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Wednesday, December 03, 2003
Microsoft has quietly released their own blogging community site:
Microsoft targets tech savvy youth
Microsoft targets tech savvy youth
Monday, December 01, 2003
Well, NaNoWriMo is over. As befits any literary artistic venture, let's start our recap by looking at the numbers:
(Note that the dates on here say 2002, but they're really 2003. Trust me.)
As you can tell from these graphs, this year's contest was marked by stretches of inactivity. For example, I wrote 5266 words on Nov. 12 alone, while during the week of Nov. 13 - Nov. 20 I only wrote 4326 words total. There were seven days in the month in which I didn't write at all, and there were three days in which I wrote 500 words or less. That's a good 30% of the month in which I didn't write much of anything. These are reflected in the averages: my overall average output was 1675.2 words per day; if you only look at the days in which I wrote, my average was 2185 words per day. If I'd kept that pace the entire month, I would have ended up with nearly 66,000 words.
Although I'm a little disappointed in my performance this year, I learned a lot. To wit:
Planning pays off (especially with characters)
My stated goal this year was to focus more on characters than on plot. I did this, but I failed to plan my characters carefully enough. I didn't spend enough time asking myself "Why are these characters interesting?" and "What might they do?". I was therefore disappointed to start writing and find out that the answers were a) they aren't and b) nothing.
I also didn't do a very good job of determining what my character's main issues were. You can't solve a problem if you don't know what it is, which is why I had so much trouble figuring out what my characters would do.
If I take this approach next year, I'll start out by writing some short test stories to try the characters out. This will help me evaluate if they're interesting or not, and it will give me a chance to try out different issues.
Keep writing
I made the fatal mistake of letting myself get in the habit of taking the day off. I was extremely busy, so it was tough not to, but failing to write anything on the third day of the contest was a bad idea. Once you fall of the wagon once, it just gets easier and easier.
The main problem with not writing is that it cuts off the flow of ideas. I let my mind get disconnected from the world I was trying to create, which made it hard for the ideas to present themselves. Every time I sat down to write I had to reacquaint myself with everything. Things finally started to click during the last week; not coincidentally, I averaged over 3300 words per day during that time.
Fiction is hard.
My goal this year was to write something that was actually "good". Needless to say, I failed in that quest, but I came one step closer by realizing how hard it is to write good fiction. For some reason I feel a little more confident knowing what it is I don't know. The next step is actually improving; I'm working on a plan for that. Weirdly, I actually feel like I'm in a better position to improve my writing now than I have been after the last two contests. Stockstock is right around the corner, though, so we'll see if that happens...
I've once again heard your calls for an excerpt from the novel, and I've once again assumed the fetal position. Last year I had an obvious excerpt to post, but this year it isn't so clear. I'll take it under consideration, but I'm not making any promises. I need to let it settle in my mind before I go back and read any of it.
Thanks to all of you who followed along during the contest. It means a lot to me that you kept reading. Things were looking dicey there for a while, and it would have been much easier to quit without your words of encouragement. I appreciate it!
(Note that the dates on here say 2002, but they're really 2003. Trust me.)
As you can tell from these graphs, this year's contest was marked by stretches of inactivity. For example, I wrote 5266 words on Nov. 12 alone, while during the week of Nov. 13 - Nov. 20 I only wrote 4326 words total. There were seven days in the month in which I didn't write at all, and there were three days in which I wrote 500 words or less. That's a good 30% of the month in which I didn't write much of anything. These are reflected in the averages: my overall average output was 1675.2 words per day; if you only look at the days in which I wrote, my average was 2185 words per day. If I'd kept that pace the entire month, I would have ended up with nearly 66,000 words.
Although I'm a little disappointed in my performance this year, I learned a lot. To wit:
Planning pays off (especially with characters)
My stated goal this year was to focus more on characters than on plot. I did this, but I failed to plan my characters carefully enough. I didn't spend enough time asking myself "Why are these characters interesting?" and "What might they do?". I was therefore disappointed to start writing and find out that the answers were a) they aren't and b) nothing.
I also didn't do a very good job of determining what my character's main issues were. You can't solve a problem if you don't know what it is, which is why I had so much trouble figuring out what my characters would do.
If I take this approach next year, I'll start out by writing some short test stories to try the characters out. This will help me evaluate if they're interesting or not, and it will give me a chance to try out different issues.
Keep writing
I made the fatal mistake of letting myself get in the habit of taking the day off. I was extremely busy, so it was tough not to, but failing to write anything on the third day of the contest was a bad idea. Once you fall of the wagon once, it just gets easier and easier.
The main problem with not writing is that it cuts off the flow of ideas. I let my mind get disconnected from the world I was trying to create, which made it hard for the ideas to present themselves. Every time I sat down to write I had to reacquaint myself with everything. Things finally started to click during the last week; not coincidentally, I averaged over 3300 words per day during that time.
Fiction is hard.
My goal this year was to write something that was actually "good". Needless to say, I failed in that quest, but I came one step closer by realizing how hard it is to write good fiction. For some reason I feel a little more confident knowing what it is I don't know. The next step is actually improving; I'm working on a plan for that. Weirdly, I actually feel like I'm in a better position to improve my writing now than I have been after the last two contests. Stockstock is right around the corner, though, so we'll see if that happens...
I've once again heard your calls for an excerpt from the novel, and I've once again assumed the fetal position. Last year I had an obvious excerpt to post, but this year it isn't so clear. I'll take it under consideration, but I'm not making any promises. I need to let it settle in my mind before I go back and read any of it.
Thanks to all of you who followed along during the contest. It means a lot to me that you kept reading. Things were looking dicey there for a while, and it would have been much easier to quit without your words of encouragement. I appreciate it!
Sunday, November 30, 2003
Victory!
I'll give more recap tomorrow. Right now it's time to go relax and celebrate.
I'll give more recap tomorrow. Right now it's time to go relax and celebrate.
| NaNoWriMo Update | ||
| Total Word Count: | 50256 | |
| Daily Word Count: | 3040 | |
| % Complete: | 100.51% | |
| +/-: | +0.15 days (256 words) | |
We're down to it. The hard miles are over. Four days of disciplined writing have put me within striking distance, and now it's time to sprint for the finish line.
I even came up with an ending, sort of. This is made less impressive by the fact that I have no beginning or middle, but at this point I'm taking what I can get. It's a kind of very sad and depressing ending, which is likely going to involve my main character perishing in the desert in a mildly horrible way. Am I feeling down, or am I merely down on the novel? I think perhaps it's the latter. Nevertheless, it looks like I'm going to make it.
I even came up with an ending, sort of. This is made less impressive by the fact that I have no beginning or middle, but at this point I'm taking what I can get. It's a kind of very sad and depressing ending, which is likely going to involve my main character perishing in the desert in a mildly horrible way. Am I feeling down, or am I merely down on the novel? I think perhaps it's the latter. Nevertheless, it looks like I'm going to make it.
| NaNoWriMo Update | ||
| Total Word Count: | 47216 | |
| Daily Word Count: | 3398 | |
| % Complete: | 94.43% | |
| +/-: | -1.23 days | |