NaNoWriMo progress thread

[JinzouTamashii]

As we all know, visual novels are nothing without the "novel" part, be they kinetic or multiple choice (even if you're graded on your answers). Did you know that tomorrow is the start of National Novel Writing Month?

You can read more about it here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/index.php?

You can use most word programs to keep track of your wordcount but the goal is 50,000 words by the end of one month. You can either write 1,666 words (approximately) each day or you can stagger it out.

The Critique Circle newsletter had a good summary so I'm going to quote it from my inbox, since I can't find a copy online:

Every year thousands of writers around the globe participate in NaNoWriMo.National Novel Writing Month. Some writers call it What Was I Thinking Month, or I've Gone Off the Deep End Month. And why is this? Because anyone signing up for Nanowrimo has one goal in mind-to complete a 50,000 word novel between the 1st and 30th of November.

The spirit of Nanowrimo is to lose the excuses, lock up the internal editor and get the butt-in-the-chair to write. Your book doesn't have to be an opus, but it does have to contain 50,000 words of brand new content.

Some people use this month to try a new genre, a new POV, or as a way to exercise their descriptive talents. Nanowrimo can be for serious writing production or just for fun-it's all up to you. :) Here's a great list of some of the past Nano novels that went on to publication!

There is no cost to join and no prizes, just bragging rights that you were crazy enough to enter and props if you succeed. Many CCers here join each year to take advantage of the no editing necessary train of thought and just WRITE.

How many of you are planning on giving your game a kickstart this month? Let's all work together! ＼（＾∀＾）メ（＾∀＾）ノ

[sake-bento]

We occasionally have NaNoRenO, which is the visual novel equivalent of NaNoWriMo. People work alone or together to make a visual novel over the span of one month.

I always use it to give some much needed acceleration to my projects, especially in the art department. Which means it's time to get going, ne? ~Yossha!

[JinzouTamashii]

If you're joining it, go ahead and post your progress here! The passage I did introduced another arc character already mentioned in my story. I'll probably prune some of the more redundant passages down later on so being a little over mark isn't too bad.

Should we share our entries here?

Daily word count: 2,006

[Strum]

I'm not joining, but I'd like to post the word count for my project word count anyway.

Code: Select all

Ren'Py 6.9.3c lint report, generated at: Sun Nov 01 22:37:52 2009


Statistics:

The game contains 4189 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 57455 words,
for an average of 13.7 words per screen.
The game contains 9 menus.

Remember to set config.developer to False before releasing.

Lint is not a substitute for thorough testing. Remember to update Ren'Py
before releasing. New releases fix bugs and improve compatibility.

[JinzouTamashii]

Sure! Are you going to be working using NaNoWriMo to incorporate 1,600 words a day into script.rpy?

My current one is

Code: Select all

Statistics:

The game contains 2806 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 30481 words,
for an average of 10.9 words per screen.
The game contains 12 menus.

so it's not nearly so long as yours yet.

[Strum]

lol I'm not entering, and you're only a little bit behind. 2806 screens of dialogue isn't bad, well over 2 hours worth of gameplay, even longer if it was a kinetic novel (although it isn't)

[AllegroDiRossi]

I'm going to be doing NaNo this year to work on my VN!
And I'm sooooo determined to win this year, since I'm already 0 for 3 XD.

I just have to worry about school and work getting in my way, but I'm determined!
I was about to start writing just now, haha.

I'll return to post my wordcount when I'm done, ;]

Edit:

Today's Wordcount: Needed: 3334 // Actual: 3418 // Difference: +84 // ToGo: 46592

Considering I didn't write at all on the first, I'm pretty proud of today's totals. =]

[JinzouTamashii]

I'm going to be doing NaNo this year to work on my VN!
And I'm sooooo determined to win this year, since I'm already 0 for 3 XD.

I just have to worry about school and work getting in my way, but I'm determined!
I was about to start writing just now, haha.

I'll return to post my wordcount when I'm done, ;]

So you've tried this before... what kept you from finishing? I only use an hour a day to write in either the nights, on a lunch break or the mornings and that's all it really takes to write 1,500 words or so.

Wordcount: 3,351. A little low today, 300 under par. I'll have to make up for it tomorrow.

I've already exhausted my ideas...!? Time to start pulling things out of my ass for the rest of the arc...

[AllegroDiRossi]

I like to blame the fact that I'm a busy, busy art student.
But it's mainly just laziness and no motivation.
I never would make the time for it,
choosing instead to hang out with friends or do other things.

I'm really determined to go for it this year though,
and I think one of the driving motivations is that I really see this project being a great VN.
I know my aspirations are pretty lofty,
but I'd like to go commercial with this project if possible.

[Showsni]

50,000 words - what kind of page count is that? I just can't visualise how long something is when told in words...
Actually, I can probably google that myself. About 200 pages. Okay.
Well, I'm not doing anything else this month... Maybe I'll give it a go...

[JinzouTamashii]

Total word count today: 5,066.

Technically, I slipped over past midnight so it wasn't all written on the 3rd. I'm just using Critique Circle's Paragraph-A-Day tool in order to add to it every day and NaNoWriMo's Novel Info to update the total word count.

I honestly thought that I wouldn't be able to do it today, but I pulled through using some notes on one little post-it and some philosophy (Sorite's Paradox) that I looked up yesterday.

Man, NaNoWriMo is crazy. I can feel how unpolished the writing is, but the plot is really tripping along. Since I don't have much time to think it over and I get bored easily, I'm just glossing over the boring parts and hitting the high notes: the action, the mysteries, the establishment of character traits.

It's a great way to get to know some of my more neglected characters, though, since these are the final three added in that haven't really been detailed a whole lot yet.

[chronoluminaire]

I do NaNoWriMo each year, and so I've started this year as well. It always puts a halt on my VN development for a month or two (sorry, people waiting for Mermaid Liaisons!)

This is the third year in a row I've got people flying around in vehicles that aren't planes 2007 I had classic Victoriana-style steampunk with zeppelins, 2008 I had an alternotech desert preacher and a robot builder flying around in a hoverchapel, and this year I've got a young dreamer flying copilot in skyships somewhere between Last Exile and this image. Current wordcount is 3726, but I hope to catch up a bit tonight...

[JinzouTamashii]

Good luck with your entry! It sounds really exciting. I would enjoy reading it, I think. I'll even withhold comment until the 30th.

Hummm. Should we post our writings? While the short stands alone, I'm afraid that it might spoil people on one of the arcs and some future twists of Sum of the Parts...

[JinzouTamashii]

How miserable. I had more ideas but I only managed to write 600 words today (although I had plenty of ideas about things on the main VN events, probably as a result of blocking on the NaNoWriMo arc)... I need to make it up with 2,700 words tomorrow or I'll start falling behind and losing motivation for regular output.

In hindsight, I should jot down my ideas. I still remember them and they're still clear in my head, but when I have something to look at—even if it's just a post-it note—every little bit helps.

[JinzouTamashii]

I had to go into the bathroom, check to make sure no one was there, and whoop with joy, I'm so happy! I finally figured out where I'm going with it. My writer's block is gone!

It's not even some plot twist or anything hackneyed like that, but a natural progression of events... I hadn't written myself into a hole at all, I just wasn't thinking outside of the box. I don't need to write my daily entries in chronological sequence but in terms of their natural importance to the story and the characters. It just came down like a bolt of lightning crashing down from on high into a metal tower at midnight.

Well, I didn't think my way through it exactly but I was reading and thinking about some unrelated thing and it all crystallized for me for one brief, beautiful instant— where I could see the shapes I had made and their destination all at once.