• National Pony Writing Month Update #2!

    For all the potential writers out there investing ludicrous amounts of time into National Pony Writing Month, Siraj has some new week one pep talk to keep everyone motivated! Check it out after the break!

        Hello my little writers! Siraj here with your week 1 pep talk post. How's everypony doing so far? If you're looking to stay on track, you should be somewhere in the realm of 11,670 words. Of course, some participants might be in the 20 k mark already. That's fine. Myself, you may be wondering? I'm just a few words over 6,400. Yes, I note the irony in running this event and not keeping pace. It happens.
        Something else that happens is that you may have already run into your first writer's block. This can vary between something you can smash with a sledgehammer, or something you may have to get the chisel out for, to craft your way around.  I want to stress this: do not give up. It may be a challenge, you may have written yourself into a corner, your initial idea may have even run dry sooner than you thought. My best advice is to sit down; whether with your outline if you planned one out; a few friends to bounce ideas off of; hit up ponychan, or the ever-amazing writer's training grounds. There's resources out there, don't be shy about using them.

        One more thing I want to do before I finish off this post is have a mini-FAQ of sorts, since I'm still sans Internet and I'm getting some common questions.

    Q: When do we have to be done?
    A: You need to stop writing, if you're still going, at midnight on September 30th, LOCAL TIME. This means that at the end of this, I'll be getting Aussie and European attempts before I receive anything from the east coast here in the USA. Please, don't try sneaking a few extra words in at 12:01 a.m. on October 1st. It wouldn't be fair to the other participants.

    Q: Where do we send it when we're done?
    A: You just punt it to eqnapowrimo@gmail.com, the same e-mail you sent your interest e-mail to. Attach either one large document in whatever format you desire, or do chapters. As long as your work is received, along with your name and word count by the deadline, you'll be included in the event roundup at the end.

    Q: Can we submit it to EqD?
    A: Absolutely! I certainly can't and won't stop you. Just follow the guidelines as normal, and remember that a one-shot fic needs to be at least 3,000 words, and a multi-part needs to be at least 2,500 words per part.

    Q: What if I want to participate unofficially/start late/work on something I've already started during this?
    A: Go for it! If this little event inspires you to write something that's been lurking in your mind for days/months/years, by all means, write! As a fellow writer and National Novel Writing Month participant, there's nothing that makes me prouder to see "this is my first attempt at writing, this event convinced me to try", and watching them crank out 32,000 some-odd words on their first try.

        I hope this post helped and encouraged you to keep going, or to try your hoof at something you may have abandoned. See you all next week, my friends!

    39 comments:

    1. I'm currently sitting at 12000 words, and still going.

      I WILL EAT ALL OF YOUR LUNCHES, PONY WRITERS. Keep at it or else. I don't want to be the only one with a completed novel by the end of the month.

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    2. I'm at the 12,000 words mark myself. Getting to writing another 2000 tonight, maybe more!

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    3. i need to work on my idea. D= *is lazy*

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    4. Not first!
      cant wait too see these fics

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    5. Seriously though this is WAY hardcore. No way I could get this much done. I'll just have to make a 5-page novel

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    6. I'm at 14.5k words. There is an infinite amount of editing I still have to do, I'm terrified it's crap, and I have no idea what I'm doing. But it's also the most fun I've had in months (besides watching season 1)!

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    7. Wait, we were supposed to do some official entry? Or did you just want to see if there were enough people to make it worthwhile? I didn't send anything in o.0 can I still enter?

      Not that I expect to meet the goal, I've been quite lazily plodding along. Fun stuff though.

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    8. Well, my stuff is WOEFULLY behind the ~ 15k words I'd need to hit 50k by Oct. But It LOOKS like it'll be the longest thing I've ever attempted. I probably will only get part way through the story. Stupid other things eating my time...

      Work, right? That's like 45 hours a week right there.

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    9. I'm starting to lag behind a little bit, but fluttershy in socks and a sweater was what I needed.

      editing is going to be "fun" though

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    10. By creatively recycling some roleplay, I've hit about 15,000 so far.

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    11. @Vanner Im giving you a run for your money at 11,777

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    12. 10000+ so far, and still trucking. At least I know where the story is going, it's just a matter of getting there!

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    13. 8k words in myself. A little behind schedule, but I'm confident I can make it up without too much hassle.

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    14. Glad to see all of you writing!

      Remember that your goal is a simple 1666 words per day. That's 5000 words every three days. Keep at it, bronies!

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    15. I've been sick since the 3rd. And when I'm sick I lose my mojo, so to speak. So my fanfic is postponed until I'm better. IF I get better before the end of the month.

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    16. I’m up to 13,800 words, but the stuff I wrote yesterday was really bleh. But I’m feeling really happy about the rest of it, the words are flowing at an alarming rate!

      If anyone needs a place to brainstorm, get plot advice, or just post their story, feel free to join me at the MLP Lexicon. We can help you get your story ready for submission to ED. :)

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    17. currently at 11,500 and planning on writing some more before the end of the day and get up to at least 12,000. This is actually going a lot easier than my NaNoWriMo stuff goes.

      Maybe it's because I planned out my story some beforehand for this, maybe it's just because I like warping the wonderful world of equestria into something grotesque, or maybe I just love these characters and this universe, but I'm not having to struggle at all to hit my deadlines each day.

      Not sure if my story will be a full 50K when it's done, but I hope to make it a good long fic nonetheless.

      Also, much thanks to a person I met on bronystate with the username "Denied Existence" for offering their opinion on the first chapter. Not sure if they'll see this, but it's always good to try!

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    18. gah. School gave me a slap in the face, so I didn't officially sign up. I started today and I'll be trying to see If I catch up. >_<

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    19. Chugging along swimmingly myself at roughly 13.5k words - I have lofty, unrealistic goals of reaching somewhere in the neighbourhood of 80k, but we'll see how that goes!

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    20. 8,500 words at the moment. I'd be farther along if a certain hurricane didn't happen. THANKS A LOT IRENE. Now I need to type on this silly little netbook. -_-

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    21. I am over 11k words into mine. But I'm going all over the place, doing multiple scenes out of order. It's like I'm trying to do the prettiest puzzle pieces but then I would have the problem of putting it all together into a pretty picture.

      And just when I'm going strong, EXAMS. Thankfully my brother is giving good critique and a little morale boost.

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    22. Also, it sounds strange, but so far the best soundtrack I've found for getting into the writing mood has been "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" by Kanye West.

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    23. Since everypony seems to be comparing, is anypony else up to 21K words? I should hit 22K before the night is over, we'll see. Any guesses as to what kind of fic I'm writing? Heh heh.

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    24. And now I'm up to about 12,500 or so. I might even make it to 13000 tonight!

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    25. Hey, it's me with 1and a half literal pages. That's right. I'm writing on actual paper that comes from trees! Use your resources and all that.
      School is very time consuming.... :(

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    26. I never sent an email to say I was interested, but I'm currently sitting at 12731 words.

      The writer's block is building up like icy crust on a windshield during an ice storm.

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    27. I didn't know about this event but as luck should have it, I started a story this September and now have a reason to bust flank on it this month. Thanks for the kick in the cutie mark.

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    28. Now I have a reason to finish that novel I started two months ago....

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    29. Switched to art -- my tablet's underused. At the finishing bell, I'll link to a gallery. ^.^

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    30. See here's the fadoodle... Because I plan to also upload it to EQD within this month, I'm also having it go under extensive editing by a friend. Very THOROUGH editing. So it's taking me awhile >.>

      Guess that's not really an excuse :P

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    31. Gaah, I'm just under 8000. I need to catch up!

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    32. Hehe... I'm only on 5k. This 4 day weekend should help out though.

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    33. Haha! oh yeah! welp I've only got 1.5k words so far. Soo I'm really behind now.

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    34. I've got a rough summary paragraph + two words of actual story...

      I don't think I'm gonna pull it off...

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    35. After I finish typing today, I'll be at over 8,000 words. I fell two days behind thanks to a con I went to. Nothing that can't be fixed with a couple of days of doubling down!

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    36. I already know how this will end...

      "Dit, what are you doing?"
      "Writing about ponies."
      "It's four O'clock in the morning, why on earth are you writing about ponies?"
      "It's National Pony Novel Writing month."
      ...
      "Here's a story about ponies Siraj"
      "Wow Thanks Dit, but it's four hours too late."
      "Aaaahhhh!"

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    37. Hmm... 8 days down, and only 7600 words... that's about 5700 behind schedule, ahaha. Curse my need to constantly revise and rewrite! I'm not built for speedwriting :P The silver lining is that I'm getting faster day-by-day, so as a motivator, this competition is still doing the trick.

      Gotta say though, being my first pony fanfic, gotta love writing these ponies. Pinkie Pie is crazy fun!

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    38. sitting at about 10k words, pariticipating but im not sure about submitting my work at the end of it :P, I want to release it slowly and take time to polish each chapter as I release it to the masses over time ^^

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    39. So, because I'm such a Twilight Sparkle, I wanted to keep track of my progress and how on-target I was. Whipped up a spreadsheet and figured I'd share it, in case anypony else finds this kind of thing motivating.

      https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aheip1_Pu5DMdEpNbnFmXzJnemplMjJyMk04SWY1Rmc&hl=en_US

      You should be able to either File > Make A Copy or File > Download To Excel, to enter in your own numbers. Quick overview of what this thing's doing.

      Day - Sept 1, Sept 2, etc. Obvious.
      Guide - If you were keeping pace of 1,667 words every day, this is where you should be.
      Actual - This is the only column you should need to edit. At the end of the day, do a word count and enter the total here. If you don't remember the exact word count for a particular day, write down a guess instead (leaving cells blank will screw up some of the calculations).
      Delta - Calculates how many words you've written today.
      Target - Based on how many words you've written so far, and how many days are left, shows how many words you should write to keep on-pace for 50k by the end of the month. Notice that even though my numbers so far have been crappy, my Delta exceeded my Target on the 8th, so that was a good day :)
      Projected - Does a basic linear regression to try to estimate how many words you'll reach by the end of the month, at your current rate. Take this number with a grain of salt; linear regressions are only so accurate, so assume this number plus-or-minus a few thousand, at least.

      Naturally, for days in the future, your values for Delta, Target, and Projection will be pure rubbish, so ignore those future rows. Today's Target will be accurate, however. So for example, even though I don't have an Actual value for Sept 9th right now, the Target of 1,928 words is what I want to aim for tonight.

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