Has anyone done anything with their stories from last years Nov. Nano?

Also, are you going to participate again this year? I keep going back and forth on it.
Mumble

I got maybe 20 pages in and that's it. Haven't had time to get back to it since. (maybe that was 2 years ago.)

I was going to do the August Camp thing but didn't.

I've got no other commitments this year in November so I'm going to give it another try. And I can't figure out if i want to be a planer or not. :-D

Infin~T

Due to school and this strange desire to get decent grades, I haven't been able to do NaNo for two years.

However, my 2006 novel (Fabric of the World) is published, and my 2009 novel (Working title: Mind Touch) is scheduled to be published in October 2013.

I finished a new novel (Working title: Crown of Tears) in August's camp, and am already thinking about what I will write this November.

Romana

I start off good & get about halfway through some & then I loose direction. How do you do it? I feel like I'm just retelling someone else's story whenever I write. Like I have no original ideas. :-(

I have high hopes for November... but I'm also a tad concerned I'm going to suck at this one too.

I make a plan for where I think the characters are going. I start off good and get about halfway through, and then, if I am lucky, the characters take over and I lose the direction I have begun in. I try very hard to be retelling the character's story, the way it "actually happened to them", as though I am simply recording their lives.

In the story I just finished, for example, I had planned for princess A to be a little bit of a brat but eventually to grow up and die heroically, princess B to fall in love with a groom and suffer a great amount of angst because she can't marry a commoner, and princess C to fall in love with a foriegn prince, marry him, and never come home from their quest, all while the quest is successfully completed. Instead, the characters hijacked the story halfway through. Princess A was much brattier and ended up exhibiting some non-fatal self-destructive tendancies, and doing things altogether unplanned for. Princess B hired the groom, then ignored him and fell in love with someone else who was intended to be a minor character. The minor character was supposed to stay home on his island and instead, he caught a boat and tracked the princesses down, pushing in where he was definitely not invited by the author. Princess C actually followed the plan I had given her.

As far as feeling like you're plagarizing someone else's story, unless you're stealing their words, don't worry about it. I have a book written in 18th century france called "The 38 dramatic situations". Ihave also often heard that there are only something like 7 or 8 different plots - the rest is all just our own window dressing and twists to keep it interesting. It's like watching a favorite TV show, when you've gone to a commercial and left the hero in a bad situation. You don't worry about him too much because you know they can't kill off the hero, but you stick with the show to find out how he gets out of it. It's the character you care about, not the actual plot. Make the characters your own unique creation, bring them to life, then get out of the way and write down their life the way they tell you it happened.

Romana

OMG thank you so much for putting it that way. I totally see it. I have characters that I haven't finished their stories but I love them so much I can't just leave them. Problem is tracking down their stories to finish them. :-)

I'd totally read your Princess story. Got to love that unexpected change of minor character to more involved one.

It's not likely to be published for a couple of years, at least. My partner and I both write a new manuscript during Nano. Then we send them to the bottom of the list, because editing is easier after you let the manuscript sit for a while and you can look at it with new eyes. It takes approximately seven months to take a manuscript from rough draft to published. We overlap that a little bit, and aim to publish two books per year. However, we have a small backlog built up, and are working on that first. Make sense?

The very tentative and self-imposed publication schedule goes something like this:

10/24/12 The Siege of Kwennjurat (Fantasy; sequal to Tanella's Flight)
4/15/13 Words Can Never Hurt Me (Suspense; contemporary sf/political thriller)
10/1/13 Mind Touch (Fantasy; involves telepaths)
Stories without firm dates:
The Castle Project (Suspense; I think it involves a serial killer)
Sirens in Her Heart (Romance; contemporary, involving an ambulance attendant)
Bits and Bites: Fun Size Stories (Short story collection, everything from sf to romance to horror)
Crown of Tears (Fantasy; this is the one I just finished writing)
Killer Stamps (Suspense; involving letterboxing)

Also, these are the working titles; the only one that is definite is The Siege of Kwennjurat.

Romana

it does make sense. I'm inspired to finish a story now & possibly go back & finish/re-write a few more. I found one I wrote in 6th grade in a binder of stuff when I moved. Kind of funny.

From the sounds of it (our conversation) you seem to kind of plan your stories. I haven't done that & wonder if it would help get me from start to end.

I've been adjusting my email notifications on all of my log ins & recently updated my NaNoWriMo login & stuff. Was reading some of their stuff & I'm excited for November.