Two Weeks Down, Two to Go!

{ November 14, 2009 @ 6:52 pm } · { Uncategorized }

As the great Arthur Dent once said, ‘So this is it. We’re all going to write a novel in a month’.

Paraphrased slightly, of course. For those of you familiar with Douglas Adams, his novel Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy clocks in at about 50,000 words. As does the Great Gatsby, and countless other time-honed classics. When you finish your novel, you will be among the likes of these great authors and their tomes of knowledge and wonderfulness.

A few tips and tricks to writing your full count. Contractions are your enemy, do not use them. Also, steer clear of hyphenated words. A hyphen is the quickest way to make six words turn into one, with its power of bringing-things-together-ness. If your character has a title, like sir, or colonel, or captain oblivious, make sure you are abusing that to the fullest. When your characters are angry at each other, or threatening one another, use of the character full, extended name adds a nice, intense touch to the scene. As if the character really means it. “I’m going to pour cheese on your head, Jack” is not nearly as satisfying or terrifying as “I am going to pour cheese on your head, Colonel Jack Long”. Ooh. Scary!

The chats are going very well. Your participation in them is crucial, and you are all making them very enjoyable. Just a note, the Erie region has weekly meet up at the Borders at the Milcreek Mall Plaza (the stand alone store, not the one in the mall). If you’re in Chester County near the Exton/KOP area, we are having a meet-up at the Lion’s Share Diner on Rt 100. Keep an eye on the regional calendar for more information.

The question on everyone’s mind is ‘How is our word war with Philly going?’.

Well, the answer is: Not quite so well. Current reports indicate that we stand behind Philly approximately 3.9mil to 4.4mil words. Ish. But we are catching up to Pittsburgh! We are only behind them by about 500k words. Now, I know everyone loves Philly, and it’s the best city in the world and everyone wishes they lived in Philly, but come on, guys. I know we can beat them! We’re an entire state and they are just an itty-bitty, teeny-tiny city next to New Jersey (yes, I am terrible at trash talking, if you haven’t noticed).

If you’re having trouble with your plot, feel free to hop into our Plot Help Chat on Sundays, from 9pm to 11pm. We round table everyone’s plots, and get ideas going. Sometimes just talking about your plot gets things going. Fresh perspectives and people who will listen work wonders on an ailing story line. Everyone is welcome.

Submit your nanoisms to me so that I can post the best ones on the sidebar of our site. Send an email to me at tresa.cho[at]gmail[dot]com with the subject line: “Look at my Nanoism!” Just make sure you include your nanowrimo.org user name and what county you reside in for locality.

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