Panic Time! How are you guys doing?
Oct. 30th, 2010 08:21 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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nanowrimo_ljRegardless of where you are we now have less than 48 hours until the official start of NaNoWriMo.
It is officiallypanic crunch time.
Are you ready? What type of last minute preparations are you doing? (if any)
Better yet, what type of shiny things have you found to help you procrastinate getting ready? Have you spent hours that were meant to be for plotting cruising tvtropes? Get online intending to research and plot but instead went on omegle to troll strangers? Or have you just sat down to start planning when... oh man... you suddenly feel so hungry and snackish that you have the odd desire to bake a cake!
It is officially
Are you ready? What type of last minute preparations are you doing? (if any)
Better yet, what type of shiny things have you found to help you procrastinate getting ready? Have you spent hours that were meant to be for plotting cruising tvtropes? Get online intending to research and plot but instead went on omegle to troll strangers? Or have you just sat down to start planning when... oh man... you suddenly feel so hungry and snackish that you have the odd desire to bake a cake!
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Date: 2010-10-30 03:29 pm (UTC)I have six, possibly SEVEN story ideas to choose from, and three writing programs I've been fiddling with when I should really probably just use Word again. But I've been really, really busy organizing and re-labeling my library of eBooks in calibre, which I also just dl'ed this week. It's very, very important that I do this. Yep. Serious.
*goes to corner to quietly freak out and weep*
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Date: 2010-10-30 03:30 pm (UTC)i've got an extra 4 kids 2 days that i know of in the first week and a half in November, and my Mr. will be out for a few days in the last half. And my kids will be out fo school for a week, and i'll be making Thanksgiving dinner for i don't even know how many yet. Pies out the ying-yang, though.
But i am pretty sure if i pay more attention to when i am doing what, i can still get it done.
Prep - make sure the laptop is charged. Create a few playlists of music. Clean off my desk. The end.
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Date: 2010-10-30 03:30 pm (UTC)I just realized that I need to plot out the characters for my second and third (and possibly fourth) plots since I'm trying to get to 100k and I'm sure that my current one won't even make it to 50k.
And TV Tropes and LiveJournal and FanFiction.net, RuneScape, and especially the NaNo forums have been major distractions. I've also used baking cookies as a way of procrastinating.
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Date: 2010-10-30 03:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-30 03:35 pm (UTC)... yeah, my plot is about maybe half-done? And it keeps changing. Which is quite inconvenient.
I found out that people make NaNo resources so I have been happily making spreadsheets and wallpapers and all sorts of things. And now my mother brought home a pumpkin for me to carve. NOT HELPING.
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Date: 2010-10-30 03:37 pm (UTC)As for procrastination methods, I've been crawling through the NaNo boards and listening to podcasts. I've also been trying to edit other stories but that's half procrastination half productivity, so y'iknow.
I am going to try to go over my notes tonight or tomorrow and inset some of the subplots into my outline before it gets too late (I've got a list going from the Adopt A Subplot thread) and try and make a final character list. I also might try and make a list of who's coming in where but we'll see.
I still don't know where the damn story is taking place but we'll ignore that part in favor of muffins.
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Date: 2010-10-30 03:38 pm (UTC)And somehow not all that panicked really, this is weird.
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Date: 2010-10-30 03:41 pm (UTC)*Quietly freaking out*
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Date: 2010-10-30 03:42 pm (UTC)To The
CloudCampaign Cartographer!(Thank god I don't have to work this weekend, too.)
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Date: 2010-10-30 03:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-30 03:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-30 04:29 pm (UTC)Good luck!
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Date: 2010-10-30 03:59 pm (UTC)Additionally, I have a NaNoBackPack, which I need to take a picture of later today. It contains:
- my netbook (loaded with the Scrivener beta!) and charger, as well as several different types of USB cables for charging things
- my headphones for when I need to shut out the world
- my writing binder (it's got paper, pens, and also holds my copy of "No Plot, No Problem!" as well as a short article on "How to Write a Successful Story" I found years ago)
- My Inception shooting script (it's kind of my totem, shut up)
- and Cobb Zombie (http://i55.tinypic.com/4in4op.jpg), threat to all Inner Editors everywhere! He threatens to eat Her brains if She doesn't shut up, and mine if I don't write!
I've found Scrivener to be indispensable when it comes to organizing plot ideas and notes for my novel; I'm so glad it's finally coming out for Windows.
Additionally, since I am iPod-less, my phone is filled with my favorite instrumental CDs (and some of my favorite vocal CDs too, just in case) to put me in the mood to write whenever and wherever. I'm okay. For now.
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Date: 2010-10-30 04:07 pm (UTC)Also, what is Scrivener?
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Date: 2010-10-30 04:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-30 04:05 pm (UTC)It doesn't help that I'm also wrestling with enrolling into community college for spring of next year so I have so much to do on top of writing 50k ;____;
I've found a new source of procrastination called Echo Bazaar (http://echobazaar.failbettergames.com/), which is this cool free online game. It's like a Victorian-era mystery and very fun ♥ I really shouldn't be procrastinating, though :|
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Date: 2010-10-30 04:08 pm (UTC)Actually, I think I might have been reading roleplaying manuals instead of preparing. Which is... kind of like preparing, I suppose, since my novel takes place in a world with the same general tone as the game I've been reading... ^_^;
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Date: 2010-10-30 04:17 pm (UTC)+ go downtown and pick up my Very Special NaNo Levenger Circa Notebook (HTTP://www.levenger.com/PAGETEMPLATES/PRODUCT/Product.asp?Params=Category=326-339|Level=2-3|pageid=7312) (the blue. Yum)(/spend all my dollars) and maybe have their pen geniuses outfit me with a new spangly pen that's just ~*~perfect~*~ for the way I write(/spend all my dollars)
+ Roast some pumpkin seeds
+ Finish knitting my new lucky writing hat since my old lucky writing hat got lost in my last move (bawwwww)
+ Scribble some plottish notes
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Date: 2010-10-30 04:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2010-10-30 04:33 pm (UTC)Now, when it comes to the whole being mentally prepared, um, well...hm. We'll see. My schedule is actually perfect for the first day. I've got Halloween night off and also the following Monday. We'll see if that helps at all, though.
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Date: 2010-10-30 04:35 pm (UTC)As far as the planning I'm still frantically trying to cram in over the next two days, my method of "outlining" basically consists of trying to write down at least thirty general-to-specific plot points so that I know I'll have something to write about every day of the month. Right now I'm at seven. *sigh*
Procrastination methods mainly involve just putzing around LJ, playing video games, and trying to stay on top of the four online classes I'm taking for two different degrees at two different schools. I won't even touch TV Tropes with a ten-foot pole; I know how that always turns out! I've also been avoiding the NaNo forums for the same reason.
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Date: 2010-10-30 04:40 pm (UTC)I am finishing the last 5k of the Glee Big Bang that I am working on today and doing a weeks worth of homework for my class and getting ready for Halloween/Nano by shopping and having to go to my parents house tonight. I feel like all I'm doing is preparing and not actually being ready.
And I still need to fill the last few holes in my plot for my nano too.
I'm basically flailing around.
Just figured out the outcome!
Date: 2010-10-30 04:49 pm (UTC)When it came to Stocks & Bondage (http://neverett.blogspot.com/2010/10/stocks-bondage.html), though, I've had a lot of what happens in mind, but not what the outcome is. I know that the key has always been in the six computers that the dead woman has in her home. (Why else would you hire a computer forensics detective to investigate the death?) But I really had no idea what was on the computers that was so important. I had thought vaguely that it had to do with finance or credit card theft. But this morning as I tossed between not enough sleep and have to get up, it finally dawned on me. Oh my! Suddenly, my book not only has action, it has an outcome and it is mind-boggling. No wonder Deb Riley has to get into those boxes. Now if she can just do it without being exposed...
If you'd like to read the adventure in November as Deb blogs it, just go to my Sponsor Me (http://www.gifttool.com/athon/MyFundraisingPage?ID=1891&AID=935&PID=173904) page and make any donation. Send me a note (comment here) with your email address, and I'll unlock the blog for you. There's other great prizes, too.
Now that I know where I'm going, I can't wait to get started.
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Date: 2010-10-30 04:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-30 04:55 pm (UTC)I...have been watching movies. I'm the type of movie watcher who even if I've seen the movie 1,000 times I need to pay attention, so I don't write while I watch.
Tomorrow night I'll only get to write until like...1 or 2ish because I have class on Monday, and then...I'm helping my mom's friend with something after class on Monday and am probably babysitting, so there's a good chance I'm not going to the library like I thought I would, where I'd actually be able to focus on writing. The rest of the week other than Saturday is up in the air because I don't know my work schedule yet. Saturday I am 99% certain I have the day off because I have a baby shower to go to, so before and after the shower I'm going to be writing like crazy.
There's a part of me that feels like I should be panicking. Maybe because I don't have...a TON figured out yet, but I'm leaving most of the figuring out for when I'm actually writing. Like, I know that my main character has to rescue a dragon from enslavement. Ask me how THAT one is going to happen when I'm not great at writing certain types of scenes like that. And then...there's an artifact that I want my main character to protect and I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS. o____o
...Guess that's what I'll be trying to figure out tonight.
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Date: 2010-10-30 05:24 pm (UTC)Also, I have no idea how we're going to feed ourselves this month. There's only so long you can live on Quesadillas and PB&J and McDonald's before you either lose your mind or get scurvy. I'm not sure whether that time period is longer or shorter than the month of November.
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Date: 2010-10-30 05:37 pm (UTC)NOT READY. NEED MORE CAFFEINE AND NICOTINE.
I've been watching a playthrough of Metal Gear Solid 2, and I'm trying really really hard to finish it before NaNo starts, so I don't get distracted and want to watch it while I should be writing.
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Date: 2010-10-30 06:27 pm (UTC)I covertly did a bit of plotting the other day, but I really haven't thought about it all that much this year...
*repeats to self like a mantra* 28 and a 1/2 hours is plenty to plot in, 28 1/2 hours is plenty to plot in, 28 and a 1/2 hours is plenty to plot in...