NaNoWriMo

[Axxess]

National Novel Writing Month. Every November people sit down* and write a 50,000 word novel in the span of 30 days. Then publish their work on the webpage for all to read. Anyone participate this year?

*or stand. It doesn't discriminate.

[HunterM]

If there is a National GIF Contest, DigitalFudge, CupidBoy, BenderBoy and I will be participating.

[stacy]

I did.

My first year participating.

As of this morning I am quite far away from 50,000 but I have consistently written for all but 4 of the 30 days.

Total as of now is 23,118. About to go on a huge writing spree to get to The End by midnight.

[HunterM]

Good luck! We're cheering you on Stacy.

[refujiunderground]

hope you win stacy. i'm rooting for you.

but op, why the fuck you had to say this now? i wanted to sign up. j/k although 1/10th serious.

[stacy]

Thanks guys

[stacy]

If anyone is curious I typed the words THE END at midnight PST on the dot. I did not "win" but I was able to get through 25,077 words.

[HunterM]

^


Congrats!!!

[Axxess]

hope you win stacy. i'm rooting for you.

but op, why the fuck you had to say this now? i wanted to sign up. j/k although 1/10th serious.

I was going to say something at the beginning of the month, but I got sidetracked. Then before I knew it, it was the 6th. Besides, it's probably better to ask if anyone did it rather than if anyone was planning on doing it. Also, If you're interested, you can start planning out your novel now for next year; You just can't start writing it out til November.

You don't "win" anything, other than having a new story to share.

[G-Lexington]

I sort of get NaNoWriMo, and kinda don't.

I understand the need to get people to "just write". Some people need artificial deadlines to get started, and to keep going. But I'm not crazy about the emphasis being on wordcount, and specifically about writing a novel. There are many other styles to write in - both fiction and nonfiction - and there doesn't appear to be much if any encouragement for that sort of writing. I used to offer to edit people's work online years ago, and even back then, it was all about quantity. People would take great ideas for short stories and bloat them into novel length. Chapter followed chapter for no reason. I actually used the smartass comment "Actually, your story ended two chapters ago - you just don't appear to have realized it" on several occasions. And of all the editing advice I gave, this was the one I encountered the most resistance on. They gladly fixed spelling errors and punctuation. They listened when I suggested they needed to set a scene better, or explain a character's motivations. But they never wanted to make anything shorter - only longer. Quantity over quality.

One of my favorite responses to my suggested edits to a too-lengthy-by-half story was "Oh, I've actually sort of abandoned that story, anyway. I'm working on a huge five-novel epic now." That about summed it up.

Lex

[stacy]

As you mentioned, the main goal is to "just write." The issue with many people, myself included, is that they start writing and then self-edit what they have just written into oblivion. There is a danger in just writing without editing that it looks just like it sounds, just writing without caring but there is also a good tactic in that. Maybe I'm not the best editor of my own work. Maybe what I thought wasn't working really connected to someone else.

My novel is a piece of shit. I have never, ever, written anything without taking a moment to decide if trucks can drive through the plot holes or if my timeline is working properly. But I have also never finished anything other than gay erotica and even then I have half written stories I never went back to.

It is an exercise in discipline and setting yourself up to get to certain goals. The word count is not a deal-breaker although they do call getting to 50,000 "winning." I didn't win but I finished and that's good enough for me for the first time doing anything like this.

Also it is kind of a community thing. Most people who write understand you are alone in it. But with NaNo you are getting emails every other day with other writers talking about where they struggled and how they overcame it, and encouraging "you can do it" messages. And most of them say that the word count thing is not what you should be concerned with. Most say even if you write one paragraph at least you've written something.

[G-Lexington]

Oddly, my Facebook page made it look more like a competition. "30K by Nov 10! Suck it, bitches!"

Lex

[stacy]

You're not on my Facebook page where I simply shared my experience with my friends, word count updates, what I was listening to when I wrote. Maybe no one gave a shit but it helped me keep going, at least I was held accountable if I was talking about it at the Holy Grail of online social media...

[G-Lexington]

Oh, no, I can understand that. I did that when I was trying to lose weight. It wasn't a contest there - it was just a progress report.

Lex

[MoufOfKhaos]

Always wanted to do that, if only for the novelty of seeing if my English teachers were right about me.

But I like comics more. So I took November and decided to restart that idea instead.