NaNoWriMo starts Monday.

[oggbashan]

NaNoWriMo starts on 1st November.

https://nanowrimo.org/

I won't be competing this year because my eyesight makes typing the required number of words each day too difficult, but I might use the month for some more stories.

1,666 words a day for the month will meet the target of 50,000 words, but it is better to aim for 2,000 a day to allow for the unexpected and family crises.

This thread is to encourage you to participate, and to share your achievements (and failures if you want to) and to support each other.

Go for it - on Monday! But you can plan now. the word count starts Monday. Remember, only YOU know whether you competed fairly or not. You are challenging yourself.

My How-To: https://www.literotica.com/s/complete-nanowrimo

That is 'How To Complete (finish) NaNoWriMo, not the 'complete' i.e. everything about NaNoWriMo.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

Thank you for the tips!

I'm planning on writing for the challenge. I have a story with the first couple of scenes already written, but I'll make an honest effort to tack on 50k words to it in November.

I'll be popping my nanowrimo cherry. Looking forward to it

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

If anyone's resolve flags, try using my motivation cheer, set to the tune of "Na Na Hey Hey," by the immortal one-hit wonder, Steam:

Na-No-Ri-Mo,
Na-No-Ri-Mo,
Write fifty-
Thousand words.
Na-No-Ri-Mo,
Na-No-Ri-Mo,
Like all those
Other nerds

 

[LilyWaters]

NaNoWriMo starts on 1st November.

https://nanowrimo.org/

I won't be competing this year because my eyesight makes typing the required number of words each day too difficult, but I might use the month for some more stories.

1,666 words a day for the month will meet the target of 50,000 words, but it is better to aim for 2,000 a day to allow for the unexpected and family crises.

This thread is to encourage you to participate, and to share your achievements (and failures if you want to) and to support each other.

Go for it - on Monday! But you can plan now. the word count starts Monday. Remember, only YOU know whether you competed fairly or not. You are challenging yourself.

My How-To: https://www.literotica.com/s/complete-nanowrimo

That is 'How To Complete (finish) NaNoWriMo, not the 'complete' i.e. everything about NaNoWriMo.

I have found Nanowrimo to be a fun challenge in the past. One year I made it to the word count, the other year I didn't. Both before I had a family, notably.

This year, as someone very new to the erotica game, I'm going to try to write some longform erotica this month. I doubt I'll have the time to push myself to that word count.

Also, I have always found the message boards on the Nanowrimo site to be quite fun.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Until last year, my father had participated in the event for eight straight years. He didn't last year, and isn't this year. I will certainly write enough words, but spread between ghostwriting and my writing for me, so, I'm not participating. I did one year early on, 2012 or 13, but haven't since then. My writing was horrid at that time.

 

[oggbashan]

Until last year, my father had participated in the event for eight straight years. He didn't last year, and isn't this year. I will certainly write enough words, but spread between ghostwriting and my writing for me, so, I'm not participating. I did one year early on, 2012 or 13, but haven't since then. My writing was horrid at that time.

Despite the title, it doesn't have to be a novel. It can be any sort of writing done in November whether for work or leisure. It could just be a series of outlines for future stories.

I last competed in 2003. I set myself some additional challenges: To write 50,000 words, to edit them, and, given the then delay in posting on Literotica, to have then published here before the end of November.

I succeded and the stories are available as the twelve chapters of Flawed Red Silk.

First chapter is here:

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

Today I gave my annual donation to NaNoWriMo to support others.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Despite the title, it doesn't have to be a novel. It can be any sort of writing done in November whether for work or leisure. It could just be a series of outlines for future stories.

I last competed in 2003. I set myself some additional challenges: To write 50,000 words, to edit them, and, given the then delay in posting on Literotica, to have then published here before the end of November.

I succeded and the stories are available as the twelve chapters of Flawed Red Silk.

First chapter is here:

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

Today I gave my annual donation to NaNoWriMo to support others.

I'll check out that story.

I think as a ghostwriter, even posting the stories into the word counter would violate my contract.

 

[oggbashan]

I'll check out that story.

I think as a ghostwriter, even posting the stories into the word counter would violate my contract.

It isn't stored on NaNoWriMo. The words are just counted and then deleted.

In theory, you could cut and paste from a Dicken's novel on Project Gutenberg, and that would give a successful word count but what's the point? The only person who knows if you wrote 50,000 words is yourself. What is the point of cheating yourself?

 

[SimonDoom]

A few questions. I logged onto the Site and set up an account but I'm not sure I'm going to do it.

Can one write an erotic story for NaNoWriMo? Is there any content regulation? Ideally, I would write a short novel that I could then publish here at Literotica. Is that OK?

Is it considered "cheating" if one uses a story one has already partly written? Or is the idea that one shouldn't begin the story until November 1?

If the latter, is it OK if the story has been plotted and outlined before November 1?

 

[oggbashan]

A few questions. I logged onto the Site and set up an account but I'm not sure I'm going to do it.

1. Can one write an erotic story for NaNoWriMo? Is there any content regulation? Ideally, I would write a short novel that I could then publish here at Literotica. Is that OK?

2.Is it considered "cheating" if one uses a story one has already partly written? Or is the idea that one shouldn't begin the story until November 1?

3. If the latter, is it OK if the story has been plotted and outlined before November 1?

Answers:

1. Yes. The words are not looked at or stored on NaNoWriMo. All they provide is a word counter which counts and then the words are gone.

2. No. YOU define what is cheating. I suggest putting a marker on your story and writing 50,000 words from that point, or, if the continued writing is in between existing text, taking a note of the word count at midnight and adding 50,000 words to that.

3. NaNoWriMo suggests that you use October to plan and outline your story. But you haven't got much of October left. What matter is that you write 50,00 NEW words in November.

NaNOWriMo's counter is very easy to cheat. You could cut and paste any text to reach 50,000. That isn't the point. The challenge is to yourself. Can YOU write 50,000 new words in November? If you do - you've succeeded. If you cheated by using words written before November in your count or used someone else's words. you have only cheated yourself.

 

[oggbashan]

To re-emphasise:

NaNoWriMo is a tool to challenge yourself to produce 50,000 words in a month by writing consistently.

The usual advice is: Plan in October; write in November without editing or correcting - just write anything; and edit, revise, polish whatever you have written in December.

Before I did NaNoWriMo in 2003 I knew I could write 50,000 words and more in a month and I had done it several times even before I had heard of NaNoWriMo. That is why I set myself additional challenges.

But all you are challenging is yourself. Some, like me, will find it easy. Some will struggle but if they succeed will be very pleased with themselves. Some could fail but if they have produced 20,000, 30,000 or anything they wouldn't otherwise have written can still congratulate themselves. It depends on your own personal circumstances and the availability of uninterrupted writing time.

 

[PennameWombat]

I read an article a few days ago by an author who’d finally gotten her NaNoWriMo novel published.

It’d only taken her three more years to complete it. Much of the article was the writer claiming that you should never submit to (mainstream) publishers or agents in December or January because they’re flooded by people who whipped out their first 50,000 words in November and are thinking “this sucker’s ready to go!” Thus, for a couple of months the “delete” icon gets worn to a nub. Can’t personally vouch for or against that.

As to the comments around erotica as the target and the fact the official website doesn’t record or reveal contents, I know there are groups who use the month to gee each other up and they post for review, comments, etc. But that’s not the ‘official’ channel.

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

Silly me. An hour into November 1, local time, I wrote two paragraphs. They make up about ten percent of the daily 'requirement.' I now have about 13 hours left on Day One. Only a vague notion of what the story is, except it's very far future. One task will be to make the technology distinguishable from magic. In other words, not just anything can happen arbitrarily.

 

[oggbashan]

Nearly 1700 hours locally and I haven't written a word. I blame a visit to my chiropodist to have my feet checked and toenails cut, and then family dropping in unexpectedly...

 

[Ian_Snow]

Best of luck to everyone doing it! Hoping to hit 2.5k a day on average to finish out a WIP. That's not too bad. Have fun with whatever you're writing.

 

[LilyWaters]

A few questions. I logged onto the Site and set up an account but I'm not sure I'm going to do it.

Can one write an erotic story for NaNoWriMo? Is there any content regulation? Ideally, I would write a short novel that I could then publish here at Literotica. Is that OK?

Is it considered "cheating" if one uses a story one has already partly written? Or is the idea that one shouldn't begin the story until November 1?

If the latter, is it OK if the story has been plotted and outlined before November 1?

Like the others have said, no one actually reads it at Nanowrimo, and it's not publicly posted anywhere - it's just a fun self-motivation tool and community. Like a writing Fitbit.

Having said that, when I logged on after a few years away, the site looks very different. I remember that there were defined genre message boards, and Erotica was definitely one of them. I wasn't writing erotica at the time, so I didn't pay it much mind back then, but when I went looking for it this time around, it was gone.

To Nano's credit, I think they have done a lot to get younger writers involved, which is fantastic, but it also may be why erotica is not as prominently featured. You might have to dig a bit if you want to participate in an erotica community over there? I'm not sure.

Maybe there should be a Nano support thread here? Or... maybe there already is one? This is my first November on this site, so please pardon my ignorance if this is well-worn territory.

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

At the point where I decided to stop for Day One, I had 2360 words. Also, the story starts at the beginning and goes linearly, with no jumps or alternatives, which seldom happens in my writing. It also has a title, "Her Eighteenth Embodiment," and the first sex scene.

The whole thing will probably fall apart pretty quickly. Even if a full draft emerges from this, I will probably have to make 2022 NaNoReYe (National Novel Rewriting Year).

 

[TxRad]

JSF, the idea isn't to make perfect copy but to give you a way to learn to write something every day. The first couple of years I got nowhere close to 50k. The next two years, I nailed it with ease. Now I can knock out a complete 50-60k YA novel for mainstream publication in a month and have done it. My editor suffers but what the heck. She loves me anyway.

Finding out you can write as much as you want to or need too is something you can always use.

By the way, I hate editing.

 

[litfan10]

This is all about quantity NOT quality. If you think about comma placement or spelling or any other non actual writing issue you are dead in the water right out of the gate. You just get the words out.

I remember reading about a very good children's author and how her routine is to write 4 to 6 hours in the morning cranking out as many pages as she can, typically 15 to 20 pages, then take a long break. When she comes back in the afternoon/evening she doesn't write but goes over the day's writing and hopes with editing and proofing she will get 5 really good pages.

Doing this she has written many highly awarded kid's books.

Just spew out as many words as you can in November (50,000!) and use post November to clean it up and make it look pretty.
Good luck and happy writing!

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

I appreciate the followup, folks, but IRL I'm retired from a 40-year living-wage career writing and editing nonfiction, and I've made enough sales of short fiction to paying markets to prove that it wasn't a fluke. This fling at NaNoWriMo started as a goof, and I'm surprised to find that it's still going as through-line writing. At the end of Day Two, I'm at 4613 words, more than a thousand ahead of the daily pace.

 

[oggbashan]

I'm not happy. Monday was wrecked by unexpected family visits. Tuesday I was out of action and asleep most of the day because of a reaction to my booster jab. I have managed 561 words today. I'm well behind...

 

[dmallord]

Over the Horizon!

I'm not happy. Monday was wrecked by unexpected family visits. Tuesday I was out of action and asleep most of the day because of a reaction to my booster jab. I have managed 561 words today. I'm well behind...

Good luck Oggbashan! Hope you complete your mission! Health above all else, ancient one! Loved ones next!

My typing skills, some missing fingers and mangled other hand, just don't allow me to get anywhere near 50K words in a month. It took me almost 6 months to get about 27K in a first draft of a novel here on Literotica. That didn't include any editing or stops to check my work - just followed my mapping web of the story and typed, typed, and typed; one peck at a time!

I am at the other end of the life expectancy scale - so my thoughts are to put my sedentary energies into writing that others can read - not that mindless 50K challenge.

Best wishes!

 

[SimonDoom]

I initially liked the idea of this but didn't get the notice until two days before the beginning, and I still haven't settled on an idea. I think I'll shelve it for this year, give it some thought, and come up with an idea to do it next year. I have other projects I want to get done before the year ends.

 

[sophism]

I've always wanted to participate in the challenge, but the fact that it's already November escaped me. Between being in school and working multiple jobs, it looks like I'm going to have to push it off for one more year

It will be entertaining to hear how the rest of the month goes for challenge participants though!

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

I finished Day Three at 7048 words. It's still proceeding chronologically.

I think my over-under for giving up is Day Ten.