My Scifi novel fails

Isn't this, like, exactly what you weren't supposed to do!? :)

Kimberly
http://www.lawyerbird.com/

You can still totally finish! Let me tell you the story I tell my first time wrimos in my region. *ahem*

When I was but a little lost newb in the large, vast forums of nanowrimo.org, I came across a rather spectacular victory story. There was a man who had started writing at the kick off party, and got about 2,000 words in before stopping and giving up. He didn't write the rest of November, until on November 29, he was telling his coworker about National Novel Writing Month. She asked him how many words he had, and he admitted he had given up after 2,000.

She stared at him, and told him to finish. Not everyone can say they finished a novel in a month. He protested he had work the next day, and there was no way he could finish. She told him to call in sick and just write the entire day. He pondered this, and realized, "She's right. I need to finish this novel!"

So he called in sick to work the next day, and plowed through 48,000 words in one day to win just before the clock struck midnight on November 30.

The moral of this story, lovely wrimos, is that it can be done. No matter how far you are behind, you can still put forth a valiant effort. Don't give up!

Well, I'm not going to take off from work, but it is Friday...

Don't let "finish" mean "my novel is done." 50K, while very respectable, is not necessarily the length that your story is meant to be. So if you can get to 50K and it's half done or so, you've still done a great job.

I've struggled with the same temptations that you have. I can spend hours and hours a day researching. And I've grown fond of much of the material, especially the intrigue and mystery of the math and the quantum mechanics. But I have learned at least one thing through this process, and that is that I have to focus. And so I have focused, I've gotten my word counts, I've limited myself to quickly grabbing the data I need from wikipedia and getting back to the writing.

I, too, have been inspired to resume my studies in college and become a brilliant scientist. But I know that if I cannot even handle something as simple as writing 1667 words a day for 30 days straight, I have zero chance of completing four years of higher learning and the hundreds of thousands of words of writing and the dozens of books of studying, that it is going to take. This project is a test of my ability to focus, to follow through, to face up to adversity, to shape my habits, to control my thoughts and actions. If I fail at this, I have no reason to believe that I'll be successful at anything requiring more dedication.

maybe cutting yourself some slack with the realism will make it easier to write faster?
sometimes too much realism can make a novel dry, technical and boring anyway. its a work of fiction, not a physics essay.

Yes, absolutely common temptations. :-) I got stuck in this last year and so this year, I had the majority of my research done before I started writing. I knew basically what was going to happen, even though everything exploded 2 days ago and I realized I had no concrete plot for the middle of the story, although the beginning and ending are done.

I am constantly drawn away by the need to research.. so I fully understand what you're going through. Mainly, I get little planning time since I study from Jan-Oct then have my main exam towards the end of October.

That doesn't give much research time but I make do. :D

However, you could make the reading and research the REWARD to come after you've hit your daily goal. ;)

I don't think the two are comparable. I have a PhD in Physics, and I gave up NaNo this year very close to the start - creative writing is a very different thing to academic research or academic learning, and I can knock off non-fiction writing without much stress. Fiction, on the other hand...

Like i said, I'm getting my word counts. I've overcome my problems, for this novel at least. Feel free to read it, I keep the entirety of it posted as my excerpt.

They are very comparable for me. Different only in a matter of degree. I excel at creative as well as academic endeavors; I simply run out of interest after a short while.

In one regard, you're right: college studies require discipline. But you shouldn't judge your chance of succeeding at college by your Nano success. You *should* realize that if you go back to school, you'll need to both be more disciplined AND make time for it.

Don't go back to school to become a brilliant scientist. Go back to school because you love it, because you need a degree to get a better job, because you want to challenge yourself ... whatever. "A brilliant scientist" is such a hopeless chase that you'll only be disappointed -- in whose eyes must you be measured "brilliant"? Your peers? Your boss? the public? I guarantee they will not fulfill that need for you. YOU must be pleased with what you're doing and what you've achieved.

I agree with this assessment. Different types of writing require different mindsets. Although I wouldn't just give up on something just because it's stressful.

Back on topic, yes, I can understand how research can be distracting. But if you really want to do something--like writing a 50k novel, for instance--you need to put those distractions aside and get to work. (Of course, if the distraction turns out to be something that sparks a serious interest, balance and discipline are required. You can always research later. November only happens once a year.)

I want to go back to school because I want to know stuff. Hardly any of my "research" has gone into the novel, I just NEEDED to know. If the astronaut bit doesn't work out, I could always shoot for my dream of being the female Bill Nye the Science Guy.

Stress, unfortunately, also completely kills my creative abilities, so perhaps it was counterproductive to try NaNo, eh? ;)
(Whereas the best bits of my PhD did happen when I was almost dying from stress. Clearly there's something different in the way stress interacts with different bits of my mindset...)

But, yes, back on topic, eh?

Congratulations, you're an academic, or at least, you have the world-view for it.
Bear in mind that this can be counterproductive to actually writing, in my experience - I have the same tendency to do completist research as you do, which is great for academia, and possibly less good for novel-writing...

Patience, dedication, willpower, etc. aren't something where you have to make do with whatever's on randomly sized serving dishes handed out at birth. Using those capabilities makes them stronger.

Even if you didn't reach 50k (and I think you will, BTW) that wouldn't mean you had no hope of succeeding in future. It would mean you just improved your ability to focus and follow through and are all the likelier to succeed next time.

Huh, I think I just inspired myself. Back to my novel for me. :)

I got 14,000 words more than I did last year. I'm definitely NOT sad about that.

I think Sci-Fi and Historicals, at least, share the problem of a different world. Somehow, you have to learn enough to write in that world.

I think I cheated.

My story is set in a particular world, with places and characters and technology I aready know, and have written about.

And I've hit the target. I've reached a conclusion. There are scenes I could write, and one I maybe will before Sunday night, that tops off the tale. I have it in my mind, but getting it on paper will be tricky.

And full of symbolism: sunrise, a new dawn after a grim and dangerous night.

This is exactly why I research AFTER finishing the story...lol

I put in the basic ideas and if I am not sure of something... such as an equation for some quantum mechanical thing..I make one up and put it in red lettering so I know i need to go back and check it later : D

I am one of those people who can see a " What happened today in history.... " thing and read it, then spend the whole day reading about things that are vaguely connected to that...i have done it... : P

I hit 28k just before someone hired me to write a 5,000 word piece due by December 1st. It took a lot of research to pull that other project together, so no, I won't be hitting 50k this year. But I chose to make 300 dollars rather than finish Nanowrimo and I'm okay with it. Also, I know exactly where I'm going in the novel so I certainly don't feel bad for not finishing in a month.

Just keep writing. Don't see it as a failure. Make yourself continue writing as though the deadline has been extended a couple of weeks. When you hit 50k celebrate anyway.