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Gavin Greig [userpic]

A Novel Feeling

November 29th, 2006 (10:57 pm)
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current location: KY16 8SX
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I haven't posted much in November because, pretty much on a whim, I signed up to do NaNoWriMo this year. I've never had any great ambition to write a novel, but it seemed like an interesting challenge to pump out 50,000 words in a month, and I used to have an imagination at one point. I thought I'd try reviving it.

Earlier this evening, I passed the "finish line" of 50,000 words. Having just churned out 50k words in my spare time, I'll wait until I've had a bit of a break from writing before posting anything more substantial on this subject (probably after the weekend), but this is just the post to say:

w00t! Official NaNoWriMo 2006 Winner

Comments

Posted by: Alice Dryden (huskyteer)
Posted at: November 29th, 2006 10:57 pm (UTC)
 Velma Dinkley

Whoohoo! Congrats!

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Posted by: Gavin Greig (ggreig)
Posted at: November 29th, 2006 11:00 pm (UTC)
 Blockhead

Thanks huskyteer. Your success at doing this the other year was an inspiration.

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Posted by: silverwhistle (silverwhistle)
Posted at: November 30th, 2006 12:53 am (UTC)
 Smiley Rosa

My friend loupnoir has had less happy experiences of it, which rather colours my view of it: NaNoWriMo. I wasn't surprised it ended up this way: she has other writing projects on the boil, and she likes to take her time with them. The whole 'deadline' concept is something I associate with work (as a student, writing thesis, and various tasks at work). Imposing deadlines on fun... Nope.

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Posted by: Gavin Greig (ggreig)
Posted at: November 30th, 2006 07:18 am (UTC)

Horses for courses; having read loupnoir's comment, it seems likely she's not really their target audience. She doesn't need the external motivation to write enough that NaNoWriMo can provide, and that is NaNoWriMo's main aim. Experience has now shown that she's not comfortable with the other thing NaNoWriMo encourages: speed of delivery. The trade-off doens't work for her.

That doesn't make either loupnoir or NaNoWriMo "wrong"; they're just not right for each other. Fair enough, and good for her for trying it for size.

I'm sorry she feels she's "lost" as a result; personally I would say that writing 35k words is pretty good, and being happy with what you've written is far more important than hitting an artificial deadline.

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Posted by: silverwhistle (silverwhistle)
Posted at: November 30th, 2006 10:53 am (UTC)
 Rudel

I'm sorry she feels she's "lost" as a result; personally I would say that writing 35k words is pretty good, and being happy with what you've written is far more important than hitting an artificial deadline.

I hate the whole "quantity-within-deadline as sole measure" issue with exercises like this. Pressuring people - by peer-pressure, which seems to me how it works, as a word-of-mouth thing - to feel that they've "lost" because they don't write that way is wrong; and as I said before, what it will encourage are people who are prolific at pouring out things that are, shall we say, less considered. (It's about the speed that Barbara Cartland used to work at!)

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Posted by: Gavin Greig (ggreig)
Posted at: November 30th, 2006 12:09 pm (UTC)

I'll write more about this next week.

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Posted by: silverwhistle (silverwhistle)
Posted at: November 30th, 2006 06:25 pm (UTC)
 Smiley Rosa

If it's very much a first draft, and is going to be polished up later, fine; but speed isn't the most important thing in writing.

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Posted by: silverwhistle (silverwhistle)
Posted at: November 29th, 2006 11:11 pm (UTC)
 Smiley Rosa

Well done! What sort?

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Posted by: Gavin Greig (ggreig)
Posted at: November 30th, 2006 12:01 am (UTC)

I would like to be able to say it's a scientific romance, but steampunk is probably more accurate.

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Posted by: silverwhistle (silverwhistle)
Posted at: November 30th, 2006 12:03 am (UTC)
 Rudel

Steampunk is worthwhile. There is not enough of it about.

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Posted by: myceliumme (myceliumme)
Posted at: November 29th, 2006 11:54 pm (UTC)

Very impressed! I've always found your blog entries to be entertaining, pithy and often thought-provoking. But I can see that writing a novel is a much greater challenge and I admire your gumption, sirrah!

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Posted by: Gavin Greig (ggreig)
Posted at: November 30th, 2006 12:01 am (UTC)

Thanks!

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Posted by: myceliumme (myceliumme)
Posted at: November 30th, 2006 12:02 pm (UTC)

WIll you publish your œuvre in any way?

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Posted by: Gavin Greig (ggreig)
Posted at: November 30th, 2006 12:15 pm (UTC)

I hope so, but not now and who knows how. I'll expand on that next week when I get round to writing a proper post on the subject.

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Posted by: Nik Whitehead (sharikkamur)
Posted at: November 30th, 2006 10:39 am (UTC)

Woo-hoo indeed! I've had such a month at work that I got about 700 words done on day one and that's it - which annoys me greatly.

Congratulations!

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Posted by: Gavin Greig (ggreig)
Posted at: November 30th, 2006 10:59 am (UTC)

Thanks. I'm sorry you didn't manage to fit it in, but when I saw you had an earthquake on day one I thought to myself "Uh-oh..."!

I found it a bit difficult at times to keep up, and I don't have your responsibilities.

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Posted by: Nik Whitehead (sharikkamur)
Posted at: November 30th, 2006 12:03 pm (UTC)

I shall attempt it again next year. Hopefully things will be a little less fraught by then. :)

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Posted by: Gavin Greig (ggreig)
Posted at: November 30th, 2006 12:42 pm (UTC)

I'll be cheering you on! :)

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Posted by: msinvisfem (msinvisfem)
Posted at: November 30th, 2006 04:41 pm (UTC)
 Evil Capitalist Pig Hat

As I have already said to you, "Congratulations."

Now that we (myself and other gamers) know that you don't have any problems coming up with storylines, I think it is time you actually sat down and figured out some game rules for your steampunk game. Or at the very least sit down and learn the Forgotten Futures rules set... :-P

**I casually move out of online contact again.**

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Posted by: Gavin Greig (ggreig)
Posted at: November 30th, 2006 06:55 pm (UTC)

Eek! :-)

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