So with NaNoWrimo winding down so are the Write Ins, the last Saturday Write In for Exeter Library was me, myself and I and I managed to plot out my WIP across the Library’s whiteboard. This solved a great deal of problems I had been having, including the writer’s block at the 21k before NaNoWrimo began. So, 3 hrs later I have a twelve page double spaced beat sheet from beginning to end. Some of what I wrote during NaNoWrimo is savable. The 76k I posted a few days ago is about to hacked at again, thankfully no page one re-write is needed.
So, I squeezed out another 1k and been limping along ever since. The good news is: The WIP DEATH BAR count is: Once I fill in more chapters, more chapters from the NaNo will be brought over. I’ve upped my end goal a bit, it may change, dunno…
*Once again a lovely conversation at one of Write Ins regarding human beings and electrocution. I’m one day behind from last year but I have successfully passed 50k with hitting the finish line tonight during our Johnston Write In. Today was a lovely day, sunny outside to drive down to the Exeter Write In at the Library managed to fill up to four people. Two of us made it to 50k. Went to the Gym, cleaned out my box at Rah-CoCo’s and then went to the Johnston Write In at Brewed. One of semi-regulars even flew out to San Fran for the night of Writing Dangerously. Judging from the tweets from Boston, there’s a 24 hr Write In currently going on. I’m happy to see our group is still so small. The pictures from Boston’s 2010 Write Ins looks like a logistical nightmare at first but some of those write ins are at a Conference Room at B+N which would be great in RI if they had Conference Rooms. So far headcount wise: Warwick, Cranston and Johnston seem to be attracting a fair amount of people. Next year I’m going to look into Woonsocket/Cumberland/Middletown/Newport areas. Assuming Exeter will have us back next year, I wonder if Saturday Write Ins will be worth it or not since we have three of us last week and four of us this week. So the current standing is: The NaNoWrimo DEATH BAR count is: I’m keeping the goal at 100000 because I figure a lot of what I wrote is complete crap and or could be shoved into the next book depending on how wide I want the scope of the current work in progress to span. For those keeping score with what I’ve done already: The WIP DEATH BAR count is:
A few brief words of advice about getting to 50k. A few NaNoWrimos back I tried to write a sci-fi space race with zombies. It was a sort of unofficial sequel to my zombie NaNoWrimo novel from the year before. Unfortunately, I got to 25k and after several Write Ins of starting at the blank page I hit page break and started a new story. Suffice to say I’ll be going back to the zombies once I’m done with the current work in progress. In the end, I made it to 50k and have two stories to edit soon or later. I’ve never been a fan of first person, but I’ve come around recently with the amount of Urban Fantasy I’ve been reading. So this next suggestion only works with third person. All of my works in progress is third person with several different points of view. One of those views is the villain. This allows for a few things to happen: First, you don’t stay with Harry Potter for the entire book and you get to stretch out the universe around your characters without talking heads, info dumping and the James Bondian villain explaining it all. It reminds me a bit of why I hate the plots of Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, the Empire POV lacked immensely due to there was no Empire POV and the Jedi’s were complete idiots. At least in New Hope, Empire and Jedi there were some Empire POV that moved the plot forward. Starting in the middle of the conversation helps a bit if you don’t want to deal with the slow build up. Deathbar Count update later on tonight…
Or, how I learned to embrace Weather Channel Jazz and powered through today to try and catch up with . Saturday’s Write In at Exeter Library went well. For three people we had enough munchkins to smother an entire Kindergarten Class. Going to Exeter in the morning is much better than at night. I’m happy Exeter either doesn’t believe in light pollution or enjoys driving down Ten Rod Rd in the dark but damn is Ten Rod Rd dark at night. The evening writing continued without a hitch. I’m happy to see %95 of the Writing Group has embraced Scrivener. And, most of this is without me harping on the application. It’s funny to see the Max Version is $5 higher than the Windows Version. The Windows Version has been recently updated, btw. Sunday’s Write In at Panera continues to work out well, thankfully 2pm on a Sunday while busy is not as busy as noon, the looks we’re getting are less and less. The Weather Channel Jazz is the same. One nugget of advice helped, switching the POV from the Hero instead to the Enemy. I’ve been doing that mine since I’ve stayed with the heroes for so long it’s time to bring out the villain and explain why the hell is he doing this to everyone. The drop off I was expecting is happening here and there. It’s great to see the regulars growing. Looks like two members of the Rhody Writers Group have finished manuscripts, one being the aforementioned and now Jen B. Yet more evidence I need to finish mine. The NaNoWrimo DEATH BAR count is:
*Once again more banter from a Write In. Write Ins are fun when you have different genres going a mile a minute. Last year I mentioned at one of the Cranston Write Ins we had mythical, sci-fi and then we had someone from the Newport Naval College making damn sure she had the dates right for Ancient Rome for electoral process, such as it was. This year at the CCRI Write In, a conversation started up about how to assault a police officer’s house, somehow get the heroine drugged and kidnapped while not killing the cop. This ranged from how smart are the bad guys, cutting the power to the house, drugging the food to digressing into the fact if you use a silencer too many times it stops being, well, silent. This was the first time we had a Write In at a College and the Student Lounge and rather large spaciousness worked out well for table space, electrical outlets and no Weather Channel Jazz! The randomness from the night before had dialed down to a one, the students ignored us but most of them were drooling over the rather large bowl of still %50 off Halloween Candy that will probably last us the rest of the month. As for a word count, I have finally gotten past for the moment. The NaNoWrimo DEATH BAR count is:
The name of these posts come from bits and pieces of conversations with NaNoWrimos at our local Write Ins. The title of this dove tails loverly into several aspects of Write Ins: Background music. Since this November and dependent on the place you go to, music is a playin’. In our case on Thursday Night at Brewed Awakenings in South County it was 90’s and it felt like High School all over again. Saturday night’s Brewed Awakenings was generally quieter than most since we have not approached what I like to call: Oh, wouldn’t it be fun to barrage our customers with the new Justin Beaver Christmas CD. Panera in Cranston it was Weather Channel Jazz for half of our Write In and standard loud Jazz afterwards. Loud enough that all of us with headphones in our ears were complaining about it. Blasting the Imperial March was not helping. Many times people don’t seem to care about this large group of people taking up the entire table with their laptops. Sometimes the occasional look from someone with a family of six was planning on using it but they find other seats and alls right in the world. Today, our general randomness dice rolled a twenty and we had people asking us what classes we were studying for to people wanting to know how they can read our stuff to one even asking advice of how his own work was going. Overall with this first week over, I think our Write In locations are going to work out well even if we’re maxing out at close to 10 people at every Write In. I’m happy more people are coming out, I’m just worried if it continues we’re going to run out space. Next year, I’ve vowed to do a few things: First, get on Warwick Public Library and Newport Library earlier in the year and take up a collection to use Providence Public Library or Cumberland. That leaves Panera and Brewed for the weekends is the plan for 2012. As for how the story is going, I’m close to the 13k range and adding that atop the 26k written pre-NaNoWrimo, I’m happy even if my numbers from last year were far higher than this year. Now back to some writing before The Walking Dead arrive…
Judging from last years pictures and this years pictures, the groups are gettin’ bigger. All in all had a good night at the Write In. I’ve been using the Storyist App and so far enjoying it. I haven’t used half of it’s features but I have several days off in a row coming up and hope to start using them. Word count is 3368. I’m borrowing Terri Osborne‘s an acronym for NaNoWrimo: FiMyDaNo = Finish My Damn Novel. So far, the 3k doesn’t suck and links in with the 23k I already had which so far doesn’t suck since I’ve been chapter editing through the Writing Group. Now time for some sleep…