NaNoWriMo 2003

[Guest]

I don't know how many of you have heard of this, but National Novel Writer's Month is something that I will be participating in this year.

The whole objective of it is to write a 50,000 word novel between the dates of 1st and 30th of November. I'm told (by a fellow author friend, who took part in it last year) that it is a very useful exercise. It helps to develop good writing habits, by almost forcing you to make sure you write between 1,500 and 2,000 words per day. Ammitedly, most of what's written turns out to be a pile of crap, but its focus is on quantity, not quality.

Once the task of writing a novel in a month is complete, then is the time to go back and do some heavy editing, or pull short stories out from amongst the mire, or just leave it and be proud of the achievment in itself.

If anyone is interested in joining in, or just finding out more, here's a link to the site: NaNoWriMo 2003

It looks to be very well run, with a huge support/encouragement structure. I can't wait for it to start.

Lou

 

[Icingsugar]

The whole objective of it is to write a 50,000 word novel between the dates of 1st and 30th of November. I'm told (by a fellow author friend, who took part in it last year) that it is a very useful exercise. It helps to develop good writing habits, by almost forcing you to make sure you write between 1,500 and 2,000 words per day.

Jesus Chriist on rollerblades. That is'a behemoth of a challenge for someone like me. Sounds like just what I'd need to get my head on straight. You just made me bite it. Hook, line and sinker.

 

[Guest]

Re: Re: NaNoWriMo 2003

Jesus Chriist on rollerblades. That is'a behemoth of a challenge for someone like me. Sounds like just what I'd need to get my head on straight. You just made me bite it. Hook, line and sinker.

That was much the same as my initial reaction to it. The objective of the challenge is to encourage writers to stop making excuses not to write, and to prevent them from over-thinking a concept. Since you only have 30 days (approximately 1,800 words a day), there isn't time for revisions or worrying about grammar and flow. The idea is to just get concepts and words onto the page. And you aren't competing with others only yourself.

This might not be everyone's cup of tea, but for procastinators like me it looks like a very worthwhile challenge. The forums there are closed right now, they're getting ready for this year's sign-ups, which begin around 1st October. But, if you look through last years forums you can see the depth of support that's there. You can join a group (such as the Trans-Atlantic group that myself and my friend are starting up) or just go it alone.

Lou

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Well I don't know. I hate writing contests. To me they're like fucking contests.


---dr.M.

 

[Guest]

Hey, Mab., that's a bit rude, esp. if you read Lou's points and what's in it for her, i.e., NOT the competition seems to me. Why comment if you're just going to be a negative sticik-in-the-mud.

Perdita (mother bear to her friends)

 

[destinie21]

I don't know how many of you have heard of this, but National Novel Writer's Month is something that I will be participating in this year.

The whole objective of it is to write a 50,000 word novel between the dates of 1st and 30th of November. I'm told (by a fellow author friend, who took part in it last year) that it is a very useful exercise. It helps to develop good writing habits, by almost forcing you to make sure you write between 1,500 and 2,000 words per day. Ammitedly, most of what's written turns out to be a pile of crap, but its focus is on quantity, not quality.

Once the task of writing a novel in a month is complete, then is the time to go back and do some heavy editing, or pull short stories out from amongst the mire, or just leave it and be proud of the achievment in itself.

If anyone is interested in joining in, or just finding out more, here's a link to the site: NaNoWriMo 2003

It looks to be very well run, with a huge support/encouragement structure. I can't wait for it to start.

Lou

thanks tat that sounds interesting. I am interested in becoming a serious writer so this exercise would at least show me what it is to work on a deadline. I'm not looking to write the next great american novel but no matter how bad the results the sense of accomplishment must be great,

 

[Icingsugar]

Well I don't know. I hate writing contests. To me they're like fucking contests.

Never been to one of those.

Anyway, 'dita said it. I don't think it's really a contest. More like a workshop in disguise.

Come think of it, I've never been to a fucking workshop either. Unless you count college.

 

[snooper]

Re: Re: Re: NaNoWriMo 2003

... Since you only have 30 days (approximately 1,800 words a day), there isn't time for revisions or worrying about grammar and flow. ...

With the greatest respect, there are literally thousands of people who produce up to 4,000 words of clean, polished, grammatical, consistent words a day, five days a week, for quite low wages. They are called "Technical Authors".

I agree that for someone holding down a day job as well as writing, 2,500 words a day (five day week) might seem daunting, but 500 words an hour, fully finished, is entirely achievable if you put your mind to it.

 

[Guest]

Re: Re: Re: Re: NaNoWriMo 2003

With the greatest respect, there are literally thousands of people who produce up to 4,000 words of clean, polished, grammatical, consistent words a day, five days a week, for quite low wages. They are called "Technical Authors".

I agree that for someone holding down a day job as well as writing, 2,500 words a day (five day week) might seem daunting, but 500 words an hour, fully finished, is entirely achievable if you put your mind to it.

That's the point, they are paid "Technical Authors." I have a full time job, I'm also a Mum, a wife, a volunteer school governor, and an aspiring writer. After all of my 'jobs' for the day are done I have a grand total of about three hours to myself. In that time I like to relax a little, read a little and write as much as I can.

To someone like me, who can churn out a grammatically correct, clean, polished work of fiction 2,000 words long in a couple of hours, if my mind is in the 'zone', this kind of pace is difficult to sustain over a prolonged period of time. I want to get to a point where I can churn out 4,000 words per day and get paid for it, but in the meantime I am but one face among the masses of amateur writers.

As I said, in an earlier post, NaNoWriMo probably isn't for everyone, but please don't knock those of us who have the inspiration and determination to give it a go.

Lou

 

[CrazyyAngel]

Thanks for sharing this Tatelou, that sounds very interesting. I have read they accept also foreign languages, so I guess I'll give it a try and write something in german, cause my english is not good enough for 50k words.

But what I havent figured out yet is how they will keep people from starting earlier? Ok ... personal pride. But they have no way to verify if you have started 1st of november or earlier right?

CA

 

[Guest]

Thanks for sharing this Tatelou, that sounds very interesting. I have read they accept also foreign languages, so I guess I'll give it a try and write something in german, cause my english is not good enough for 50k words.

But what I havent figured out yet is how they will keep people from starting earlier? Ok ... personal pride. But they have no way to verify if you have started 1st of november or earlier right?

CA

That's a good point, and one that I don't think is addressed on the site. However, if we were to start early that would be cheating, and I don't think I'd get quite the same sense of fufilment out of it upon completion. Nobody else would know, but I would.

I have started to think of ideas, and a basic plot for the story, but I haven't written a thing yet. I'll be raring to go on 1st November, though.

It is very cool that they accept different languages. The novels don't get read by the site administrator, but we do have to upload it to the site at the end; so that the words can be counted by the bots.

Tatelou

 

[Sabledrake]

One of these years I've got to try that. I always forget what month it is. This year, I expect to finish the novel I've been working on by the end of October and use the rest of the year for short stories and other projects.

Sabledrake

 

[Alex De Kok]

Thank you, Tatelou

I've just spent a very entertaining fifteen minutes reading the info on the NaNoWriMo website (thanks for the link, by the way) and I just have to try it! As possibly the world's biggest novel-writing procrastinator I need something like this.

Plots and outlines will be dusted off and scanned, characters will be drawn screaming from their hiding-places, worlds will - Sod it! You get the idea. I am enthused!

Alex

 

[Guest]

Crap, Alex, now you've got me enthused. Will check out the site, damn you.

cordially, Perdita

 

[destinie21]

Re: Thank you, Tatelou

I've just spent a very entertaining fifteen minutes reading the info on the NaNoWriMo website (thanks for the link, by the way) and I just have to try it! As possibly the world's biggest novel-writing procrastinator I need something like this.

Plots and outlines will be dusted off and scanned, characters will be drawn screaming from their hiding-places, worlds will - Sod it! You get the idea. I am enthused!

Alex

Damn Alex,
your enthusiasm is as contagious as the clap.
I guess now I'll have to do it to.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Cooooooool!!!! *makes note in calendar to sign up on Wednesday*

 

[Alex De Kok]

Hey, don't blame me!

Tatelou started it...

Crap, Alex, now you've got me enthused. Will check out the site, damn you.

cordially, Perdita

Glad to see you join in, though.

Damn Alex,
your enthusiasm is as contagious as the clap.
I guess now I'll have to do it to.

Was that a compliment?

Alex (pleading innocence)

 

[Guest]

It's good to see so many willing victims, erm, I mean participants.

Thanks Alex, for your enthusiasm, which is very contagious. I must work on expressing mine better. I'll take the blame, if I have to.

Roll on 1st November.

Lou

 

[Guest]

Alex and Loulou: I'm with you. The website is inviting but mostly good willed and witty. For others not yet there, this is from the FAQ page (w/edits for brevity only)--

If I'm just writing 50,000 words of crap, why bother? Why not just write a real novel later, when I have more time?

There are three reasons.

1) If you don't do it now, you probably never will. Novel writing is mostly a "one day" event. As in "One day, I'd like to write a novel."

2) Aiming low is the best way to succeed. ... Once you start evaluating your story in terms of word count, you take that pressure off yourself. And you'll start surprising yourself with a great bit of dialogue here and a ingenious plot twist there. Characters will start doing things you never expected, taking the story places you'd never imagined. There will be much execrable prose, yes. But amidst the crap, there will be beauty. A lot of it.

3) Art for art's sake does wonderful things to you. It makes you laugh. It makes you cry. It makes you want to take naps and go places wearing funny pants. Doing something just for the hell of it is a wonderful antidote to all the chores and "must-dos" of daily life. Writing a novel in a month is both exhilarating and stupid, and we would all do well to invite a little more spontaneous stupidity into our lives.
- - - - - - - -

p.s. emphasis mine; I already have funny pants.

 

[Icingsugar]

(makes mental note to go buy some funny pants)

 

[Guest]

Good on you, Sugar.

Idea: for us Lit. authors who enter into this amazing task, might we have a support group via a thread? The site explains such via one's home ground, but I'd like to easily stay in touch with Lit. people suffering like me (I do presume it's a real task).

not all that confident, Perdita

 

[Svenskaflicka]

*makes mental note to get wild and crazy with the sewing machine*

 

[Alex De Kok]

Great idea, mi amiga!

Good on you, Sugar.

Idea: for us Lit. authors who enter into this amazing task, might we have a support group via a thread? The site explains such via one's home ground, but I'd like to easily stay in touch with Lit. people suffering like me (I do presume it's a real task).

not all that confident, Perdita

I have the feeling that it's as real as we make it. I have no idea what I'm going to write, or even the genre. Nor do I know if it will be erotic or not. I just know I want to do it. Frankly, I'm not confident either, but I'm going to try...

I think that a support/update/whatever thread can only help us share the burden, if burden it is. I do know that at the end of it all, if I manage to complete it, I can say to myself, I wrote a novel!

Alex

 

[Guest]

Re: Great idea, mi amiga!

I have the feeling that it's as real as we make it.

Alejandro, mi amigo dulce,

I like your attitude. I'm already thinking between two very specific story lines; don't know about erotic for one.

I say let's give Loulou the honor of starting the support thread on October 31! Perhaps via this thread people who actually 'sign up' after Oct. 1 can say so and we'll have an idea how many of us there are.

Sounds like a plan to me.

con mucho gusto, Perdita

 

[Guest]

Here's another excerpt from their FAQs, which made me laugh:

Did you know there is a group in Vancouver that writes novels in a weekend?
Yes, and they are fools. Everyone knows that any deep and lasting work of art takes an entire month to make.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And another...

How do you pronounce NaNoWriMo?
NAN-no WRY-Mo.

Oh. I've been saying it NAN-no WREE-Mo.
That's ok too.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I love their sense of humour.

Purrditta, a support group via a thread is a brilliant idea. I have been wracking my brains, as to how to do this. On the NaNoWriMo forums the groups are all in geographic terms, which obviously has us lot screwed.

One thing I did consider suggesting was this: myself and a good friend, who lives in the States, are starting up a Trans-Atlantic group on the NaNoWriMo forums, you'd all be welcome to join us in that group. However, it is completely understandable if everyone wants to keep the discussions and the support element of this Lit based. It could be good in that respect, as then everyone else, who might not be able to join us in this crazy task, could follow our progress. We could even submit snippets of our novels to the relevent category, once this is all over. I expect a lot of mine could end up in 'Humour.'

Alex, that is the big thing about it for me. No matter how it turns out, I will complete it, then I'll also be able to say: I wrote a novel.

Loulou