Susan's Place Transgender Resources

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is upon us! Who here is participating? What are your writing plans? How many words have you written so far?

Don't know what NaNoWriMo (http://nanowrimo.org/) is? Read the FAQ (http://nanowrimo.org/faq)!

Quote from: Maya AngelouThere is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

I've heard about it before but I won't be participating in it.  Seems too stressful to me. For the fic I'm working on now, my stats show so far it has 52,959 words written.

My novel will be semi-autobiographical... kind of an exploration of the past, present, and future and how things could have gone differently. I write for catharsis - but I've never done anything of this magnitude!

Quote from: kabit on October 31, 2013, 08:26:05 AM
My novel will be semi-autobiographical... kind of an exploration of the past, present, and future and how things could have gone differently. I write for catharsis - but I've never done anything of this magnitude!

Good luck!

Quote from: Malachite on October 31, 2013, 08:38:19 AM
Good luck!

Thanks! I hope it's the stress/anxiety relief I've been needing. I need something to make November fly... December should be able to do that on it's own -- and then I meet my endo for the first time :D

That's why I originally started to write....as a stress relief since I was in no position to transition in school.  Now that transition is actually forseeable the passion for writing has died down for me sadly since I'm out of school.

I've always liked to write... I've just seldom had the time to do so and I haven't had a lot to write about (I had a good life before I set my world on fire). Now there's plenty to write on. I love to write, and I'm not unskilled... but I have no idea how to write novels. Thankfully I've read many - I love Murakami's style... it's pretty free form, but with a plot (that isn't always tied together at the end -- "Dance, Dance, Dance," for example, was wonderful with a horrible ending).

It will be a learning process. I've already started formulating ideas in my head... Narrative is always my most difficult and awkward thing to write.

I also would like to explore my thoughts on giving up everything - especially going from that life of being "on top" to basically the very bottom (apart from those in multiple under privileged groups).

The theme is the most important thing in the books I like best... so having a strong theme is most important to my writing too.

Strictly speaking, I only have 1500 words that officially count which I started on yesterday. I'm in the process of a total re-write. I never really had a totally fleshed-out outline but now I do! I started writing anyway (don't do that) and was about 30,000 words in and I will be using a lot of that in the next draft.

I'm determined to finish it this month!

Quote from: dalebert on October 31, 2013, 10:22:22 AM
Strictly speaking, I only have 1500 words that officially count which I started on yesterday. I'm in the process of a total re-write. I never really had a totally fleshed-out outline but now I do! I started writing anyway (don't do that) and was about 30,000 words in and I will be using a lot of that in the next draft.

I'm determined to finish it this month!

No problem with being a NaNo Rebel! :D Mine is autobiographical fiction... so it's borderline ("must be fiction"). At what point does fact diverge into fiction when writing a memoir?

Last time I tried to write a novel was 5 years ago. Plot amounted to 3 pages. Haven't tried again since. Wriiting fluff and fiction isn't a strength of mine. I can imagine fictional things in my head,  but putting the ideas on paper,  I can't do that.

My ID on NaNoWriMo is also Dalebert just FYI. I'm working on the synopsis of my novel right now. I've got the entire thing outlined finally so you'd think this would be a piece of cake!

Quote from: dalebert on October 31, 2013, 11:13:02 AM
My ID on NaNoWriMo is also Dalebert just FYI. I'm working on the synopsis of my novel right now. I've got the entire thing outlined finally so you'd think this would be a piece of cake!

I added you! I am ... Kabit.  ;D

Voted maybe. My best attempt came in at 11000 words. I have most of November off so no valid excuse to not do it (and to up going to the gym more than twice a week.)

Mine is Sci-Fi with a strong female protagonist (though she is a bit awkward and shy in person, she is a force to be reckoned with online)... she's more than a bit of me, really, although I started writing it before I came out to myself.

Since then she and the story have, well, changed.  After achieving a strong political position (and hopefully after the reader has adopted her as a sympathetic heroine), someone finds out about her trans status (she has been stealth for years) and threatens to out her, discrediting her in the process, when she is the lone voice keeping the public from outright panic and rioting.

The concept may limit the marketability, but it's the story that *I* need to write.  We'll see if it gets published. ;)

I added my current work in progress to my profile.

http://nanowrimo.org/participants/dalebert/novels

Thanx for adding me, Kabit!

Quote from: kabit on October 31, 2013, 09:25:03 AM
I've always liked to write... I've just seldom had the time to do so and I haven't had a lot to write about (I had a good life before I set my world on fire). Now there's plenty to write on. I love to write, and I'm not unskilled... but I have no idea how to write novels. Thankfully I've read many - I love Murakami's style... it's pretty free form, but with a plot (that isn't always tied together at the end -- "Dance, Dance, Dance," for example, was wonderful with a horrible ending).

It will be a learning process. I've already started formulating ideas in my head... Narrative is always my most difficult and awkward thing to write.

I also would like to explore my thoughts on giving up everything - especially going from that life of being "on top" to basically the very bottom (apart from those in multiple under privileged groups).

The theme is the most important thing in the books I like best... so having a strong theme is most important to my writing too.

Learning processes can indeed be a challenge and tedious.  I find one of the most difficult parts of me writing aside from starting and getting the scene on the screen is making sure the story doesn't have any plotholes, which can be very tricky when it starts to get into 20 + chapters.

I'm here: http://nanowrimo.org/participants/kabit

Quote from: Malachite on October 31, 2013, 01:46:32 PM
Learning processes can indeed be a challenge and tedious.  I find one of the most difficult parts of me writing aside from starting and getting the scene on the screen is making sure the story doesn't have any plotholes, which can be very tricky when it starts to get into 20 + chapters.

I'm blind to plot holes when I'm watching things or reading... I suppose that might be a problem with writing ;) though the story will be more intimate.

I like that free-form style that tells a story, but nothing seems connected until the very end (...if you're lucky). Murakami tells a story that way... also Kazuo Ishiguro to a degree (highly thematic books). Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum" is another good example (though one that asks a LOT of the reader).

Lit Fic is where it's AT  ;D

Well... I abandoned it.
It's more a problem of not knowing how to write.... I'm great with personal writing: diary entries, essays, things that have a point. Writing fiction (or fact based fiction, or whatever) is a whole different animal.

So I'm going to take this year and write some small exercises - one or two a week. Just to learn how to write fiction. It is something I want to do.

Despite writing steadily, I'm only halfway to where I'm supposed to be. That said, I've managed to close up a LOT of plot holes that have been holding me back so I still feel good about it. Got another thousand words or so just this morning and still going.

I just gotta say though, why does NH have to pick NOW to be having epic fantastic weather? I just want to go out and walk all day. We've had multiple warm spells, sunny skies, and of course the colorful fall leaves everywhere you look. Meanwhile, I'm supposed to stay holed up behind my computer. At least I have a nice view from the bay window overlooking the cemetery.

Awesome that there are other people on here doing Nanowrimo! I do it every year. I hit 50k yesterday but still need to write a lot more to finish the story.

Quote from: Rossiter on November 15, 2013, 08:44:54 PM
Awesome that there are other people on here doing Nanowrimo! I do it every year. I hit 50k yesterday but still need to write a lot more to finish the story.

That's awesome, Rossiter.
I am doing NaNoWriMo for the first time this year, and I am ten days behind alreasy. I didn't write anything the ten days I was petsitting for my ex while she was in the hospital. But I did read 4 books to fill in my knowledge (I am doing a historical novel) and am finally back at my place and able to breathe again. Will be writing 12 hours this weekend.

I'm at a write-in right now with my writers group. Just took a little break but I'm making progress today. Still behind though.