NanoWrimo, Hemingway and Overcoming Procrastination

raj808 (71) in writing • 5 years ago (edited)

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5 years ago by raj808 (71)

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lennstar (66) · 5 years ago

Planning character arcs, tracking timelines and plotting a novel is a herculean task.

Not if you are a pantser like me ;)
Or let's say I do the work while writing.

btw. Scrivener has a NaNo template. (Maybe not in the original download, but you can dl it somewhere). It has e.g. the 50K words wired in.

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raj808 (71) · 5 years ago

Ha ha.... damn you pantser have it easy ;-)

I'm writing a fantasy trilogy for which I've had a lot of the world building done for years. Unfortunately through the planning process for novel number one I'm discovering there is a tone of political and social background missing which I need to make notes on before I dive into actually writing the prose 🤣

Such is life.

btw. Scrivener has a NaNo template. (Maybe not in the original download, but you can dl it somewhere). It has e.g. the 50K words wired in.

Cheers dude. Yeah I discovered a load of different templates, and I've gone with the KM Weiland Template as well as another fantasy specific one for world building. I need to do this level of prep to give me a chance of hitting the jackpot and writing the next HBO mega series ;-)

P.s. that KM Weiland Template is really good for any genre of novel, or literary fiction 🙂👍 Thanks for your comment @lennstar

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lennstar (66) · 5 years ago

We pantsers have it easy? We have to do what you do in years in mere minutes! :D

We have to invent a technology (and how it works) on the fly, invent a pantheon as the priest holds his midsummer speech...

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raj808 (71) · 5 years ago

We pantsers have it easy? We have to do what you do in years in mere minutes! :D

Ha ha, fair enough 😆 I couldn't do it on the fly, certainly not fantasy fiction anyway. I think I could maybe try flying by my pants with a literary fiction or crime drama, I'm too deep down the rabbit hole now though 😉

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lennstar (66) · 5 years ago

Try it next year. I always have a year specific challenge for NaNo.
Doing it the pantser way sounds like a good opportunity do learn something.

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marcoriccardi (59) · 5 years ago (edited)

Good luck @raj808! You have all the credentials to succeed in this adventure. the intentions are very good, especially not to get distracted and not waste energy on Steemit or other platforms, I am brutally honest in saying this.

I also thought of taking part in this NaNoWriMo (there is an Italian group, I could not write in English with the required cadence and precision), but as soon as I formulated this thought, I received news of imminent changes at work and one of my fellow game designers showed up with a proposal for a new role-playing game, so Murphy's law struck again ...

But I'm sure you'll make it!

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2 votes

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raj808 (71) · 5 years ago (edited)

Thanks dude. I came up with the concept and very basic plot last night and I can reveal it's a fantasy novel I'm going to be writing. There is actually a short story I put up on steem 2 years ago that is written in my fantasy world.

Check it out of you have the time and like fantasy. I think this might have been before you joined steem, or before we met through the FTS and bananafish.

The Gelded One

I'm contemplating making the character described in that story one of the main characters in the novel.

Good luck with the new game you're developing at work. It's a shame you couldn't do NanoWrimo, but creating computer games is it's own type of story telling 🙂👍

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crescendoofpeace (63) · 5 years ago

Woo hoo, go @raj808, I know that you can conquer #nanowrimo with the best of them!

I was actually planning to take part this time around, but since I would be simultaneously editing a series of posts into book format, my husband rightfully dissuaded me, and urged me to finish the current book first.

I do have a strong tendency to take on too many projects at once.

And I so agree . . . a number of books I've read in recent years seem to have been written by people who don't appear to have read much, or widely, with the predictable result that their books don't usually hold my interest.

I like to learn something when I read, or at least see something in a new way, and that goes for fiction as well as nonfiction.

So we'll miss your posts and conversation, but we'll be here when you get back, and I wish you all the best in completing your first draft quickly and well.
;-)

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raj808 (71) · 5 years ago (edited)

I was actually planning to take part this time around, but since I would be simultaneously editing a series of posts into book format, my husband rightfully dissuaded me, and urged me to finish the current book first.

It's always a payoff on what you have time to do. For me, cause I'm limited by illness I've got to prioritize time even more. What others take 3 hours after work to blog on steem takes me half a day. I'm gonna spend that time writing a novel for the next 30 days 🙂

#gonanowrimo 🤣

Thanks for the encouragement 👍

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crescendoofpeace (63) · 5 years ago

Good for you. Wishing you all the best, in every way!

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raj808 (71) · 5 years ago

P.s. of you like fiction that flips your head and excites the mind I would recommend haruki murikami's most magical trilogy of books... '1Q84'.

If you want to read a modern classic in the magical realism genre there is nothing better. If I ever write a book even half as good as murikami I will consider my work on this earth complete.

1Q84 is pretty out there to be honest. If you want something a little less trippy check out his book 'kafka on the shore'

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crescendoofpeace (63) · 5 years ago

Funny, I've been reading several of his essays recently. And trippy works for me. ;-)

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kaelci (67) · 5 years ago

Good luck! May you overcome procrastination (a struggle I find, also) and may you love Scrivener as much as I do. :D

I don't recall there being a yearly license; I bought mine outright for... $45-$50 or so I think it was? Anyway. Scrivener 3 will be a free upgrade for those who already have the current Scrivener (on Windows), and eeeeee, it has a dark mode. My poor eyes can't wait. ~ It took me a long time to get into it... for some reason I preferred a massive word document with a jumbled mess of story and information, but once I did there's just no going back. xD

_{As for Procrastination... I stared at my Scrivener yesterday, wrote about 500 words, then looked around me and decided to clean the house. Literally scrub it. I am not the most cleanliest of people but I decided to maniacally clean rather than write.}

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raj808 (71) · 5 years ago (edited)

Cheers dude.

Ha ha, yeah I need the strict routines to not become distracted 🤣

To be honest this is the reason for all these plans... just to remove the distractions and spend that time reading or doing other things that will encourage inspiration.

P.s. I think scrivener is a payment for life, I was just in a rush writing this blog lol

It's a great program 🙂

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bananafish (61) · 5 years ago

Good luck! We cheer for you, a Bananafish Knight in a glorious quest!
We look forward to knowing the results, when the NaNoWriMo will be finished.

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raj808 (71) · 5 years ago

Cheers @bananafish

If I complete this quest expect much promotion on the steem blockchain within the next 6 months... and, I hope, finding my novel in all good book shops out there.

That's what I'm aiming for, no half measures with this one 😉

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gwilberiol (57) · 5 years ago

Just pitching in to say that I have loved Scrivener since way back when, and I do almost all of my writing on that software. I seem to recall it's not a yearly license, you buy it once and it's yours forever, but perhaps you got a better offer.

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raj808 (71) · 5 years ago

I think scrivener is a payment for life, I was just in a rush writing this blog lol I got that wrong.

It's a great program from what I can see 🙂

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helpiecake (54) · 5 years ago

Hello!

This post has been manually curated, resteemed
and gifted with some virtually delicious cake
from the @helpiecake curation team!

Much love to you from all of us at @helpie!
Keep up the great work!

Manually curated by @ashikstd.

_{@helpie is a Community Witness.}

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raj808 (71) · 5 years ago

Thanks helpiecake 🙂

And thank you @ashikstd for curating my post, much appreciated m8 👍🙂

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ashikstd (71) · 5 years ago

A pleasure.
It's a nice post.

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shadowspub (70) · 5 years ago

Good luck on getting that first draft ready to roll.

I love Scrivener. Do all my writing in it including my posts for Steem and Medium.

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raj808 (71) · 5 years ago

Thanks dude :)

I'm gonna be dropping updates in steem but for the time being I'm kinda on procrastination alert to stop myself from veering away from scrivener to end up reading and commenting on steem. Lol, I wish I didn't have such an easily distracted personality type sometimes but at least I realize what I gotta do to stay productive on this novel project ;-)

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myrockandocean (57) · 5 years ago

Good luck!!! Thank you so much for this detailed behind the scene works of professional writers! I will take many good points above and implement it myself! Courage 💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽!!

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raj808 (71) · 5 years ago

Cheers dude.

Yeah, I need the courage to not become distracted 🤣

To be honest this is the reason for all these plans... just to remove the distractions and spend that time reading or doing other things that will encourage inspiration.

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owasco (67) · 5 years ago

Oh boy do I ever wish you luck! I can't imagine taking this on. Love the scrivener tools. The longest story I ever wrote (yesterday) was 500 words, and making even that little into a cohesive story is a lot of work.
I'll try to stop in and read what you write often.
Good luck!!!!

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raj808 (71) · 5 years ago

Thanks owasco :)

I'm gonna be dropping updates in steem about my progress but for the time being I'm kinda on procrastination alert to stop myself from veering away from scrivener to end up reading and commenting on steem to much Lol.

I wish I didn't have such an easily distracted personality type sometimes but at least I realize what I gotta do to stay productive on this novel project ;-)

I can't imagine taking this on. Love the scrivener tools. The longest story I ever wrote (yesterday) was 500 words, and making even that little into a cohesive story is a lot of work.

ha ha, yeah any writing project is a mission to really get it high quality and your writing is great owasco!

I've put quite a few 3000+ word short stories up on steem and had a few longer works published outside of steem. My best 3000+ word short stories on steem are:

The Gelded One (Fantasy Fiction)
Product Placement (Literary Fiction)
The Madness of the Gods (Fantasy/Mythic Fiction)
Astral Echoes (Fantasy Fiction set in an alternative world Bangkok)
The Orca and the Albatross (Magic Realism Genre)

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creativecrypto (79) · 5 years ago

Hello @raj808, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!

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