RPGC #6: The NaNo One!

[WilsonTurner]

@Keyguyperson
I'd read it too.

@mdk
NU-UH
IF you'll note, the blue femalien can also be GREEN

[Frettzo]

As a note; I've failed this year's NaNoWriMo. While I could technically write 3.000 words a day to catch up by the 30th, I just don't feel it anymore. I tried really hard to get back on track, though, so I'm very proud of myself for taking on this challenge. Next year, I'll take it again (with an outline, character sheets and full worldbuilding beforehand, hopefully!) and freaking wreck the entire thing!

But 37k words written by a guy whose longest story before that was 6k words long? That means NaNoWriMo's helped me improve my determination by around 600%!

[Keyguyperson]

But 37k words written by a guy whose longest story before that was 6k words long? That means NaNoWriMo's helped me improve my determination by around 600%!

@Frettzo

Damn! That's a hell of an improvement, you're right to be proud!

@Keyguyperson
I'd read it too.

@mdk
NU-UH
IF you'll note, the blue femalien can also be GREEN

@WilsonTurner

No, blue. Only blue. Leiji Matsumoto has got my back on this one, blue is the best color for bland, human-looking aliens.

[Naril]

I'm at 43,400 words, which puts me an entire day ahead of schedule, thank goodness. I have definitely been finding some interesting challenges in writing a much more action-heavy narrative than the web-of-secrets, detective-procedural sort of story Part I was. Something particularly difficult to let go of has been the idea that everything has to make real-world sense, even though I very carefully and intentionally built my world in a way that allows for some serious rule-of-cool silliness without straying from narrative context. Part of that surprises me - I built this world, why do I have to keep reminding myself that a fifty-meter-wide monocycle armed to the teeth with electrical discharge cannons is totally okay? I blame my engineering classes.

Still, I'm through the first three big vehicle chase/combat/action scenes, with pacers to breathe for a moment before some new terrifying thing happens. I'm also getting quite a stable of entertainingly weird vehicles to go hurling through my world's insane faunasphere. My favourite is probably the one I just wrote - an enormous articulated snake with sections a couple of meters wide and a few meters long, a two-person cockpit for a head, and a massively electrified hull to deal with at least some of the forest monsters they'd be likely to encounter.

[mdk]

As a note; I've failed this year's NaNoWriMo. While I could technically write 3.000 words a day to catch up by the 30th, I just don't feel it anymore. I tried really hard to get back on track, though, so I'm very proud of myself for taking on this challenge. Next year, I'll take it again (with an outline, character sheets and full worldbuilding beforehand, hopefully!) and freaking wreck the entire thing!

But 37k words written by a guy whose longest story before that was 6k words long? That means NaNoWriMo's helped me improve my determination by around 600%!

@Frettzo

It's absolutely an accomplishment. A pretty major one at that! What's cool is -- you can do that any time you want, and you just proved it. Don't worry about the 50k -- have some fun with the ending for the rest of the month, tie it all together, see what happens. If it's not "THE ENDING" ending, whatever -- just enjoy it. 37k is cool and all, but 40k? That's way cooler. WAAAAAAAAAAY cooler. You can hit that, easy, right? Right? DO IIITTTTT!

I just crossed over the day's target for the first time this year. 42k, theraboutsishly. My scene exploded and I'm happy about it, and also I spilled some bourbon on my keyboard but it's still working so I think I'm good.

[Keyguyperson]

a fifty-meter-wide monocycle armed to the teeth with electrical discharge cannons

@Naril

Did I mention how much I want to read this? Because I really want to read this.

I just crossed over the day's target for the first time this year. 42k, theraboutsishly. My scene exploded and I'm happy about it, and also I spilled some bourbon on my keyboard but it's still working so I think I'm good.

@mdk

Congrats on that! You've gotten further than I have (I'm at 41864 now). I'm now at the bit where I rant about nuclear weapons for a bit, but this time I'm being less anvilicious about it then normal. Instead of ranting about them being evil, I imply that they're not meant for puny little planet-bound civilizations like us to have. But hey, this time, the good guys get to use them, and only with a medium-sized amount of guilt.

At this rate, I might be able to watch The Avengers without feeling really bad about the fact that Iron Man basically just carried out nuclear genocide at the end!

EDIT: I should also probably mention the fact that the blue alien woman has started to play Homeworld. I was gonna go with Starcraft, but I got the feeling that a species exiled from their home planet by alien invaders attempting to reclaim it after being reduced to only a small number of people all living on a fleet of starships would be something she would enjoy a bit more. For the same reason you made a version of yourself in the Sims which was significantly more attractive than you are in real life, then proceeded to choose the career path of your dreams while also making another unreasonable attractive romantic partner.

[mdk]

I'm staying ahead of schedule a little, but maybe not enough..... had a big weekend planned in Oklahoma, but it looks like the weather might not cooperate. If that's the case, then I just stay home and write and cross that finish line easy-peasy. But if I do go, I'm losing like two whole writing days, so I need to like..... recover preemptively. The 30th would royally suck otherwise.

[Keyguyperson]

I'm staying ahead of schedule a little, but maybe not enough..... had a big weekend planned in Oklahoma, but it looks like the weather might not cooperate. If that's the case, then I just stay home and write and cross that finish line easy-peasy. But if I do go, I'm losing like two whole writing days, so I need to like..... recover preemptively. The 30th would royally suck otherwise.

@mdk

I'm going to be in the mountains for the weekend, and on Sunday I have to do my homework (Hah, why would I do that now?). So I have to be ready for that. I should be just fine at this pace, though. The main fear I have is that I won't be able to finish it all before midnight on the 30th, since I generally stay up until 12:30 or so writing on my phone. I'm maintaining a firm lead in words, though, so I'm optimistic. Wishing you luck, you've managed some amazing comebacks, and I have no doubts that you'll be able to make it!

So today I finally finished the long conversation about the history of war and shared experiences, and have now moved on to The Bit Where The Spy Defects. Which'll be fun to write, because he and the alien have become great friends as they discover the majority of human culture together, and he has been ordered to kill her. I also put down another line that just screams "HEY GUYS GUESS WHAT MY OPINION ON THE REFUGEE CRISIS IS?"

I love blatant political commentary that will someday get me death threats.

[mdk]

Weekend plans canceled due to major icing. VICTORY ASSURED!! ONWARDS WRIMOS!! ONWARDS TO VICTORY!!!!!

If you're within 10k of the end, you can make it. Yes, you can.

[Keyguyperson]

WE HAVE TO BE DONE ON MONDAY

PANIC

PANIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIC

EDIT: Nvm don't panic I already surpassed tomorrow's daily goal.

Amazing what explaining humanity's political situation can do for your word count. Also, jokes about the F-35 as well as making jokes about men joking about not understanding women.

Don't forget aliens not understanding the concept of makeup.

[Naril]

Mm. I admit I'm still recovering from my enormous Thanksgiving dinner (especially in my apartment - which is very nice, but not especially large) and hostessing, but I'm past 45,300 words today. I had a little bit of a fight with telling rather than showing today. Normally that's not much of a problem, but I'm a little bit tired and the technical-writing part of my brain kept trying to write things efficiently rather in a way that tells a good story. That's bad for word count and it's narratively deadening. Still, I managed to catch myself and I'm leaving tonight with more than 1900 words written.

I'm really looking forward to Monday - I'll be able to validate my story, and then keep going forward. Part II is easily going to blow past the 50k mark, and I'm thinking Part III might start around 55-60k. Part III should be a fun cat-and-mouse sort of thing to write. :3

[Keyguyperson]

I'm really looking forward to Monday - I'll be able to validate my story, and then keep going forward. Part II is easily going to blow past the 50k mark, and I'm thinking Part III might start around 55-60k. Part III should be a fun cat-and-mouse sort of thing to write. :3

@Naril

My Part II is looking like it'll be about 60k as well, and my Part III is going to be ridiculously gigantic. Wars, riots, and assassinations, oh my!

[mdk]

Just when I needed a few extra words, my villain came up with a last-ditch plot twist. NAILING IT. 46k and small change. Now the only question is, will my new SSD get here in time to reinstall windows on my desktop, get at the old files, and pull everything together in time to validate the wordcount on NaNo's site? THIS IS MY NEW VERSION OF SUSPENSE.

[Naril]

I don't mean to pop your suspense, but if you don't get your computer back together by Monday, you can do this:

nanowrimo.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/..

To generate 50k words of random nonsense. If you already know you wrote 50,000 words, there's no difference. :3

[mdk]

Interestingly, '50k words of random nonsense' also pretty accurately describes my novel.

[mdk]

past the day's target, got a little bit of steam building into tomorrow. I might not even reach the emotional climax of the story by the time December rolls around, but I'm gonna keep going at NaNo speed until the whole thing is done. At this point, I'm just skipping over big parts of the story to get further along in the narrative -- cuz I'm pretty sure someone's gonna surprise me at the end and change where things wind up. It's already had one major departure, and another guy is looking pretty antsy, like he's got his own plans. We'll see.

Finish line is coming up, folks. Get that last push you need, get it done. Let's see some champions!

[Naril]

I was at over 47,000 words when I went to bed last night. :3 Two more days until the end of NaNoWriMo. This month seemed to go by really fast - I've done this before and every other time it's been much more of a slog. I like looking forward to writing every evening, and I love looking back on everything I've written and knowing it's just the start.

We're almost there, everyone! Remember to back up your story.

:3

I'm going to give a run at finishing today - my new computer is going to show up tomorrow, and I'll have a lot of things to do. Having my 50k out of the might be nice, and then I can have finished early for the first time!

[Naril]

I'm double posting, and I'm not apologizing.

50,465 words. I win!

:3

[Keyguyperson]

I'm double posting, and I'm not apologizing.

50,465 words. I win!

:3

@Naril

Hell yeah! Nice job!

I took today off. Because I was driving back to a place without magical writing-assisting mountain air, and I also have friends somehow. I'm gonna finish it up quickly tomorrow, then do the homework.

[mdk]

I'm at 48,896. No sign of my hard drive -- looks like the Nonsense Generator is going to create my verification. Shame! But I should finish easily. In fact the only reason I'm not gonna power through and get it done tonight is so I can make WINNER STEAKS tomorrow, like, right after I win. It has to be right after or it doesn't count.