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McAnally's (The Community Pub) => Author Craft => Topic started by: sights unseen on September 23, 2007, 09:51:10 PM
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This will be my first year. *fingers crossed*
Anyone here have any experience they'd like to share? Kelley Armstrong is planning on participating and encouraging others to do so.
Here's the link:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/
The gist of it is that whatever you write doesn't have to be good. It can be 100% crap. The rule is you must write 50,000 words in the month of November. Many of the Shomi participates are using this wip as a way to jumpstart their first draft.
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wow, 50,000 words in a month is a strong goal. Best wishes to you!
It may seem sort of corny--but from what i've heard the push for so many words means you can't make it perfect the first time. Great way to jump over that particular obstacle. Go for it!
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I plan to do, and it'll be the first year. Hell yes.
First I have another novel to finish, and the start of Nano is acting as my deadline for it. :D
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50,000 words in a month is I suppose a reasonable goal if you can set aside the time, and if what matters to you is demonstrating that you can write 50,000 words - it would be very much on the short side for a published genre SF/Fantasy novel. And knowing that you are able to write at length and finish things is definitely worth having.
I don't do NaNo myself, I just plug on with the same few thousand words every Friday night that I do all year. Which seems to work for me in getting things finished.
November's a depressing month to be thinking of doing it in, though.
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"Showing yourself that you can write a novel" was, I think, the original goal of Nano. I want to prove that I can finish more than a few projects. ;)
What's so depressing about November? For me, a Minnesotan, winter work wonders for writing things.
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What's so depressing about November? For me, a Minnesotan, winter work wonders for writing things.
On November 13th, my little cousin will be one year dead. That's not going to be a fun day. I'm still curious about participating in the NANO though. Just need an idea.
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What's so depressing about November? For me, a Minnesotan, winter work wonders for writing things.
It may just be me, but I seem to know a lot more people for whom SAD works such that winter is a gloomy time and spring and summer are cheerful than the other way around.
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Fall is my ideal writing season. I always feel energized by the cool weather.
Have any of you gone on to do something more with your NANO at the end of the month? Or do most use it as an excercise in completion?
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I've read on KA's board where several people have kept their Nano draft and are re-working it towards publication. Most people see it as writing a first draft in one month and later polishing it.
I'm looking forward to October where everyone will be talking about plot, pov and just freaking out in general. Should be a blast. Although I may re-new my Celexa perscription before November arrives. ;D
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Ow, Bgarver. :/
Weather is just weird for me, I suppose, like most Minnesotans. Before I started up on college, summers gave me ideas and winters had me write them. I think the crazy varied weather keeps me lively. :)
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I did it last year. It was great fun and real eye opener. My suggestion is that if you haven't done it yet then do it. It's a trial by fire. My personal advice is to just sit and WRITE. Don't worry about grammar, spelling or even continuity. Save that for editing. This challenge is about getting done.
I'm not doing this year because I just don't have time. Writing time that is. I'm working a novel. Starting the outline for a second. Plus playing around with doing some short fiction.
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I did it last year and plan to do it again this year. I really enjoyed the comraderie of write ins and local forums.
Stitch
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I write 50-60k every month.
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Show-off. ;)
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Show-off. ;)
I didn't say it was 50-60k of good writing. :P
Seriously...I stick to a 2000 word per day quota. On the best of these days, it's 2k (or more) of directed, fairly polished narrative. On the worst it's blathering nonsense. Mostly it's part warm up, part salvagable prose, and part meandering.
If a writer is serious, this is the way to go. If you are stuck for time, make the quota lower. I generally get my 2k out in 2-3 hours.
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Seriously...I stick to a 2000 word per day quota. On the best of these days, it's 2k (or more) of directed, fairly polished narrative. On the worst it's blathering nonsense. Mostly it's part warm up, part salvagable prose, and part meandering.
If a writer is serious, this is the way to go.
It's a way to go.
Iain Banks, to take an example of a published author who must have more than twenty novels out by now, some of them really excellent, has said quite a bit about his process in public, which seems to involve ten months or so of messing about and two months of writing in a panic, which has pretty reliably got him out a novel a year or so for the past twenty-odd years. I'm aware of several other published authors with good careers writing good books who work in spurts. On the other hand, there are people like Terry Pratchett, whom I have seen enough times in conventions disappear into quiet corners to write for five and ten minutes at a time that I can believe he's not writing to a quota so much as needing to fill every available quiet moment with writing; it must be very nice to be able to afford to do that.
There are some published authors who are very much behind writing every day; Stephen King and Harlan Ellison, IIRC, have been quite vehement about it in print. And if that works for you fine. So far as I am concerned, what matters is having some way of being sure that words are ending up in the page, and not making excuses for not writing when you can; my own pattern, of usually two to five thousand words every Friday night - sometimes moved to another night if for example it's my stepson's birthday on a Friday, and with occasional spurts of more if the inspiration takes me - seems to work fine in terms of getting a new chapter every week or two and a new completed novel every year or so. Being vehement about having to write every day can be a bit discouraging to those of us who have combinations of jobs and family lives that just do not permit that.
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Okay, it's on like donkey kong, as the saying goes.
I'm going to go with one of the books from my fantasy trilogy that has been stewing in my mind since I was 12. So, I guess I'll decend into chaos with the rest of you guys next month. I'm excited.
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My plan is a spy thriller with a renegade Macross Plus-esque AI, master races, guns which create diseases and a hero who I should probably make a little less similar to Shadow from American Gods.
Oh yeah, I feel excited. First I have to finish the novel I'm working on this month...
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I'm in for another year. No clue what sort of project this time round...we'll see what comes out of my head come Nov. 1st.
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I'm doing it for the first time this year. I'm kinda doing a practice run right now as I have a story I plan to finish by Halloween. It may not be good enough to submit to anything, but it'll be finished by golly.
I dunno what I'm going to do yet...maybe something with a vampire as the main character? Or something post-apocolyptic (been watching Dark Angel re-runs on Sci-Fi *shame*)? Simply because, of all the half-written cramp on my laptop, those are the only things I haven't done XD Well, aside from regular fiction.
Or maybe I'll re-write that horror story I was writing about the river mermaid...I kinda lost the file, so I'd have to start from scratch anyway XD
EDIT: I know what I'm doing now. Vampiric mermaids that are somehow involved with nanobots. I'd say how, but that'll give away part of the story :D Oh...this is gonna be fun.
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i'll be doing this again this year. It'll be my second year and it was so much fun last year. I wrote a novel that I'd had in my heard for years and found that having a goal of completing 50,000 words in a month was such a good motivator. This year I'm working on a novel for the SHOMI competition. I've decided that starting September I will try all competitions that I come across that fit in with my writing. If just for practice more than anything else. ;D
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Crap, I'm panicking! Any advice for an aprehensive noob?
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Just open up your mind and write whatever wants to flow out.
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You just don't think about editing and don't worry. I found it easier to have a set amount of words that i needed to get done every day and then if i missed that word count i added it to the next one and so on I know one weekend I had a whole weeks worth to catch up on :o but if you know throughout the month how much you should be on every day then it makes it a lot simpler to catch up. NaNo is such a brilliant moivater for writing. I found that the words came easily when I just let it flow and didn't worry about it. Outlining slightly is a good idea as well. It doesn't have to be loads but a few ideas on where the storyline is going to go is usually a good idea.
;D
that help at all ???
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Well, I may not be in Nano after all. Not unless I come up with another idea. I was going to write the first in my fantasy series I've been wanting to write since i was 12, but it's so huge that I need to outline first. And I'm trying to finish my WIP, too. Too much on my plate.
I might try something more non-traditional. I'm reading "Story Structure Architect" right now, and there is a section on anti-structure story that is different than the Westernized, 3-act style. Still takes planning, but maybe that's the change of venue I need to unclog my brain.
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Third year trying to finish the NanoMonster ;D ;D
I look on Nano as a personal challenge that one shares with other people! The caffeinated write-ins can be so very fun, and very productive.
As far as advice for the novice NanoWriMer: literally turn off your mental editor, open your brain and let whatever comes out just flow:) And don't stress overmuch on the 50K mark, or the Nov 30 deadline -- after all, you can continue after that date if you're on a roll, or stop a lot sooner if the month starts to get too full. ;)
In any case, have fun:))
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Im gonna try it. I do have a good idea for a novel, but with my family business, school making me depressed, and my brother putting me down. I could never do it. I think this will make me create that story that I yearned to write. Just one question, is this best for a newbie to be part of?
Another question, If i get to the 50k mark, will I have time to get it edited, and if so, where will be the best place to have it edited and critiqued?
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Another question, If i get to the 50k mark, will I have time to get it edited, and if so, where will be the best place to have it edited and critiqued?
Umm...you'll have plenty of time to get it edited....you can do that whenever you want to o_O
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I've decided to join the insanity for the first time. Meep! :-\
My main reason is to force myself to write in rough draft format. I tend to over-edit myself when I write, which leaves me with the perfect first chapter of a story that completely stalls out. I'm hoping that the time limit will help me embrace imperfection on the first go.
I must become one with the rough draft...*meditating*
See the rough draft...
Be the rough draft...
;D
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I've done NaNo twice already, though I've never won (high school is kind of a timesuck). I'm definitely going to do it again this year--it's a great opportunity to connect with others who share the same hobby/goals I do, and I always get something done in the month, even if nobody ever sees it but me. *crosses fingers* Maybe this will be the year I get the 50K... I'm sure my AP teachers can give me no homework for four weeks...
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Alright, I'm still in it. November's gonna suck because I haven't finished the WIP yet. So I'll be churning out the last three chapters of it plus writing the NANO. Writers are masochists.
So, I was wondering...do I achieve the goal if I write 50,000 words between two projects? Like, 1000 on WIP and 1000 on NANO project per day? Or is it strictly 50,000 on NANO project?
because, erm...3000-4000 words a day is hefty for a guy working at his real life job 12-16 hours a day. But, I'm still going to try it.
BLG
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11 Hours to go in Missouri. I'm planning to start typing at straight up Midnight. Everyone ready to begin?
I'm oddly nervous about this month, and excited at the same time.
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I thought I'd put this in here for my first post as I'm doing Nano this year. It's a lot of fun so far, really get's the old writing muscles flexed.
PJ