Get-To-Know-Yous and Project Intros
Oct. 11th, 2019 04:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vintagewitch posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
nano_writersI know a bunch of people are interested in using this space to track our NaNo projects, so I figured it'd be nice to have some intros.
Let's do a round of posts to get to know each other.
Here are some possible questions to answer:
1. Who are you?
2. What are your fave books?
3. Have you ever done NaNo before?
4. What's your project looking like? What kind of support do you want/need?
5. Anything else you wanna share!
I'll start!
1. Who are you?
I'm a queer femme witch, living in the Twin Cities, MN. I'm a total weirdo, in love with pop culture and trying to become a professional writer.
2. What are your fave books?
It feels cliche to say this, but the Harry Potter series was incredibly formative for me. The HP Fandom fostered a sense of community for me when I was just learning about being a witch.
Otherwise, in terms of books, I love Fun Home by Alison Bechdell, The Border of Paradise by Esme Weijun Wang, The Red Tree by Caitlin R. Kiernan, and countless - COUNTLESS - books about witchcraft. I'd say The Border of Paradise and Fun Home probably have the biggest influence on my thinking about writing fiction.
3. Have you ever done NaNo before?
Yes! I won one year, and I think I've participated 2 other times.
4. What's your project looking like?
I'm writing a couple of things, and want to use NaNo to finish them. I'm working on a grimoire for a class I'm teaching, and I'm also writing a book about Norse mythology. I need to have the grimoire done by the end of the year, and I'm not quite set on a goal for a manuscript of the book, but ideally by summer. This is kind of like a jump start - I really want to do getyourwordsout next year, so this is a bit of a jump start of that.
I'm not totally sure what kind of support I want - mostly I want a chill space to talk about word counts and such. I've already got beta readers for my various projects, but sometimes I need a lil encouragement. Would also love any suggestions on the editing process, as well as pitching work if any of you have done that. Also ... encouragement on the fiction front! I love writing and reading fiction, but I write so much for work stuff that I don't have much energy at the end of the day for fiction writing.
5. Anything else?
Not totally sure! I love horror and weird fiction, and so I kind of want to jump into writing some of that in short story form. I'm also back on my bullshit with fandom, and I've got a fanfic that is on the backburner while I try to get other stuff finished. I'm constantly reading like, 5 books at a time and so my attention is a little scatterbrained.
Like I said above, I'm a professional witch and tarot reader and that is a HUGE part of my life, but I kind of want to keep Dreamwidth more anonymous. I need to do other things than chat about work all the time.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-10-12 03:36 am (UTC)I'm the mother of three children and a dog. The children are 16, 14, and 12, and the dog is seven. I write, read, crochet, play stupid computer games. I've been writing since I was around 13, and I love it. Even when I don't love it, I do. I also Bullet Journal, do Miracle Morning, GTD, and 12 Week Year. At the moment, the only successful thing I do is the Bullet Journal. Oh, and I'm on Habitica, which is fun and I love it. This is my second year doing
2. What are your fave books?
My go-to when I'm lost and need a good escape are Seanan McGuire's Newsflesh books (Feed, Deadline, Blackout), and The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold. I'm currently reading a series about a small town called Miller's Kill, which is delightful (and I'm about to reach the end. *Sob*).
3. Have you ever done NaNo before?
I have. this is my 17th year, and I've won all but one. I have never done it without kids at home. One year I got insane, and I wrote two novels. To this day, I have no idea how I did it (although one of my most popular fanfics came out of that, so who knows).
4. What's your project looking like? What kind of support do you want/need?
I don't know what I'm going to do yet. I have several projects in the works right now, but nothing that I want to drop them all for. I have a couple of challenges I could work on, but those are shorter and I'd like to have one long story this time.
As for support, I need accountability. I know it's easier during Nano, but it helps there, too.
5. Anything else you wanna share!
Actually, I think I've overshared. Sorry. Currently watching ATEEZ's comeback with Wonderland, waiting to see if they'll drop an MV for Sunrise, and wondering if I'll get something from them that will spark a 50k word story. One can hope!
(no subject)
Date: 2019-10-12 01:45 pm (UTC)Accountability is so important! I definitely need that. Glad you're writing along this year.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-10-18 02:45 am (UTC)And I've looked at
(no subject)
Date: 2019-11-01 03:40 pm (UTC)You can do it! It's awesome and they're good people.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-10-12 06:53 pm (UTC)1. Who are you?
Hi, I'm Jenett. By day (and not by a name I link in public), I am a research librarian working with a really interesting specialised collection near Boston, and a total research geek.
Other times, I am still a research geek, but I write romance novels set in the 1920s with magic as Celia Lake (see answers #3 and #4 for more) and I'm a priestess and witch with a coven in a small religious witchcraft tradition. I've also got 7 (I think it's 7) chronic health issues that need juggling. (My series also has strong disability/chronic health issue representation, for what are probably Obvious Reasons.)
I'm also part of
2. What are your fave books?
The book that has absolutely been on my top five list since I read it late in high school is Pamela Dean's Tam Lin. Beyond that I read widely (basically anything that sits still long enough) though I no longer feel quite so obliged to professionally as I used to when I worked in a high school library.
My usual happy place involves historical mysteries, romances with intelligent or pragmatic characters who don't make foolish errors for plot reasons, urban fantasy with cohesive magic theory and cosmology, or non-fiction books that dig into interesting topics. (And I also read a bunch of witchy books, but those are more for 'how does this person discuss things' or 'I'm trying to figure out alternate options for Y'.
3. Have you ever done NaNo before?
This is my fourth time.
Last year was my first win, on absolute classic mode (start a novel on page 1 on November 1st, have at least 50K words at the end of the month), and In The Cards is currently in editing for publication sometime in November (because everyone needs a locked room murder mystery set on the Isles of Scilly in 1926 and a very brash American, with bonus Tarot geekiness, right?)
It's book 5 in the series, and book 1 was 2017's project, and book 2 was (in an earlier form of my idea for this) a NaNo project way back in 2011. I've learned a lot about my personal writing speed capabilities over the process which is really helpful. (I normally reliably average about 1000 words a day, so Nano is about 150% of my usual.)
4. What's your project looking like? What kind of support do you want/need?
I'm writing a standalone in the same world, but earlier (Edwardian, sometime between 1906 and 1910, probably) featuring two characters who have shown up in the 1920s series, as a "arranged marriage that later becomes a love match" trope. It's going to involve art forgery, and before I get started I should brush up a bit on some pieces of what I need details for.
Mostly, I'm looking for amiable companionship - I read the Nano forums, and last year I went to a few writeins, but I'd love a space that doesn't feel as vast as the Nano forums or 4theWords (which I use for writing rough drafts - it's a gamification tool, but they do great quests and projects for Nano, and I find it fun and motivating to get me to do just another couple hundred words, etc.
5. Anything else you wanna share!
I am a little nervous about pacing, because the current book in progress has been very slow going, and while I can still reasonably finish by the end of October, it's going to mean keeping up close to a NaNo pace for ... well, um, 7 weeks or so. On the other hand, that book is now finally in the stage where the plot rolls downhill and it gets easier for me, so I'm hoping that'll be okay.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-10-13 01:21 pm (UTC)Can I just say I'm ALREADY obsessed? This sounds spectacular. Also I might need some romance recs, I usually get my romance fix through fandom but I'd actually really love to read a good romance that's original work. Especially if it's queer.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-10-13 01:28 pm (UTC)My romances are M/F (because romance as a genre, you mostly have to pick what you're doing) but I'm doing my best to get queer characters into the stories as plots allow. (Current book in progress includes heroine having a conversation about Sappho with the nice academic lesbian couple in the boarding house she's staying at, one of my heroes is canonically bi and insistent about being honest about it.)
If you have not already read any KJ Charles, and want historical queer romance, start there! (for which one to start with, depends a bit on your interests, but her website will give you a sense. You might get a huge kick out of Proper English and there's another book involving those characters, Think of England, but if you want the explicit magical part, try This Spectered Isle (Other stuff also awesome.)
I also really like Cat Sebastian's Hither, Page, and have other stuff in my TBR pile.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-10-13 01:36 pm (UTC)I have nothing against reading M/F, I just loooooove a good queer romance. I've also been incredibly in the mood for some Jane Austen lately, so that tells you where my head's at in terms of romance. I've read (and loved) Pride and Prejudice but I'm thinking of reading Sense and Sensibility.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-10-21 12:11 am (UTC)*grabbyhands*
(no subject)
Date: 2019-10-13 12:30 am (UTC)What are your fave books? So many, but some of my top faves are The Fall of Atlantis by Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Wicked Years Series by Gregory Maguire, The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B White, and The Betrayal by Kathleen O'Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear.
Have you ever done NaNo before? I've done every NaNo since 2002 and every single session of CampNaNo since they started holding them in 2011. Haven't always officially won, but any words written is a win in my book.
What's your project looking like? What kind of support do you want/need? This year, I'm planning on working on my OutlawQueen Advent Calendar project, which will be some combination of fiction, poetry, and fanmix, maybe a little Zentangle-inspired art thrown in for flair. Sill trying to decide what my basic plot will be and which of my various verses it will come from, but I'm basically a plantser when it comes to the plotter vs. pantser debate, so...
As for support? I'm really not sure? This is the first year in over a decade where I've had a job during NaNo, so it's going to be really weird to have to structure when I write around my job. Probably just some encouragement, I guess?
Anything else you wanna share! Um... Not off the top of my head? I'm pretty much an open book, so feel free to ask. If it's something I'm not comfortable answering, I'll say so.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-10-13 01:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-10-13 05:03 pm (UTC)because I also haven't had any good single novel ideas, and I like doing multimedia projects with art and music, so...(no subject)
Date: 2019-10-13 05:29 pm (UTC)2. What are your fave books? That's so hard for me, but as a writer, I've studied Misery by King, and it's a near brilliant book. I love weird fiction and tend to write it, too. None of my work follows the rules, which has garnered me some awards, but I'm only self published at current.
3. Have you ever done NaNo before? Since 2005. Used to be an ML years ago.
4. What's your project looking like? What kind of support do you want/need? I'm using NaNo to, true to form, break the rules and edit a manuscript I wrote about a decade ago.
5. Anything else you wanna share! Guess I'm going to measure my progress as "words edited."
(no subject)
Date: 2019-10-18 02:48 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-10-18 03:02 am (UTC)1. Who are you? this is me on NaNoWriMo! Otherwise, I just muddle around on DW writing marvel cinematic universe fanfic and trying to be entertaining.
2. What are your fave books? I just recently got into Vonnegut, Sirens of Titan has been my favorite so far. The Call of the Wild by Jack London has followed me around since childhood. And Pig's Don't Fly by Mary Brown and The Warrior Returns by Allan Cole are a pair of my favorite fantasy novels.
3. Have you ever done NaNo before? so many times, but it all blurs together at this point. I know I won a couple of times, but most often I haven't quite been able to sustain an idea for that many words and that many days.
4. What's your project looking like? What kind of support do you want/need? I'd love buddies! Really a community to chat at would be wonderful. Right now, I'm leaning towards a Definitely Not a Buffy Ripoff idea centered on the mentor of the teenage group falling in love with the antihero probably-not-a-vampire. Also the mentor looks like Anthony Mackie and the not!vampire looks like Sebastian Stan
5. Anything else you wanna share! Good luck everyone!
(no subject)
Date: 2019-10-21 12:04 am (UTC)Queer trans disabled antifascist Hellenic polytheist writer.
2. What are your fave books?
*wince* the only thing I've even read this year that's longer than ~10K and isn't fanfic is Something Familiar by S. N. Arly, and, uh. People who have read Something Familiar by
(Brains. Why.)
3. Have you ever done NaNo before?
Several times. Won once; rebelled like hell to get there, though.
4. What's your project looking like? What kind of support do you want/need?
Not sure about support, but since it doesn't look like I'm gonna finish drafting where the firelight fades in the next ten days (it's not impossible, but it's not likely), my NaNo project is gonna be that to start. It's a Miraculous Ladybug novel-length inspired by
And when that is drafted and out of my head, I'm going to what I planned would be my 2019 NaNo, butterfly dreams, which title is like three levels of wordplay. Hawkmoth won. He got everything he wanted: his wife is alive, his son is no longer rebellious, his loyal assistant is healthy, his reputation is intact, and that pestilential insect can no longer bother him. No one even remembers anything from the original timeline, except for him and his assistant.
Problem is, magic like that has a price. The girl under the Ladybug mask—whom Gabriel can't kill for fear of losing Émilie again and doesn't want to kill because that would make him the villain of the piece, but because the girl is and will remain in the same semi-alive state Émilie was in before Gabriel won, that's not a problem—made a couple of promises. One was to protect their city from people like Hawkmoth. Another was never to abandon her partner—that is to say, Gabriel's son, who may not remember what he's afraid of or why, but is certainly scared and lonely enough he's willing to listen to the ghost girl telling him everything he knows is a lie…
This excerpt may not actually make it in to the novel?This is going to be so much fun.
5. Anything else you wanna share!
I seem to like emotionally torturing my characters. 😸
(no subject)
Date: 2019-10-27 09:12 pm (UTC)2. What are your fave books? Too many to list! Mainly horror/supernatural (but not too gory), thrillers, the odd bit of steampunk, historical.
3. Have you ever done NaNo before? Yes, winning record of five from five so hopefully number six this year.
4. What's your project looking like? This year I'll be working on another supernatural tale, with the action split between ancient Egypt and the present day. However it's not a rehash of anything like The Mummy! Not much more than that to say at the moment as there are still a few details that I'm mulling over.
5. Anything else you wanna share! I'm more than happy to accept buddy requests on the new NaNo site, which I'm slowly getting used to :)
(no subject)
Date: 2019-10-28 09:18 pm (UTC)2. What are your fave books? Neil Gaiman’s books, biographies, novels. I don’t care as long as they are well written, actually.
3. Have you ever done NaNo before? I tried a few times but realized that the daily wordcount is too much for me. I participated in
4. What's your project looking like? A cracky fix it for my current obsession, Jesse/Cassidy from Preacher.
What kind of support do you want/need? Not sure yet. Just a sense of community. Of sharing inspiration, joy and frustration about writing going well or bad.
5. Anything else you wanna share! I hope you all are okay with having a fanfic writer around. Also, I'm writing free-hand. Pen on paper.