Preparation

Anyone done any preparation for the Easter Challenge yet?

So far I have penciled in that I shall try to hit 7,500 words instead of 6,000. Why? Because I have something planned ... I will have 15 scenes each of 500 words.

Not sure what each of those 500 words will be about but it's sure to be fairly random I imagine!

Andrew Chilton - http://kapiti.geek.nz/
SoCNoC 2008 - Unknown and Untitled

No prep done just yet, but I am tossing up whether to continue working on the piece I started for the secrets challenge. I have made some notes and stuff for that and even think I can work in the easter thing!

http://vyanae.blogspot.com/

andy, you're doing a practice choose your own adventure! are you? are you?

I haven't done any prep. I'm tossing up between writing a short story set in the world of the novel I'm editing or doing something completely different. Maybe writing one of the other short story ideas from the Dictionary Impossible challenge.

No Excuses. Just Write.
SoCNoC - Untitled Chick Lit
Freeing the Flame - 30,065/40,000 words rewritten for May

My prep is just an idea at the moment that I haven't had time to flesh out yet. ^^; I'm hoping it'll work, or maybe I'll just have to wing it again. ^^;

Kerryn, is it that obvious? Okay, here's the full plan. It's very methodical and I'm sure that SoCNoC won't be so, but this is the layout for the short story (each scene is 500 words):

* Initial scenes: 'Start' then choose 'a' or 'b'
* Middle: aa ab ba bb
* End: aaa aab aba abb baa bab bba bbb

So each 'story' will be 2,000 words.

Something really funny happened the other day too. I was round at a mates place and he had managed to acquire about 20 'Choose your own Adventure' books second hand :-) I was a child again...

...but I died about 3 times.

Andrew Chilton - http://kapiti.geek.nz/
SoCNoC 2008 - Unknown and Untitled

I started with a mind map with a big "HUMAN" in the middle and branching out into "Science", "Technology" and "Evolution" and then sub-branching from there.

I have a premise, but no story ideas as yet. I can come up with a few scenes I'm sure - I'll give the premise here.

Again, sci-fi, in the future, maybe 100 years or maybe a little more. There are now several species of human, post-human if you will, and they are at war.

There are "the naturals" who have evolved into smarter humans, there are "The genetically enhanced" who are modified genetically in a lab, there are "The bred", who've been part of a breeding program for zonks, and there are "The artificials" who are completely synthetic with an AI brain. AND, of course, there are still "normal" humans who live on the edge of the war between all the super normals.

Each group has strengths and weaknesses, but they all seem to hate each other.

Not sure where it is going. I'm sure I have 6000 words of material there.

Travis.
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http://cottreau.blogspot.com
http://cottreaureviews.blogspot.com/

Andy, that sounds so fun! I can't believe how many endings that makes! It does give the stories all the same length, something that you can vary in SoCNoC. A great preparation task too! Good luck!

cottreau, I think your idea will grow way beyond your 6000 words. Maybe you could write a snapshot short story and write the novel for SoCNoC?

No Excuses. Just Write.
SoCNoC - Untitled Chick Lit
Freeing the Flame - 30,065/40,000 words rewritten for May

I was thinking along those lines. Although I had a different idea for SoCNoC... can do either.

Travis.
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http://cottreau.blogspot.com
http://cottreaureviews.blogspot.com/

Interesting idea - you could be the next generation of "choose your own adventure" - looks very interesting. Of course, I'm still waiting for a copy of "Casey Hill"... I think I'd prefer you finish that instead. :-)

Travis.
--
http://cottreau.blogspot.com
http://cottreaureviews.blogspot.com/

Never going to happen :-)

You story sounds excellent. I reckon I could have a go at SF but mine would probably end up being fairly random weird stuff.

Andrew Chilton - http://kapiti.geek.nz/
SoCNoC 2008 - Unknown and Untitled

This is just a little inkling I have...

From the responses here, it seems that the people who did even just a small bit of prep managed to have a greater success rate than those who didn't. Of course, I'm sure there are people who did nothing and still finished, but I'm just thinking out loud.

After doing this last week and managing to do alright in the challenge, I'm pretty convinced that I'm going to do a good bit of prep for SoCNoC otherwise, I'm never going to finish. It's definately the way forward for me!

Anyone else have any thoughts/observations?

Andrew Chilton - http://kapiti.geek.nz/
SoCNoC 2008 - Unknown and Untitled

Well, for me I know I did some prep for this one, and basically none for wwwW. I failed that challenge and completed this one, so I would have to say that putting in the prep definitely helps me!! NaNo was a lot longer though and I had more days where I could make up for the days I didn't feel like writing a thing, so SoCNoC will have that too.

http://vyanae.blogspot.com/

I did half-hearted prep for this one - practically none for wwwW, and finished that one and not this one.

I did none for Nanowrimo and finished that one by Nov 22nd, which I considered pretty good.

I don't know what that means. I think writing in 1st person makes a huge difference for me, since I'm doing it right now and that's how I write all of my emails and I do that a lot.

Watching Travis try and write his 3rd person story is like watching molasses flow in a Northern February, like watching ice melt and like seeing grass grow, maybe even all of those together.

Of course, wwwW was 3rd person. I don't think I see a pattern!

Travis.
--
http://cottreau.blogspot.com
http://cottreaureviews.blogspot.com/