated alongside the text.

The hardest part of it to me is just filling everything out. I’ve already started my 2nd chapter and I’m only about 3000 words in so far. I know it usually takes longer to reach a second chapter but I felt like i was drawing it out as it is.

Another busy day and night means I didn’t get a chance to catch up properly. I’m still roughly a day behind (Australia is a day ahead so I should be at 5000 words at the moment). I want to keep typing but I’m falling asleep at the keyboard, so i think it would be best to sleep on it and attack it first thing tomorrow. Argh, it doesn’t help that I’m most productive between 2am and 4am. I can’t wait to get into the meat of the story, i should be able to tear through it when i reach the more interesting parts.

I’m at 4,583 words for day 3.  Almost done with chapter 1.  About 415 words behind but not too bad.  I’ll post the chapter as an excerpt when it’s done.

I just finished today at 6,790 words and I have posted about a ten page excerpt on my novel page!

I’m on 8,349 words and it’s the 6th of November. (New Zealand times)

My story is unashamedly a pile of shit. I write quite a bit, and I find when I get an exciting or original idea and try to turn it into a 40,000+ word novel, I get bogged down in editing on the go and just generally losing interest. For this month, I’m interested in getting some practice under my belt and getting passed the novel length mark.

As a result, I didn’t really want to waste a good idea on this novel. What I’m writing is basically just a retelling of a zombie apocalypse, Romero style. Not to say that Romero’s was a bad or uninteresting idea, I just think that it’s a bit of a cliche now.

I’m pleased with what I’ve written so far though, even though most of it was written in a haze that made my writing style resemble that of a middle schooler. Quantity, not quality, right?

I think my username is Nosebleed. Feel free to add me or what have you.

So my computer blew up/died (this is not my computer) and I may have lost my entire novel.  I’m pissed.  I was doing so good.

That’s a real shame. Oh well, you just have to try and keep philosophical about it, I guess. Think of it like a buddhist sand mandala - they spend weeks making these intricate shapes from grains of sand, and then they drop the whole thing into the ocean. It’s meant to be creatively cleansing, or some such. But I guess that’s easy to say when I still have my novel. Almost 16,000 words now.

I’m still going but i’m well behind. I have an excerpt up but it sucks, i might find a better one and post it here.