Novel in a month

[Lieutenant Kije]

Just give your protagonist amnesia for two or three chapters, cut them out, and have his/her sidekick give a two minute recap in the hospital room right after as he/she's recovering.

As if I knew anything about your book.  

[Entsuropi]

Yay! I not declare november the "drop out of nanowrimo" month!

[Lieutenant Kije]

I not declare November either.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

Kije is good at making recommendations about things he doesn't understand.  

But I dont' think there's enough interest for it to be drop out month. We have 5 people who are probably going to make it if they keep improving like they are, and then uh... fuzzy who isn't reporting progress. I can only assume that she's doing well too. That means only 25% of the people have dropped out -- one of which was to work on a paying project--  which frankly, considering how difficult a task we're talking about, is pretty impressive.

[Mistress of Darkness]

Well, I had one of my drop-out days yesterday. Tuesday is usually my TV day, where I watch Gilmore Girls, Charmed, and Judging Amy. And because I'm only able to start writing when I get home from work (after 6:30) I pretty much have to get home, eat dinner, write, submit word count and go to bed. There isn't time for 3 hours of being sidetracked. Luckily, I  have a VCR, which I will use next week and there is no rping this week due to the fact that Morag has a test early Friday morning. I think if I am diligent this week I can catch up on Saturday.

EUOL, could I borrow your extra laptop? I'm thinking that a mobile computer unit would allow me to work on the story during lunch and anywhere else I might happen to need to be (say Thanksgiving dinner) and that will help me finish. If not, don't sweat it.

Kije, remember Crap! For it is what NaNoWriMo is all about!

[EUOL]

Yeah, you can borrow it.  I'll bring it on Saturday (assuming I remember...) or you can just come pick it up sometime.  

The thing is, the battery doesn't work, so you'll have to be able to plug in wherever you go.

HoM: Your book is only 63k?  And they want you to drop it below 50?  All I can say is 'wow.'  Good job keeping it short--my 'short' books are still all over 100k.  What are your royalties like on the audio edition, and are they going to release it at the same time as the print one?

[stacer]

Kije, remember Crap! For it is what NaNoWriMo is all about!

Therefore, by definition, it could not be Scottish, eh?

[House of Mustard]

Royalties on audio are much better than paperback.  Paperback is 6.5-10% and audio is 10-15%.

Yeah it's pretty short.  It's headed to typeset tomorrow, but we're guessing it will come in at 256 pages.

I'm not sure when the audio will be released.  The book will be out in early march though.

[Mistress of Darkness]

Thanks EUOL. Having to plug it in is a small price to pay.

[Fellfrosch]

Alas poor Mustard, we knew ye well...but seriously, the two professional authors have no need to apologize about not writing a crappy speed-novel. It's the rest of us dregs that have to apologize for not going fast enough on our crappy speed-novel.

Kije, I think a random event generator is an excellent idea. I'd be more than happy to fill that role, even if only once.

And now the kicker: SE wants to make this a competition, huh? Well, I think that might just spark me out of my diminishing word-count funk and into his FACE! It's on now.

[fuzzyoctopus]

If it's a competition, can I volunteer to lose ahead of time?

Saint, if I bothered to post my word counts on here, I'd just lie.

[Lieutenant Kije]

I'm just using a 20 sided die.  But if you have any events you think should be on my list of 20, feel free to contribute.

I'm writing a not too wacky sci fi piece, meaning it's on earth and there are no aliens.  Not that aliens are inherently wacky, but...I don't know what was going to follow that 'but.'  You get the picture.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

hey, you're supposed to have Jury duty so I can get further ahead.

Fine, fine. Well, I guess I'd better start cracking instead of reading old TLE issues.

[EUOL]

HoM: Hey, that's pretty good.  I've seen a lot of audio royalties that were more around paperback percentages.  10-15 is pretty darn good, especially since audio editions tend to cost in the mid-to-high 20's.

[Lieutenant Kije]

Here's my random event generator, in case anyone needs an outside shot of fate in their book at some point.

Just roll a d20.

1. an eighty dollar haircut
2. deja vu
3. a kiss
4. an urge or a craving
5. a thief
6. a foreign language
7. a decorative lawn gnome
8. someone with the flu
9. a shooting star
10. tarot cards
11. the sound of machines
12. a SWAT team
13. new clothes
14. a blonde bombshell
15. a wild or runaway animal
16. a change in the weather
17. flowers
18. a solicitor
19. thrown food
20. obsolete technology

You can use any of these things in a variety of ways, be it intrusive or subtle.  If something's anachronistic or out-of-genre then adapt or...pick something else.