*cheers SL on*

I've actually managed to stay a little ahead this year, which is surprising for me. Something else surprising about this year's NaNo is the change in main characters and emphasis that the novel has taken from what I've always envisioned as this story. I'd always imagined it as being mainly the story of this orphan girl and the family of Centaurs that adopts her, with the story of the world's Big Bad and his descent into darkness as the backdrop and one of my mystery figures from the series making an appearance in the later sections. As I've been writing, however, it's beginning to reverse all of that, with the Big Bad and the mystery figure as the main plotlines and the orphan/Centaur plotline as background. I think they may balance out once I get a bit further into the story, but it's going to be much larger than I'd originally planned (I'm thinking upwards of 100k if I spend the time on everything that I need to; this is possibly my first real foray into "epic" fantasy). I've also added a prologue which is a fair bit darker than I'd anticipated. I'd actually like to run that section by you, SL, to see what you think of it.

I love prologues! Yeah, pass it over this way and I'll give it a gander. My "hero" character is in the middle of a chase right now. There's a giant mystery critter just crawled up out of nowhere and he's tracking it down with a hunter to see what it is. The battle is just about to start. I have a hard time writing melee combat...I want it to read like it's real but I worry it all ends up looking like a 4 year old is explaining it. "Big monster got hit by axe. Then he said "OOOWWW", etc.

All of my writing sounds like a four year old explaining it. Due to some unfortunate circumstances in my life I recently had a day to myself and for some reason I started writing and got to 10,000 words. I'm not sure what nonsense I just wrote. I'm not even sure what's happening or why I keep writing.

So I guess I'm doing it.

I love prologues! Yeah, pass it over this way and I'll give it a gander. ... I have a hard time writing melee combat...I want it to read like it's real but I worry it all ends up looking like a 4 year old is explaining it. "Big monster got hit by axe. Then he said "OOOWWW", etc.

Thanks!

Yeah, I always have a hard time writing combat of any kind. I can picture it in my head, but I can't seem to get it on the page the way writer like R.A. Salvatore and Robert Jordan do; granted they're the two authors I've read who seem to really understand battle and dueling on a level to describe it properly, so I shouldn't be comparing them with myself.

I didn't quite make 1667 words today, but I had a little wiggle room from this week, so I'm still on par. I'd like to more than make up for that tomorrow, since I'm fairly certain I'll need close to if not upwards of 100k for this novel, so if anyone is up for a word war in the afternoon/evening, I'll be around.

I did find a fun and helpful thread on the NaNo forums in the word wars and prompts subforum called a crawl. It presents small goals that build on each other (100 words here, 400 there) and I was able to work up to today's par count fairly quickly despite being fairly drained when I started writing.

Well, I reached my first goal and decided that I could allow myself to post. I'm afraid of spending too much time on the net and not enough on writing

So far, so good. This book is practically writing itself, at least it was until today. Today was a slog.

Glad to see everyone else's progress.

All of my writing sounds like a four year old explaining it.

I often feel that way too.

It's hard to believe we're almost halfway through the month! I keep thinking I just started a few days ago and that it's pretty impressive that I'm as far as I am but...

I managed to write myself a bit of padding in my word count and now I'm taking a few days to go back over the beginning/middle and leisurely consider how to take a few info dumps and work them into the scenes more naturally (and polish some of that very basic so-and-so did this and said that to something a bit more descriptive and evocative.)

I'm a little bit behind at just over 18,000 words. I can't seem to get on schedule. I'm probably just going to give up.

I love prologues! Yeah, pass it over this way and I'll give it a gander. ... I have a hard time writing melee combat...I want it to read like it's real but I worry it all ends up looking like a 4 year old is explaining it. "Big monster got hit by axe. Then he said "OOOWWW", etc.

Thanks!

Yeah, I always have a hard time writing combat of any kind. I can picture it in my head, but I can't seem to get it on the page the way writer like R.A. Salvatore and Robert Jordan do; granted they're the two authors I've read who seem to really understand battle and dueling on a level to describe it properly, so I shouldn't be comparing them with myself.

Combat has always been my biggest weakness in writing. I remember when I was taking a screenwriting class in college, and I was having a hard time figuring out the battle at the end, so I went to my brother for some help, since he's really good with strategy and stuff. When I explained what I had in mind, he said to me, "You've got to stop thinking of medieval battles!" (it was a sci-fi)--I had completely forgotten about air combat! So yeah, I'm glad that my NaNo story doesn't have any big battles or anything.

So I changed my title from Mademoiselle Butterfly to Chrysalis, based on a suggestion from the forums. My original title didn't really fit the sci-fi genre, so I wanted to change it to something more appropriate.

Okay, I better get off the forums and get some writing done, since I'm behind...

I'm a little bit behind at just over 18,000 words. I can't seem to get on schedule. I'm probably just going to give up.

Don't give up!! Keep writing, even if you don't catch up, because then you'll at least have something!!

Have you ever participated in NaNoWriMo before?
Never. What is it exactly? Where do you write to? And what sort of subjects are you allowed to write about? Is it something connected to this site? Does it have to be fiction or can it be at least partly non-fiction? Does it have to be written from the 3rd person or can you write something from your own point of view?

How many times did you win?
Er, never, since I haven't participated beforehand. I have written on LiveJournal a fanfic of what might have happened to Susan Pevensie, but I'd like to try writing about other things.

What are you planning to write this year?

I'd like to write, or at least begin to write, something about Sydney, the nickname of which is Emerald City. It would be very easy to turn a story about Sydney into something that resembles life in the mythical Oz as well as the actual Oz.

Are you a planner or a pantser

Not sure. Probably a pantser (writing as I think) who knows in my heart I should plan things out.

Good questions, wagga!

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is not affiliated with NarniaWeb, though a number of us participate. The gist of it is to write 50,000 words of a novel (fiction) during the month of November.

You can write it from any POV, even switching between them if you wish. It's entirely up to you. Sci-fi, fantasy, fan fiction, romance, historical fiction - any fiction at all is fair game.

You write it on your own computer, tablet, notebook, anything. You don't post it anywhere. (however, you can post excerpts on the NaNo website). This site also includes a discussion forum and lots of info on how it all works).

It's entirely based on the honor system. The prize is your novel - 50k words you didn't have on October 31 - or more words than that if you wish. Sponsors do offer prizes for those who reach this mark (such as a proof copy of your novel).

Read more about it here.

I've fallen seriously behind the pace since I'm all too easily distracted, but today was a good day with close to 3k new words under the belt. Coming up on 20k so if I can get some discipline I hope to catch up.

Just passed the halfway mark!! 25,000 words! Never thought it would feel this awesome.

I was assaulted by a cold this weekend and got next to no writing done from Friday night till this morning. My wife is beginning to think that participating in NaNo jinxes my health in November.

Anyway, I'm about 4300 words behind at the moment. I'm hoping I can recover that this week. Good luck to everyone else on catching up!

I'm much further back than you are. I wrote 1000 words last night, more or less, but it's just not coming to me as fast as I'd like. It's also kind of difficult when you have a 3 year old wanting to climb on your lap and asking if you want to go play a game or do a puzzle every 10 minutes