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.

[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.

[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

[G-Lexington]

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

Lex

[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.