NaNoWriMo thoughts
Oct. 12th, 2010 01:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sorcyress*Beginning to think about NaNoWriMo, because it's totally me to plan everything out in advance. On the flip side, if I actually have a vague idea as to what the plot will be before I write, I can structure the story so that it's going towards the plot. And not do things like have the macguffin change from a time travel machine to some sort of extra-temporal storage, to a gun. Not that I ever did that, see also, the entirety of last year.
*Trying also to decide if writing my novel "counts" as writing my 750words. This...could easily end in madness if I decide it doesn't. I look forward to finding out. On the plus side, I've been trying to work out how fast I write, and I think I should be able to write 2750 words in two hours or less. Maybe. (Now question, do I have two hours to spare every single day. Hahahahahhaohdear.)
*As with last year, I will be posting progress over in![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
katarina_tales. This is mostly because of the year in which my computer asploded and I lost everything from a three month span of time, except for the two novels I had been posting as I wrote. Yeah, keeping online copies of things is a really good plan.
*Did I write anything in 2008? I feel like I must've, because I always write, but that might have been my break year. Huh, crazy stuff.
*Oh, ideas and stuff. Idea this year is a possibly horror, probably partially historical fiction, certainly ghost story, possibly with two points of view (the ghost and a modern equivalent), set in the house I lived in the last two years. It has a _real title_ which is absurd, as I've never written anything with a title, ever --"The Girl on the Stairs". Yes, I know that's not imaginative. Whatever.
*Knowing me, the research and complexity involved means this will crash and burn really hard. That's okay, I'm seriously considering using the month to rewrite something instead of write it. At the very least, I need to refine more plot outlines. And I really *really* ought to write a (much better!) second draft of my one completed novel.
*Do I even have that in this state? *checks notebooks*
*Yes, yes I do. And the 2005 attempt, which is my favourite, and least writable character1. Muahaha.
Anyways, that's about it. Wish me luck and such!
~Sor
MOOP!
1: I have started, and restarted, and restarted Dante's story so many times now. Entire sections of her composition book have been crossed out, and her notes span half a decade, multiple notebooks, and two computers. I love Dante, and think she's awesome, but she refuses to let me write her adequately.
*Trying also to decide if writing my novel "counts" as writing my 750words. This...could easily end in madness if I decide it doesn't. I look forward to finding out. On the plus side, I've been trying to work out how fast I write, and I think I should be able to write 2750 words in two hours or less. Maybe. (Now question, do I have two hours to spare every single day. Hahahahahhaohdear.)
*As with last year, I will be posting progress over in
katarina_tales. This is mostly because of the year in which my computer asploded and I lost everything from a three month span of time, except for the two novels I had been posting as I wrote. Yeah, keeping online copies of things is a really good plan. *Did I write anything in 2008? I feel like I must've, because I always write, but that might have been my break year. Huh, crazy stuff.
*Oh, ideas and stuff. Idea this year is a possibly horror, probably partially historical fiction, certainly ghost story, possibly with two points of view (the ghost and a modern equivalent), set in the house I lived in the last two years. It has a _real title_ which is absurd, as I've never written anything with a title, ever --"The Girl on the Stairs". Yes, I know that's not imaginative. Whatever.
*Knowing me, the research and complexity involved means this will crash and burn really hard. That's okay, I'm seriously considering using the month to rewrite something instead of write it. At the very least, I need to refine more plot outlines. And I really *really* ought to write a (much better!) second draft of my one completed novel.
*Do I even have that in this state? *checks notebooks*
*Yes, yes I do. And the 2005 attempt, which is my favourite, and least writable character1. Muahaha.
Anyways, that's about it. Wish me luck and such!
~Sor
MOOP!
1: I have started, and restarted, and restarted Dante's story so many times now. Entire sections of her composition book have been crossed out, and her notes span half a decade, multiple notebooks, and two computers. I love Dante, and think she's awesome, but she refuses to let me write her adequately.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
on 2010-10-12 06:06 pm (UTC)NaNo this year for me is Harry's second story, called In For A Penny. Also, the acronym-less title. That'll be fun, mostly because my favourite part of writing is starting.
no subject
on 2010-10-12 06:23 pm (UTC)~Sor
no subject
on 2010-10-12 06:30 pm (UTC)I will be willing to send you the ENTIRE THING once I get a few scenes fixed - right now they're hilariously bad because I just wanted to get them down on paper. I'm pretty bad at writing action, unfortunately.
no subject
on 2010-10-12 06:09 pm (UTC)Backing up is an even better plan because it saves everything. USB hard drives are cheap and Time Machine is about as idiot-proof as a piece of software can be (not that I'm saying you're an idiot, of course, just illustrating how simple TM is, in addition to being fairly powerful and cool if you delve into it - f'rexample, you can transfer the entirety of your OS and data onto an external drive and boot from that as standard, if you want).
Sorry for the preaching, it's just, basic computer security and usage seems to escape so many people and I don't get why.
Luck!
no subject
on 2010-10-12 06:19 pm (UTC)(I also have a second external, that is used for "stuff" rather than back-ups --it has various movies and TV and pictures and things.)
Thanks for luck! And no worries about preaching, I wish someone had got it through my thick head beforehand.
~Sor
no subject
on 2010-10-12 07:14 pm (UTC)That second external is good too. I'm a big fan of having one at least partition, if not physical drive, for operating system and programs, and another for your Home folder/media stuff/etc. Makes things simpler, both for backing up and for simply finding things.
no subject
on 2010-10-13 01:02 am (UTC)I also back my machine up about once a week, but nearly everything I create is on the cloud or synced to my iPad or some such.
no subject
on 2010-10-13 01:22 am (UTC)no subject
on 2010-10-12 06:31 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-10-12 07:04 pm (UTC)The one that I've looked into the most myself (although I don't use it because of that costing-money-for-offsite-backup thing, and I already have a program that works well enough for just backing up to an external drive) is CrashPlan (http://b2.crashplan.com/consumer/features.html). Their software gets good reviews as a free onsite backup-er, and apparently their offsite service is pretty good too.
For me, paying for offsite backup doesn't make a lot of sense, because of cost-vs.-benefit. I don't have very much data that is both irreplaceable and important, so I go without that particular catastrophic protection (offsite backups are in case of, like, fire or flood or something that destroys the drives that your data is on as you use it normally/daily). There's a whole debate you have to have with yourself about what's necessary to back up and why vs. the cost and hassle of doing so. So, say, if you have the skills and the disc(s) to reinstall your operating system and programs if something goes horribly wrong, there's not much reason to back those up other than convenience; you just need the settings (that said, drive space is cheap nowadays, so there's little reason not to back everything up). Stuff like that.
Good luck. :)
no subject
on 2010-10-12 06:09 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-10-12 06:22 pm (UTC)Pfft on homework and sleep. Dancing's pretty important though, will have to do my best not to lose that.
~Sor
no subject
on 2010-10-12 07:08 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-10-13 01:06 am (UTC)Committing yourself to write 2750 words of novel AND 750 words of non-novel journalling when you are still a full time student (with a full time social life) is risking creating a lot of stress for what marginal benefit, I'm not quite sure.
no subject
on 2010-10-12 06:40 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-10-15 07:46 am (UTC)