2017 NaNoWriMo support thread

[litfan10]

We are about two weeks away from the insanity that is NaNoWriMo!

For the uninitiated, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It is organized by The National Novel Writing Month, formerly known as The Office of Letters and Light. Writers pledge to write an entire novel in one month during the month of November.

"National" is a faulty start to the name as it is worldwide and has been for many years. This year it is anticipated that over 400,000 writers worldwide will participate.

The idea is to stop procrastinating and to clear out all the barriers and just hit the keyboard and type your ass and fingers off.

For the purposes of the challenge a novel is an accumulation of 50,000 words. The work needs to be fictional in nature but can be a string of stories put together. Once a writer hits the goal, the work is submitted for validation and boom! Bragging rights galore.

More information and to formally join the madness click here for more info: https://nanowrimo.org/

I've entered numerous NaNoWriMos with mixed success. This will be the first year I will be writing Litfan10 work.

Feel free to use this thread to ask questions, vent, brag - basically have NaNoWriMo fun. Happy writing all!

 

[_Lynn_]

My first NaNo was in 2007.

I'll give it a try again even though I don't have any ideas for what to write yet this year. Maybe I'll do a series of short stories or non-fiction again.

 

[litfan10]

My first NaNo was in 2007.

I'll give it a try again even though I don't have any ideas for what to write yet this year. Maybe I'll do a series of short stories or non-fiction again.

Good luck!

I don't have a solid idea yet plenty of glimmers.

 

[oggbashan]

Thank you litfan10 for starting this thread.

I wrote a How-To on how to complete the NaNoWriMo challenge:

https://www.literotica.com/s/complete-nanowrimo

That is (How to complete) NaNoWriMo, not everything about it.

I knew that I could write 50,000 words in a month before I considered NaNoWriMo, so in 2003 I decided to make the challenge more difficult for me. I would write the full 50,000 words as a complete story, edit it, and get it posted on Literotica before the end of the NaNoWriMo month. I had to allow for posting delays.

The result was twelve chapters of Flawed Red Silk, starting here:

https://www.literotica.com/s/flawed-red-silk-ch-01

The twelve chapters have remained unchanged since they were posted.

Good luck to anyone who tries NaNoWriMo.

 

[MagicaPractica]

I'm in! I have momentum this year.

 

[49greg]

I've done Nano two, or three times, each time I've noticed that my already slow output for Lit got even slower. It's like I've used up several months worth of mojo in just one month.

I still haven't decided if I want to do it this year. If I do, I'll be writing Lit stories, possibly several short ones to make up the word goal.

 

[Beatrix_B]

I attempted (and won) NaNoWriMo for the firs time last November. I've participated in the two summer camps in the interim, but at significantly lower word count goals.

Sadly, the resulting novel is 90K+ in length and has a plot hole that will require me to rewrite more than more than half to finish the first draft. I'm seriously thinking of shelving the project for a few years. (Serves me right for trying to "pants" with only two-days prep and no story idea until well after NaNo ended.)

Lesson learned. Still, I'm not soured on the event and plan to participate actively with my local chapter of WriMos.

Great to see this thread here! I'm a huge fan.

Best of luck, Wrimos, returning and new.

 

[litfan10]

Thank you litfan10 for starting this thread.

I wrote a How-To on how to complete the NaNoWriMo challenge:

https://www.literotica.com/s/complete-nanowrimo

That is (How to complete) NaNoWriMo, not everything about it.

I knew that I could write 50,000 words in a month before I considered NaNoWriMo, so in 2003 I decided to make the challenge more difficult for me. I would write the full 50,000 words as a complete story, edit it, and get it posted on Literotica before the end of the NaNoWriMo month. I had to allow for posting delays.

The result was twelve chapters of Flawed Red Silk, starting here:

https://www.literotica.com/s/flawed-red-silk-ch-01

The twelve chapters have remained unchanged since they were posted.

Good luck to anyone who tries NaNoWriMo.

Thanks for the links and the history of your series - very cool.

Are you participating this year again?

 

[litfan10]

I'm in! I have momentum this year.

Yah, MP! Good luck!

I've learned momentum is the key. Forward momentum makes it easier while letting other things get out of control affecting writing creates a nasty backwards momentum that is hard to stop.

Happy writing

 

[litfan10]

I've done Nano two, or three times, each time I've noticed that my already slow output for Lit got even slower. It's like I've used up several months worth of mojo in just one month.

I still haven't decided if I want to do it this year. If I do, I'll be writing Lit stories, possibly several short ones to make up the word goal.

In the past I've heard several Litsters using WriMo for several stories on Lit.

If you enter, best of luck to you!

 

[litfan10]

I attempted (and won) NaNoWriMo for the firs time last November. I've participated in the two summer camps in the interim, but at significantly lower word count goals.

Sadly, the resulting novel is 90K+ in length and has a plot hole that will require me to rewrite more than more than half to finish the first draft. I'm seriously thinking of shelving the project for a few years. (Serves me right for trying to "pants" with only two-days prep and no story idea until well after NaNo ended.)

Lesson learned. Still, I'm not soured on the event and plan to participate actively with my local chapter of WriMos.

Great to see this thread here! I'm a huge fan.

Best of luck, Wrimos, returning and new.

Hey Beatrix! Congrats on being a first time winner!

I know what you mean. My first win is still sitting in a binder on my works in progress shelf with a ripped apart ending that I have yet to salvage.

I've never participated in the camps nor with local chapters.

Good luck to you!

 

[litfan10]

In the past, I've always entered as my professional writing name writing in my usual genres not erotica.

This year I will enter as Litfan10. I plan to write a novel on a kink I've never explored as a writer before and submit it early next year to a publisher of erotica.

 

[TxRad]

I did Novels for my first three Nano's but last year I did seven short stories. This year, I have far too much on my plate to even concider it but good luck to all who give it a try. And remember to have fun.

 

[litfan10]

I did Novels for my first three Nano's but last year I did seven short stories. This year, I have far too much on my plate to even concider it but good luck to all who give it a try. And remember to have fun.

Yeah, coming up with 50,000 words in a month isn't the problem, it's life sucking up all the time to write.

Have fun with your plate! You have plenty of plot bunnies hopping around your house.

 

[_Lynn_]

I did Novels for my first three Nano's but last year I did seven short stories. This year, I have far too much on my plate to even concider it but good luck to all who give it a try. And remember to have fun.

My brain is blank. I've struggled all year to write anything of value so who knows what I'll manage to do for NaNo.

 

[MagicaPractica]

Yah, MP! Good luck!

I've learned momentum is the key. Forward momentum makes it easier while letting other things get out of control affecting writing creates a nasty backwards momentum that is hard to stop.

Happy writing

I've done Nano every year for about the last eight or so, under various names. I think the only year I didn't "win" was the year I got pregnant and found out one week in. However, though I get my word count, that doesn't mean they were good or useful words. That was probably only three of the years. I have high hopes for this year and a novel I really, really want to write.

 

[litfan10]

I've done Nano every year for about the last eight or so, under various names. I think the only year I didn't "win" was the year I got pregnant and found out one week in. However, though I get my word count, that doesn't mean they were good or useful words. That was probably only three of the years. I have high hopes for this year and a novel I really, really want to write.

I failed twice - the first year I tried. Last week of October my wife and I decided to get a divorce - that kind of threw everything out of whack. The second time I wound up in the hospital which again threw everything out of whack.

I'm rooting for you!

 

[litfan10]

My brain is blank. I've struggled all year to write anything of value so who knows what I'll manage to do for NaNo.

I'm trying to remember what great writer said how she wrote all morning and it was all crap and then spent the afternoon trying to get a couple of good pages out of it.

Hopefully as your fingers hit the keys the mind will kick in to gear.

Good luck to you!

 

[oggbashan]

My brain is blank. I've struggled all year to write anything of value so who knows what I'll manage to do for NaNo.

That's one of the things about NaNoWriMo.

As long as you write 50,000 words during the month, you're a winner. But the words do not have to be clear incisive text. They can be a mess that you use December to try to dig any value out of the pile of crap.

NaNo is about writing consistently, not coherently. If you can do both? You're a double winner. But worrying about the quality of the writing will impede your aim of writing 50,000 words.

You could write 50 x 1,000 word outlines for potential stories; you could write 50 x 1000 word stories for Literotica; you could write 25 x 2,000 word stories; or you could just write 2,000 words each day - a daily mess of thoughts including memories from the past.

Whatever you write, wait until December to see whether anything can be salvaged from the writing.

 

[MagicaPractica]

I'm rooting for you!

Likewise.

That's one of the things about NaNoWriMo.

. If you can do both? You're a double winner. But worrying about the quality of the writing will impede your aim of writing 50,000 words.

I think one of the best things I got out of NaNoWriMo was learning to turn off my inner editor and write whether I felt like it or not. Inspiration often doesn't come, for me, if I'm not already writing.

 

[litfan10]

Likewise.



I think one of the best things I got out of NaNoWriMo was learning to turn off my inner editor and write whether I felt like it or not. Inspiration often doesn't come, for me, if I'm not already writing.

Absolutely.

In writing classes I tell my students that there are five distinct steps to the writing process (planning, drafting, editing, proofing, and publishing.) I remind the students that for professionals like King, Grisham, Steele, etc each of those steps is a paid job - you have researchers, you have editors, proof readers and of course publishers - so why on Earth do you merge jobs together at the same time? You are only getting in the way of the job. When drafting don't edit, you are just getting in the writer's way.

That's what I like about NaNo - it focuses on just the writing. December and January is the time for the editor and proof reader. October was the planner/ researcher. Publishing will come later.

 

[chocolategirl74]

I have a good friend who published her first novel because of NaNoWriMo. I'm not a disciplined writer, but I'm going to participate this year because I need to get these stories out of my head and on paper.

I'm really looking forward to it. I wish all of you luck.

cg74

 

[litfan10]

I have a good friend who published her first novel because of NaNoWriMo. I'm not a disciplined writer, but I'm going to participate this year because I need to get these stories out of my head and on paper.

I'm really looking forward to it. I wish all of you luck.

cg74

Hey cg74 - good luck and happy writing. Have fun

 

[RjThoughts]

That's one of the things about NaNoWriMo.

As long as you write 50,000 words during the month, you're a winner. But the words do not have to be clear incisive text. They can be a mess that you use December to try to dig any value out of the pile of crap.

NaNo is about writing consistently, not coherently. If you can do both? You're a double winner. But worrying about the quality of the writing will impede your aim of writing 50,000 words.

You could write 50 x 1,000 word outlines for potential stories; you could write 50 x 1000 word stories for Literotica; you could write 25 x 2,000 word stories; or you could just write 2,000 words each day - a daily mess of thoughts including memories from the past.

Whatever you write, wait until December to see whether anything can be salvaged from the writing.

This year I'm writing several connected short stories. It's something I've always thought of doing.

Same characters in the majority of thrm.

 

[ChloeTzang]

This year I'm writing several connected short stories. It's something I've always thought of doing.

Same characters in the majority of thrm.

I'm on the verge of commitment. Four novellas and a short story. I think I need to sign up for a bit more than 50k words.