Exactly xD And I have a tendency to write out of order too, like middle, beginning, end; or I start something and get an idea for later and start writing it lmao

Oh interesting... I write start-to-finish, or else I know I won't go back and write the beginning! I used to have a ton of old notebooks from high school that were just the middle bits of things... no beginning and no end because I hated them too much LOL! does it work for you to write it out of order like that? Or does it throw you off?

It soooooorta does? If I don't write down a story idea, it gets lost to the void so I tend to write it out, no matter what part of the story it's at xD I can usually find a way to connect them somehow, if I even get that far in the story where the idea spawned lol

That's awesome! ^^ It sounds like you've learned some things that work for you.

It's mostly me just working around my shit memory problems xD but it does work, so I suppose I have to give it some credit for working for me :p

I'm in the process of preparing for NaNoWriMo... August was only somewhat productive, September was not productive at all, and October has me going in 10 different directions at once.

I've narrowed my potential NaNoWriMo projects down to 5 and I am trying to formulate formal plans for each. Right now that means looking at title possibilities because I do better when the story has a working title at least. (Constantly calling something "MC1 and MC2's Story" is boring and it gets annoying after a while.) They're all well-developed in some areas and not in others. If I can get my act together in time, I am going to try to participate properly.

Is anyone else thinking about doing NaNoWriMo this year? If so, how close are you to being ready?

I'm bowing out for this year - gives me more time to work on costuming, and I've actually been able to sustain a decent writing streak ever since about June. I use NaNo as a jumpstarter to try to get myself to write every day, but I actually have been! So tool not needed :)

That's exciting that you're planning to do it again this year. I hope you're able to narrow down your projects in time and find the right one ^^

- I'm planning on doing it this year. I'm going to be re-writing my very first nano. To prepare for it, I probably should be reading the old one... but I'm scared to touch it... it's so old, and monstrous and probably too awful for me to be able to read for any extended amount of time.

- whatcha costuming? I want to costume more, but I feel so unmotivated to do so now that I'm living in a place where there is only one or two events to go to in the year where wearing a costume is appropriate. (that and I have no friends here who will costume with me)

Early prep for 12th Night (an SCA event) in early January, and possibly also starting to get some of the more complicated pieces together for SakuraCon in late March. I miiiight be cosplaying a character who wears a bit of chainmail, so if I want to do it I'm going to need to teach myself to make it. Which would be a good winter project...!

- Sounds like fun! Ooo maybe one year I'll get out to Sakuracon, still a 16 hour drive to get there though. Will have to get a job that gives me my weekends off :( Chain mail would be a good winter project. I have some friends who do chain mail, it is apparently not hard, just very time consuming. (I hear the materials can get expensive too though, one of my friends makes chain mail with pop tabs instead)

SakuraCon is fun! It's gotten really huge, though. I miss when it was still in hotels instead of in the convention center. It's easier to meet people and hang out when there are places to sit and chill. But it's still fun. I'm debating on some Dragon Age cosplay (which I would need the mail for), and my fiancee has been suggesting steampunk Sailor Moon cosplay (I'm fluid enough for Haruka and she would be the most adorable Michiru).

Good luck reading your old NaNo project, btw. That's intimidating!

- Do both! lol. Both sound awesome. As for my nano re-read... it's probably not gonna happen lol.

I took an unexpected hiatus from pretty much everything in September (I've got a little blurb on my profile right now about that), but I was still working on my projects in a more abstract, clouded brain sorta way. LOL Since I posted yesterday, I've narrowed down my possibilities to three. Unfortunately, they are all three having identity problems... They can't decide if they are stand-alone or the first books of series and until I figure that out, I can't make much more progress.

I have around 5k words written for one of the stories I am considering, but it's going to end up just being something like one of those prompts where they tell you to put your character in a situation that has nothing to do with your story. I know more about the MCs' personalities because of that 5k, but that's about it. If you don't feel like it is necessary for you to read your previous version, then it probably isn't. Just my two cents. :)

I probably will do both... but who knows? It's only October!

You can do it~! There's still a few weeks to sort out things ^^

I'm totally psyched up for you guys! Kinda sorry I won't be playing along :( But I can totally hang out here and be a cheerleader and maybe I'll even participate in a couple wars (if they're wanted) with my other writing :)

- Man, I wish I had any sort of convention to go to to get excited for at this point. The next one close to here is a single day event on Saturday when I work, and no late night content either, so after work is also a no-go. And the next one after that is in may.

- Those are great for writing exercises, but not so much for novel, but if you write enough of them, maybe you will stumble upon some inspiration. I really should re-read it, at least the first part which is for the most part going to stay the same. Its everything after that that needs to be fixed.

Yeah, we only do one actual convention per year anymore. We used to make the pilgrimage down to San Francisco for YCon, but it stopped being worth it. So now we stick to our local con and spend the rest of the year doing SCA events instead. My fiancee does Italian renaissance (16th century) and I focus on Japanese (also 16th century). It's a lot of fun and I've learned a lot too :)

If I can't get any of them suitably sorted out in time, I'm going to make a point of working on them during NaNo anyway. I'm thinking, at this point, I will augment my goal if I see it's going to take an extra week or two before I am ready to write. (35k if it is a week in, 25k if it is 2.) Today I've been working on actually writing down what things I need to know about each but still don't. Each one is missing something important that is preventing from me from committing to that particular project. For one concept, I know the who but not the why. For the second one, I know the what but not the how. And for the last one, I am struggling with the when. I'm imagining my muse right now, laughing at me and telling me I'll never figure it out in time.

The 5k wasn't a writing exercise, it was a false start. I wrote it before I stumble across beat sheets and after I got so far in, I realized it wasn't going in the right direction. I guess what I was trying to say is that I have a lot of stuff that I could reference, but I probably won't because I don't feel it is applicable or, at least, not applicable enough for me to bother with. Since it's getting so close to time, I am trying to prioritize. (Also, I think, if I found something I could actually use, I'd have a hard time just reading it ahead of time. I'd want to go ahead and re-work it to suit the new project. LOL)

- Just because it wasn't an intentional writing exercise doesn't mean it wasn't one. Sounds like it sort of helped you out at least figure out one wrong direction. I'm sure you'll get sorted out by november, there's still a good chunk of time.

- The one here isn't even really worth going to. Although, this year they are FINALLY holding it somewhere other than the university campus, so who knows, if that goes well for them it might get better, if not, it might even just die. The comic expo here is good, but really expensive, and all my friends volunteer for it instead of 'attending' it, so I don't have anyone to cosplay with, and sure, I met a bunch of cool people there last year, but it's just not the same as having at least one person you know and can hang out with when you have nothing else going on.

Oh man, that sounds like a terrible situation. Half of one, the other half of the other, and then yet another half of something else... phew. Sounds like a lot to wrangle. You can get it, though!!

It's admittedly really nice having a fiancee who cosplays because you (almost) always have a cosplay partner. Emerald City Comic Con is supposed to be amazing but it's always right around the same time as SakuraCon and that's the one I'd rather attend. And I won't go to PAX on principle (and it's a ridiculous madhouse, to boot)... which means unless we want to trek up to BC or down to Portland, there's not much else in the area. But overall SakuraCon a good con with a lot of good memories (it's where I proposed to her, after all... :) )

- My sister likes to cosplay, but she prefers to volunteer at conventions which usually means no cosplaying, she also is not very confident in her cosplaying skills so doesn't like to make costumes a lot. I've heard great things about ECCC and SakuraCon, I've been to PAX east and it does require a certain different sort of interest than I have (it was still fun though, but probably not worth it for me to go again) Vancouver and portland do have some good ones I've heard, some of my friends from here truck out to the occasionally, but I can't afford the time, it's about 40 hours round trip to drive, and a hassle/expensive to fly. I've got the option to drive for 3 hours to edmonton for an extra convention a year, but I wouldn't want to do that alone, and no one I know seems interested.