NaNo OMG NaNo

[Mynt]

From what I read, the average size of a write-in is like five people. When I went on Saturday there were only five people total. Three if me and my friend hadn't shown up. So maybe yours aren't that busy either and you won't be crowded or in silence. Yes?

[Matt]

Feel like being awesome again? Complete but unedited first chapter: thescribblebug.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/festival-oneone.html

Also I loved that NaNo is NaNo rant you had in defense of Mynt and her writing Q. You made me feel better too, even though it wasn't for me. It was lovely. Awwwww.

And you should try living in Britain my dears, I can walk to three meetings in Edinburgh in 15mins or so. It's called AWESOMENESS.

[Aldersmaine]

Well I don't know if I'd go to one even if it was closer, the shut in I am lol. UGH I've been having trouble staying motivated today... 210 words and i just can't think. Got called in to work at 5am tomorrow so my day's all messed up, lol.

[Mynt]

I wrote a page today. So that's roughly five hundred words. Which means I need to write at least two more. The bad thing is my hand gets so cramped from writing just one page. I don't think I will go the handwriting route again. xD

[Quaddy]

If I fail as a writer, I think I'll hire myself out as a writing motivator.

Also, I would love living in Britain. I would miss the sun a little bit, but I could deal with it if it meant being in Britain.

[Quaddy]

Also also, apparently I am an Ascended Hero now. This makes me think of how much I want to be Cotillion. One year, I think I'll go as him for Halloween.

Also also also, I will definitely read your Chapter One, Matt! I'll provide me a break from writing my own story. I'm trying to push back my first "Mental Health Day", but I think I'm going to have to take it soon. I gave myself three. *sigh*

If anyone wants to read mine, it's over at Writing. The new stuff starts with Chapter 9, though the Prologue is also new and I will be going back to add an Adam chapter earlier in the story.

www.writing.com/main/books/entry_id/764626

[Mynt]

If anyone wants to read the first few chapters of my first novel, I have it up on writing also. But it's passcoded. So you'll have to like ask me for that. *discouraging readers forever*

[Quaddy]

Well, then...what's the passcode, silly?

[Aldersmaine]

lol my arts have been on the rise this month in competition with my writing. I was hit up for 3 commissions just yesterday lol! But juggle juggle juggle!

[Matt]

Just keep juggling just keep juggling just keep juggling juggling juggling.

Tell me about it - Festival, Hamlet, Psychoanalytic Essay Writing, job applications, applications to masters programs at Cambridge, Oxford and Edinburgh, applications to teaching programs, applications to writing programs, competition entries to win a years membership to the London Library and publication in the Times... OMG MY FINGERS ARE FITTER THAN ME.

Also I have a teeny weeny crush that I just realised might have come through in my horrible first chapter in one of the characters. I didn't realise until I reread it before starting today's challenge and went SHIT. Now the world can see my awkward obsession. Awkward as fuck.

And last but not least... I don't know who my killer is. Keeps changing. Can you tell?

[Quaddy]

Just write it off as keeping the readers on their toes?

To the Americans (sorry Matt): VOTE! NaNo can wait while you make an important decision.

[Mynt]

Whoa, busy peoples. I just have to write a five paragraph essay on a silly topic like "does boredom lead to trouble?" or something like that. xD

[Quaddy]

OMG, a five paragraph essay?! They still do those? Whoa...our education system is fucked.

[Quaddy]

Hey...uh, Matt. Thank you for making me hate my own writing again. I hate you.

If this is your unedited stuff, I feel like I'm Stephanie Meyers now.

[Mynt]

Yeah but it's for like a public speaking class and we have to do it because some asshole was like "we need to spend more time actually writing speeches." And my teacher is like "uh, it's just like writing an essay, so I guess we'll write some essays."

Also, this is why I can't read anything during NaNo. People make me feel inadequate and horrible.

[Quaddy]

Again, we're fucked.

I know I asked for this already, but can someone tell me that legit like my writing? I need the boost after reading MATT'S first chapter.

*glares at Matt*

[Mynt]

I love your writing, Quadsters. That's why you're always the first person I invite to my campfires and the only one I'd do a two person campfire with.

[Quaddy]

Aw, thanks! It's the woe of writers, I think. Our favorite people always have something that we want in our writing. We see something we like and ours appears mediocre by comparison.

[Mynt]

I know what you mean. @_@

[Mynt]

I am very bad at settings. However, I think I'm fairly good at characters and characterization. So that's something. You will never know what anywhere or anyone looks like but you will always understand how they are feeling and their motivations. xD

[Quaddy]

I am damn fine at dialogue. And internal monologue. So you'll know how my character thinks and what conversations between all my characters are like. I move my stories forward via spoken word....well, written spoken word. My problem...and I know this...is I can often be very direct. I can sometimes tell you what I want you to know instead of show. Especially when my stuff gets lengthy, as I can fall back on my history training.

[Mynt]

Hey, this showing instead of telling thing is bullshit. I tell the readers everything. xD

[Matt]

You 'Mericans did the right thing you know - the huge sigh of relief that Britain and the rest of the world expelled probably isn't helping Sandy victims buuuuut we're all slightly proud of you anyway. Shame about NC though. OBAMARAMA.

Also do you realise that you guys are insane? You're all some of the most talented writers I know so shut up about inadequacy.

Q - I've been writing with you for god knows how long now and do you really think I would have continued if it wasn't for your perfectly evident brilliance? Especially (as I seem to remember quite clearly) after you berated me for once calling you 'my dear' - a phrase I assure you remains a part of my British idiolect - ha ha ha. You're probably the strongest out of all of us, and I mean that in no way as a belittling of anybody else, but you create distinct characters and holistic universes for them to exist in. It's what I aspire to do when I get stuck and create horrible characters in disastrous plotlines.

Saying that, and at the risk of sounding pompous, Zeph has seriously come into his own the last couple years and I can't help but be impressed by his latest RE additions. Mynt - you have a great natural style and I've read through your X Sketch stuff and every single time I'm like... this is wicked. And Beast, yeah you're kinda new to me, I've only just really started writing with you, but I like reading what you write, you have brilliant, grandiose ideas and the more you do the more you'll focus and perfect them.

Yeah we realise we all have our weaknesses - for most of us, we're all very comfortable with 3rd-person limited because we write from, more often than not, a singular POV in campfires; we have a tendency to create similar characters or fall into familiar patterns without meaning to; we focus on the emotional and psychological and forget things like the passing of time or the geography of a place. That's not the end of the world. None of us have finished anything yet and those are the things you go back and revise, review, revamp.

Thank you for all the lovely things you said about that chapter of Festival and if I wanted to I could tell you all the insecurities I have when I read through it. It would start with the belief that it's simple waffle and painful to read- I have no idea how to write anything 'realistic' at all and it's all too obvious as to why I NEVER write female characters. They all turn into these awkward creatures whose brains are inaccessable. But the point is that I thank whatever deity there be that there are people like you guys to turn around and say 'no this has potential' because you restore the little faith I have in myself to me. Posting on that blog has been terrifying - suddenly a lot more than WDC is reading the shit I produce so thank heavens yous are all there.

Furthermore, I hope you realise that just like Quaddy had her rant on your behalf last week, Mynt, this is a rant on OUR behalf. It's not just NaNo. It's not just campfires or writing.com. It's being a scribbler who wants to be a writer with other scribblers who want to be writers.

And I know that a lot of what you guys said was chilled out and bantering but seriously, let's realise that we have as many positives in ourselves and our writing as the others in this group. If anything, you guys make me want to keep going and keep improving. So... yeah...

[Mynt]

*feels all special now.*

[Quaddy]

I totally just grinned for like ten minutes! Thank you for the boost, Matt. It was very much appreciated.

Wait. When did I berate you for calling me 'my dear'? I call everyone love and dear. That would be weird.

Did I really do that?

seriously?

Hunh.