Some of my pals are going to give NaNoWriMo a shot ('National Novel Writing Month', in November).  I'm not super-interested in attempting to write fiction, but I may go along for the ride and crank out a dungeon mini-setting worth sharing at the end.

I know there have been some Adventure-Writing-Month successes (usually in the Spring?), but I figure now's the time to give it a shot.

Anybody else ever do NaNoWriMo, or attempting it this year?  50,000 words is the goal by the end of November.  That's a pretty sizeable adventure (even if I count each map as a thousand words... ).

Quote from: VectorSigma;486942Some of my pals are going to give NaNoWriMo a shot ('National Novel Writing Month', in November).  I'm not super-interested in attempting to write fiction, but I may go along for the ride and crank out a dungeon mini-setting worth sharing at the end.

I know there have been some Adventure-Writing-Month successes (usually in the Spring?), but I figure now's the time to give it a shot.

Anybody else ever do NaNoWriMo, or attempting it this year?  50,000 words is the goal by the end of November.  That's a pretty sizeable adventure (even if I count each map as a thousand words... ).

I did it a couple of years ago and it was tons of fun. The thing is you are not supposed to write as if it is for publication or a masterpiece, you are just supposed to write. Just focus on hitting 50k within the month (I think mine ended at 60-70k). There is an old saying for writers that goes: if you want to write a decent book, write four and throw them out, then you'll be ready to write something passable (not exact quote but general idea). This kinds of goes with that. You learn a lot doing it.

50k for and aventure is pretty big. Our rule books are all 45-55,000 words and run 110 pages or so. Our adventures run 16 to 34,000 or so. I think the key is to outline. If you outline the document well, hitting 50,000 shouldn't be much of a problem.

Oh, yeah, 50K is freaking huge.  But I like the idea of having a goal that's perhaps beyond my reach.  (cue "Don't Stop Believin'")

I was doing some outlining last night - of both the adventure and a writing plan - and it's absolutely appalling to see written down how little 'free time' an adult actually has.  Monday night is running D&D, Tuesday is Cub Scouts...so I basically have Weds-Sun containing chunks of time to write.

The current plan is to attack the outline one chunk at a time, out-of-order possibly, and only work on one section at a time; no jumping around like I would normally do.

Anyway, Accursed Citadel of the Fish-Men is supposed to be a group of adventure sites for Labyrinth Lord or Mutant Future dealing with an underwater city of the ancients now populated by the eponymous fish-men and other foul denizens.  And by 'underwater city', I mean the sort of thing projected by 'Popular Science' back in the fifties, with crazy domes and fish-farms and all of it running in perpetuity on geothermal power and governed by a (probably mad) AI.    Flooded levels, dry levels, sub-basements, caverns, and more.

Sounds like a cool adventure.

I find waking up early and writing for an hour or two helps. You'd be surpised how many words you can do if you stick to a schedule.

I've done it a few times. I'm batting .500 so far. I'm going to go hard at it this year and see what happens.

I decided to do it this year. I'm writing a gonzo RPG that I have been one the fence about doing for a couple years. I just saw both Heavy Metal and Wizards last week and said what the hell.

I've written 3 novels so far...one published. The other two have just been brick walls for me, though at some point I'll likely get off my butt and self-publish them, for all the good it will do.

The quickest novel took me 3 months to write, around 80k words. I dunno how folks can do a credible novel in a month, kudos to those that try!

In one month, a dedicated writer could do a 50k rough draft, then additional months for rewrites and editing.

Quote from: Spinachcat;487147I decided to do it this year. I'm writing a gonzo RPG that I have been one the fence about doing for a couple years. I just saw both Heavy Metal and Wizards last week and said what the hell.

I miss the midnite movies . . .

I'm participating for something like the ninth year in a row. It doesn't have a ton of utility for me anymore, I just do it for fun and to enjoy the community of people who get together every November for this.

Well, no better time than the present - I've wanted to write a book for years, may as well see if I can do it in a month.

Too busy with my own writing.

Quote from: Benoist;487534Too busy with my own writing.

Same here. In 2010, I wrote, illustrated and published 2 games, each of over 500 pages. I write for a living, then I go home and write more for fun. I have no talent or inclination for writing fiction, though. I used to hire people to write fiction for my games, then stopped including any game fiction at all - it just makes gamers' eyes glaze and gorges rise.

-clash

Quote from: flyingmice;487542Same here. In 2010, I wrote, illustrated and published 2 games, each of over 500 pages. I write for a living, then I go home and write more for fun. I have no talent or inclination for writing fiction, though. I used to hire people to write fiction for my games, then stopped including any game fiction at all - it just makes gamers' eyes glaze and gorges rise.

-clash

I guess it depends on the game we're talking about, and the length of said fiction. I was just reading (the excellent) Mekhet: Shadows in the Dark, for instance, and the fact that the biggest part of the clan book is written from a first person, in-character perspective helps to understand some of the concepts no amount of rules or dissociated explanations could have approached with the same clarity.

So I think it all depends what the aims of the RPG book you are trying to write are, exactly. If fiction there is, I think this fiction's aim should be to approach concepts useful for the game you're going to run after reading it, rather than just be a piece of fiction for the sake of it, because "fiction is cool" or whatever other deluded idea one might have when going about it from other standpoints.

Additionally, if you can't help but write pages upon pages of fiction to pass on these concepts you were trying to explain, then maybe you're not such a good fiction writer after all, or should have written a novel instead of a RPG book...

How is everyone doing on this?
I just broke 12k words tonight, which puts me about 1300 words behind the eightball to make the goal. I was crazy busy over the weekend and missed two days so I'm scrambling now.