NaNoWriMo -- tell me, winners

[Dr_Strabismus]

Although I've heard of NaNoWriMo for a couple of years, today is the first time I've actually bothered to look at the site itself. It looks like a great colonic irrigation for the brain.

I have questions for people who have won it (if they can spare the time right now to answer them!)

Have you ever gone on to clean up the 50,000 word NaNo story and turn it into a serious novel?

How has this "unblocking exercise" helped you with your writing? Or is it more like running a marathon -- which for me is all about the fun of succeeding in a tough personal challenge?

 

[English Lady]

I have one finished form two years ago that needs polishing.

I have 50k of a not quite finished novel which i plan to finish, polish and submit to my current publisher once NaNo has finished. Then I plan to do the same with this one. (Both last and this year I've done erotica, in my first NaNo year I did Romance)

I find it wonderfully bouying to know I CAN write a novel if I so desire. I also find it good to just let myself go and to jus write. I know my NaNo experience has given me much more determination and sticking power with a story, I do not leave projects unfinished a much as I used to and I also produce a higher volume of higher quality stuff.


How's that for an answer?

 

[Aurora Black]

Have you ever gone on to clean up the 50,000 word NaNo story and turn it into a serious novel?

How has this "unblocking exercise" helped you with your writing? Or is it more like running a marathon -- which for me is all about the fun of succeeding in a tough personal challenge?

Not last year (I cannibalized it to make a series of shorts), but I intend to follow through this time around. As for the unblocking part, I'm still struggling with that. My inner editor was screaming in agony all day yesterday, and I'll probably have to gag her in order to continue with my sanity intact. I agree with the marathon comparison; it is very gratifying to cross the finish line. NaNo has improved my writing because it has taught me to have more discipline and to set realistic goals.

 

[neonlyte]

Although I've heard of NaNoWriMo for a couple of years, today is the first time I've actually bothered to look at the site itself. It looks like a great colonic irrigation for the brain.

I have questions for people who have won it (if they can spare the time right now to answer them!)

Have you ever gone on to clean up the 50,000 word NaNo story and turn it into a serious novel?

How has this "unblocking exercise" helped you with your writing? Or is it more like running a marathon -- which for me is all about the fun of succeeding in a tough personal challenge?

2003 I wrote the first half of a novel currently third on my list of works to be completed.
2004 I finished the outline of a novel (wrote 70k + words in the month) currently in final edit for sending out to publishers.
2005 Didn't compete
This year, I'm outlining a new work ie: I'll get as much of it down on paper as I can, while finishing the editing on the 2004 work.

I think you use NaNo the best way you can to get you into the routine of writing DAILY. It can become a habit - if you're lucky.

 

[Liar]

Although I've heard of NaNoWriMo for a couple of years, today is the first time I've actually bothered to look at the site itself. It looks like a great colonic irrigation for the brain.

I have questions for people who have won it (if they can spare the time right now to answer them!)

Have you ever gone on to clean up the 50,000 word NaNo story and turn it into a serious novel?

How has this "unblocking exercise" helped you with your writing? Or is it more like running a marathon -- which for me is all about the fun of succeeding in a tough personal challenge?

For me, it's mostly the marathon thing. To know that I can pull it off if I set my mind to it. Iäve done the NaNo three times, and two times I ended up with a 50k+ thing that started well, but due to lack of planning, lost in quality towards the end, and the story iteslf just ran out into nothing. So I salvaged selected parts of it and turned into short stories instead.

And one time I turned the batch of a finished 52k NaNo novel into a play. The script of course a bit shorter than the novel, but the thing that the novel was good at, snappy dialouge and fun plot, transferred pretty much unconverted. Directed it for a local ensembe. They got crap reviews (comedy with no redeeming "serious" values gets routinely slammed), but pulled a shitload of happily entertainedc audience.

 

[oggbashan]

...Have you ever gone on to clean up the 50,000 word NaNo story and turn it into a serious novel?

How has this "unblocking exercise" helped you with your writing? Or is it more like running a marathon -- which for me is all about the fun of succeeding in a tough personal challenge?

I did one NaNo and set myself the additional goals of editing the chapters and posting them on Literotica during the NaNo month. The result is in my stories as the 12 chapters of 'Flawed Red Silk'.

I saw it as the marathon analogy. I proved that I could do it. 50,000 words isn't a novel. It might be a novella. It might be the start of a novel. 300,000 words would be a novel.

I know, and knew, that I could write 2,000 words a day if I had stories that needed to be written. NaNo proved that I could do it consistently.

It didn't produce a novel. I haven't yet found a need to write THE novel.

Og

 

[fieryjen]

I had two different pieces I worked on during NaNo last year. The first one is the Hiding Game, which is posted on Lit but still isn't finished. I did go back and clean up what I wrote during NaNo, but I have added a lot since as well. The other piece is a non-erotic novel in German that I am still writing on. It is approaching 100 000 words now.

I think that NaNo does a little bit of both for me - remind me that not everything I write has to be near perfect, and make me feel like I've accomplished something major when November is over.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

I've only won the first year I participated. I broke it into chapters and posted it on Lit in the Novellas category. It got pretty high ratings. I took it down some time ago. The plan is that once I've managed to get some shorter stories accepted for publication, I'm going to finish polishing it and submit it.