NaNoWriMo 2003

[Alex De Kok]

I have absolutely no idea how fast I work - or perhaps can work might be more apt here. In the past, with my short stories as posted here, I've tended to revise and rewrite as I've gone along. I did manage to write one of my Nude day pieces in two days, and that one comes to about 4800 words. As that included editing I think I might stand a chance of finishing NaNoWriMo. Maybe.

Alex

 

[Pure]

Hi CW,

I asked,

"how many words per hour can you turn out, **of a story**, assuming a little planning beforehand? "

you said,

/No clue. Never tried figuring it out. I can type pretty fast--100 WPM, say--but things don't necessarily spill out on the page that quickly. I mean, I could sit there typing out "Leeko leeko leeko!" for an hour, but it wouldn't mean anything. /

Well, 'leeko, leeko, leeko' is not much of a story, my friend. I was trying NOT to ask about typing speed (see ** above) though it must be of some advantage.

J.

 

[wildsweetone]

...how many words per hour can you turn out, of a story, assuming a little planning beforehand? So assume a few snacks and bathroom breaks (added on), how many words in, say, a 12 hour(all work) day?

Others?

J.

I plan absolutely nothing. I sit in front of the computer and open a word document and begin. On a normal day I type 90 words a minute upwards. When copy typing I'm 120ish.

I can sustain speed for as long as I want, at least until my right hand goes stiff on me (though it doesn't usually do that until the day after a ton of typing/writing/knitting). The more I think about 50k the more I wonder what the heck I'm going to write about for that length of time - it's not the speed that's worrying me at this point. lol

When I sit and type as my character's scribe, I simply sit and type. The speed is probably about as high as when I'm copy typing. There is no conscious thought on my part (I don't hear or see the words in my head before they hit the screen, much too quick for that).

I wrote a journal entry last night and looked at it afterwards:

1303 words in what I think was quarter of an hour. 1303 divided by 15 = 86. So, 86 x 60 = 5160 words per hour. Hell, I'll be finished in 12 hours. lmao (I sure hope you can all hear the complete disbelief in my tone *wink*)

The point for me personally, in joining this NaNoWriMo is the daily dicipline for writing. I've been writing fiction for the last couple of weeks at half an hour daily. Taken in bites that size, writing the novel in a month is achievable.

When I look at it as being a 50k Novel exercise, it scares the pants off me. When I look at the exercise as writing for half an hour a day, it's much easier to feel like I can achieve it.

 

[ffreak]

Someone over on the boards at nanowrimo has said that to achieve the 50,000 words in November requires no more than 1667 words per day, or at about 250 words/page, about 6 2/3 pages. I churn out about 3000 words/day plus my posting babble.

-FF

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I sometimes find it hard to reach the 750-word goal that Lit has set up for each story.

What have I gotten myself into..?

 

[oggbashan]

I sometimes find it hard to reach the 750-word goal that Lit has set up for each story.

What have I gotten myself into..?

That is because you are trying to write a sensible and coherent story. This challenge doesn't need sense, logic, flow or anything except spewing out words. Once you have finished you can edit the output to find if there is anything worth saving in the steaming heap.

Og

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Writing in-coherently? I don't even know how to do that!

 

[Guest]

This challenge doesn't need sense, logic, flow or anything except spewing out words.

That was the selling point for me, I like the idea of writing without thinking, which will be hard but hopefully worthwhile, and not become a habit.

Pedita

 

[Svenskaflicka]

My art teacher once told me to stop being so serious about my work, and just play aroun with colors and meterials. Not everything had to be a masterpiece, she told me. Just jot things down for the fun of it! She created a whole new concept for me; "Creative Jogging".

NaNoWriMo will be a month of creative jogging for me. Sitting in front of a computer every day is making my brain overweight as well, it needs to get some exercise.

*picturing brain in pink jogging suit bouncing down the street*

 

[Guest]

*picturing brain in pink jogging suit bouncing down the street*

Svenska, I like that. I think mine will wear black thigh-high stockings and a thong.

Perdita

 

[oggbashan]

I thought the idea was to put the brain into neutral and write like the proverbial monkeys attempting to duplicate the works of Shakespeare.

I hope my brain will be resting not exercising.

Og (who writes long stories anyway but 50,000? in a month? Help!)

 

[Svenskaflicka]

The scary thing is that I can picture that, too.

 

[Guest]

The scary thing is that I can picture that, too.

Ha ha, as I could picture yours, but not scary at all. We must have humor in this endeavor.

Perdita

 

[Alex De Kok]

We must have humor in this endeavor.

Perdita

You mean you're not taking this seriously!?

Just kidding. I really like the concept of just starting to type and letting semi-coherence - my quasi-normal mental state - be in charge of the output. Having said that, I'm trying to get my mind around a sort of outline so that my subconscious doesn't get too far off line.

Alex

 

[Ms. Jones]

Thanks for the link. I know I could pull this off if I wasn't moving in November so I'm going to wait for next year. I've bookmarked the site so I can cheer you all on. Good luck.

Maybe it would be worth it to get a voice activation program and just 'speak' your novel. That way if you have a laptop you can talk the novel while in the toilet or on the way to work or on your lunch break. (Of course if it's a 'Lit' type novel you could get some strange looks or maybe a couple of propositions!

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Maybe it would be worth it to get a voice activation program and just 'speak' your novel. That way if you have a laptop you can talk the novel while in the toilet or on the way to work or on your lunch break.

I would DEFINITELY not want to listen to someone recording while visiting the toilet!!!!

 

[wildsweetone]

It seems like there's a fair few kiwis joining NaNo too. Some from my own neck of the woods.

I just want to say publically, I SO WILL NOT BE VOLUNTEERING TO BE ANYBODY'S EDITOR AFTER THE EVENT!!!

lmao

Oh, did I mention yet that I'm getting really excited about this?


Who was it that mentioned The Artist's Way course they did?

I've been working through Julia Cameron's book myself and I have to say it's been an awesome experience. Synchronicity is truely wonderful. I highly recommend The Artist's Way as something each and every person should at least take the time to look through.

You know, this competition even has me thinking about index cards. Geez, what is the world coming to?

 

[Svenskaflicka]

You know, this competition even has me thinking about index cards. Geez, what is the world coming to?

Ay, these are dark times indeed!

 

[wildsweetone]

Oh Svenska! Seeing your funny quote of the day reminds me I need to ask a serious question.

My computer is old and may well cark it when I put it to this kind of use (any excuse eh).

I need to ask, how many words will a floppy disc hold? I know that sounds like an oddball question. But I've been thinking seriously that I'll do a back up after each sitting. I'm thinking about doing each day's writing in a separate file (numbering them consecutively of course) and then save each file onto a floppy (or several to make sure).

Is it possible to store say 30 files, each file containing say 2000 words, onto a single floppy?

Please somebody explain in plain english because I don't understand facts and figures.

 

[Icingsugar]

Is it possible to store say 30 files, each file containing say 2000 words, onto a single floppy?

An ordinary floppy can stire 1,44 MB of data that is (roughly, but not exactly) 1440000 data units called bytes.

If you save those files as raw data (if you use Windows, that would be as a .txt file), one byte is the same as one letter.

Words can be of different length.and thus take up more or less space. But if am average word is 8 letters long (it's probably much shorter, but it's an easy number to count with) you could save 180000 words on one disk.

You are talking about 60000 words here. So you just might. Remember also that other file formats (like the .doc produced by MS Word) takes up much more space.

So stock up on floppys. You'll perhaps need as many as...two?

/Ice - no, I'm not a geek, honest

 

[wildsweetone]

Feel free to deliver some sugar with that next time sweetheart

*makes a yellow sticky to go and buy a packet of floppies - one cannot be too careful, and yes, with my computer I am paranoid.*

Oh and by the way, I am so not talking about 60,000 words. I think you just might have scared some authors right off with that extra 10,000 bump.

Oh and I apologise in arrears and in advance for any other dumb questions. I'm just excited and have no control over my fingertips at the moment.

 

[Pure]

Icing: //You are talking about 60000 words here. So you just might. Remember also that other file formats (like the .doc produced by MS Word) takes up much more space.//

I.e. almost *double in some cases. That would make 90,000 a rough estimate for total words per disc. (Usually a word is six characters, approximately.)

J.

 

[oggbashan]

Even two versions of my longest story easily fit on a floppy as a .txt file. Word97 makes the files three times as large.

My old WP program used to compress the saved file so that it was smaller than .txt. Using that WP I could still fit my longest story on the 360k floppy which I still use with my XT. The basic program would work from a 360k floppy drive. I had to swap disks once the program was loaded.

Getting the whole 50,000 words on one floppy should be easy.
Writing the 50,000 may not be so simple...

Og

 

[Alex De Kok]

Originally posted by oggbashan
Getting the whole 50,000 words on one floppy should be easy.
Writing the 50,000 may not be so simple...

Og

Oh, so true!

Alex

 

[CWatson]

Originally posted by Svenskaflicka
I would DEFINITELY not want to listen to someone recording while visiting the toilet!!!!

"And then," Alastair said, "Splash we'll go to the seashore plonk and have a holiday with oooh sploosh all our friends!"
"Yes, but," said Eleanoura helplessly, "what if tinkletinkletinkle-no-one-tinkletinkle-is-tinkletinkle-available?"


...Okay, I think I need to be locked up now.

~CWatson
(contributing nothing tasteful )