National Novel Writing Month?

[Joonbong]

So is anyone else here looking forward to plowing through National Novel Writing Month (November)?

It's also called NaNoWriMo, since no one really wants to type out those four words to mean one thing. xD

It's basically when you try to write a 50,000 word novel in one month, starting from November 1 until midnight November 30.  

[evolvingwolf]

I've never heard of this! What are the rules/regulations? Is it like a contest, or just for fun?  

[Joonbong]

It's like a contest, but the people there don't really read your entries. It's not really meant to be a real contest, but for motivation to finish writing a novel. You win if you finish writing the 50,000 words on time. biggrin

There are many aspiring authors around the world doing this event. Some people have done it for 3 Novembers. That's three novels. eek

This is my first time trying it out. I've heard it was really fun.

Copied From The Website

"What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month's time.

Who: You! We can't do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let's write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.

Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era's most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.

When: You can sign up anytime to add your name to the roster and browse the forums. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.

Where: You write wherever you’d like. On your computer, on your iPad, on a typewriter---anywhere is fine, just as long as you’re writing!"  

[Stelle Cadenti]

I'm thinking of doing it. God, I didn't realize it was coming up so soon. It's all fine and dandy to commit yourself to a month of neurosis and bad sleep when it's 3 months away, but now I've only got a few days to decide.

I'll either work on one of my two novellas, or a collection of short stories that have been invading my sleep.

I recently got a job, so I'm not sure how I'll actually finish, but I hope this will motivate me to do something, at least.  

[Joonbong]

Stelle Cadenti

I'm thinking of doing it. God, I didn't realize it was coming up so soon. It's all fine and dandy to commit yourself to a month of neurosis and bad sleep when it's 3 months away, but now I've only got a few days to decide.

I'll either work on one of my two novellas, or a collection of short stories that have been invading my sleep.

I recently got a job, so I'm not sure how I'll actually finish, but I hope this will motivate me to do something, at least.

Yay! I wish you good luck.  

[SaraDiva728]

smile I want to try. I've never finished a novel (trouble enough finishing a short story--sadly), but it sounds like fun and has sure motivated me to start! And what would it hurt?  

[Joonbong]

SaraDiva728

smile I want to try. I've never finished a novel (trouble enough finishing a short story--sadly), but it sounds like fun and has sure motivated me to start! And what would it hurt?

It would hurt... your pride. cry

Nah, just kidding. I hope you have fun with it.

I think I will epicly fail this challenge at 5,000 words or something of that sort. But I'm sometimes really competitive if I'm in the mood, so... I'll give it a try and see where my competitiveness takes me. xd

I hope you can do better than me. xd  

[SaraDiva728]

Well, if you like, we can keep up with one another. I will likely fail (I know myself cry ), but I'm taking every perceivable precaution that I can to prevent that from happening. I'm working on the outline for my story to make sure I have enough material to make 50,000 words with, and I've divided the story into five color-coded segments so I can start anywhere I want in my story on any day of the week (in case I run dry on a portion I was working on). I'm also profiling characters I may need and a few extras, I'm giving myself sample paragraphs to work from so I'll remember what I was thinking, and I'm going down a grocery list of research projects I need to do. This is also a time for me to fill in any holes and correct any time-line errors, being I won't have time to do so until December (not correcting as I work will be my toughest obstacle). I don't know if my story is a good one but I'm interested in doing it and that's a start.

I've also calculated how many words/pages I'll have to make each day to finish on time. The more I can break the task down in simplicity, the more likely I'll be to finish. I figure it's roughly 2,000 words a day to make 50,000 by the end of the month (my math is poor, but I believe this to be about right anyway). l do plan to try for more since I plan to take Saturdays off. Anyway, 2000 words is about 3 pages a day, going by my outline. If I decide to count by pages instead and reach for 175 pages in 30 days like the site suggested, then I'll need to do about five pages a day. Maybe 6 for my Saturday breaks. Another thing I want to know is how many days I can devote to each section. This will help me to keep up with my progress (or lack thereof!).

I'm trying to get all of that done now, so I can take the last two or three days before November and waste them doing something else. You know, to clear my mind and body for the coming month. I do hope that I'm ready for this though... I would sure hate to fail after all of this work dramallama !!  

[Joonbong]

SaraDiva728

Well, if you like, we can keep up with one another. I will likely fail (I know myself cry ), but I'm taking every perceivable precaution that I can to prevent that from happening. I'm working on the outline for my story to make sure I have enough material to make 50,000 words with, and I've divided the story into five color-coded segments so I can start anywhere I want in my story on any day of the week (in case I run dry on a portion I was working on). I'm also profiling characters I may need and a few extras, I'm giving myself sample paragraphs to work from so I'll remember what I was thinking, and I'm going down a grocery list of research projects I need to do. This is also a time for me to fill in any holes and correct any time-line errors, being I won't have time to do so until December (not correcting as I work will be my toughest obstacle). I don't know if my story is a good one but I'm interested in doing it and that's a start.

I've also calculated how many words/pages I'll have to make each day to finish on time. The more I can break the task down in simplicity, the more likely I'll be to finish. I figure it's roughly 2,000 words a day to make 50,000 by the end of the month (my math is poor, but I believe this to be about right anyway). l do plan to try for more since I plan to take Saturdays off. Anyway, 2000 words is about 3 pages a day, going by my outline. If I decide to count by pages instead and reach for 175 pages in 30 days like the site suggested, then I'll need to do about five pages a day. Maybe 6 for my Saturday breaks. Another thing I want to know is how many days I can devote to each section. This will help me to keep up with my progress (or lack thereof!).

I'm trying to get all of that done now, so I can take the last two or three days before November and waste them doing something else. You know, to clear my mind and body for the coming month. I do hope that I'm ready for this though... I would sure hate to fail after all of this work dramallama !!

WOW, that’s a lot of work. I think that you will be able to do it and finish it on time since you went through all that time and effort to guarantee yourself that you will succeed. And yes, 175 pages in 30 days would be 5-6 pages a day. I hope you would be able to make this.

I think you would do well since you did all this preparation.

I have only imagined the story up and made the character profiles. Probably I am underestimating the difficulty of this month's challenge, but I hope I will be able to make it, since I can make time by putting off homework. XD And also, there is Thanksgiving Break to help me cram.  

[SaraDiva728]

Okay, last five days, at the critical point--I feel it's time for the pep rallying, confidence boosting, "Did I sound convincing?" speech...

*AHEM* It's the last few days now. All we have left to do is wrap everything up and wait for the inevitable. But this challenge has been done before, by talents and lesser minds alike. There is no reason we can't be one of them, one of so many. Just as they did before us (and as some will do this year), we can and will succeed. So, for the upcoming victory, I propose a toast: To us brave souls, to the carpal tunnel, the sleepless nights (and I imagine there may be many), and the obstacles that will define us! We can do it, we can make it, AND WE WILL SUCCEED!! And that's all there is to it. *CHEERS cheese_whine *

--To seeing each other through to December
SARADIVA728

 

[Joonbong]

SaraDiva728

Okay, last five days, at the critical point--I feel it's time for the pep rallying, confidence boosting, "Did I sound convincing?" speech...

*AHEM* It's the last few days now. All we have left to do is wrap everything up and wait for the inevitable. But this challenge has been done before, by talents and lesser minds alike. There is no reason we can't be one of them, one of so many. Just as they did before us (and as some will do this year), we can and will succeed. So, for the upcoming victory, I propose a toast: To us brave souls, to the carpal tunnel, the sleepless nights (and I imagine there may be many), and the obstacles that will define us! We can do it, we can make it, AND WE WILL SUCCEED!! And that's all there is to it. *CHEERS cheese_whine *

--To seeing each other through to December
SARADIVA728

Oh my goodness. Now we only have two more days, or one, depending on where you live. I feel like I'm going to just wing this. I'm stressed out enough already as it is. I think I'll need to buy a punching bag in the middle of the month and a load of chocolate for stress relieving when I can't stand it any longer.

But yes! We shall succeed!
Here's my NaNoPage
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/618742
Let's all be buddies. smile  

[SaraDiva728]

I've loaded up! There's a huge (and I mean HUGE) discrepancy between my word counter and there's, but I'm still ahead of my daily quota so it's cool for now. I wonder what it's not counting though... Or maybe I should wonder what my counter is stare . I guess that's Corel for you. Anyway, I was really posting now to congradulate you on making past 5,000 words biggrin ! Looks like we're going to be okay!!

P.S.-- Brace yourself for this one, but guess what I decided to do about two hours after midnight Oct. 31 (officially Nov. 1) and some six paragraphs in? Ha, ha, ha--you guessed it! I canned my outline to work on another story idea I had because it made more sense than the new story I had slaved to outline. Ha, ha, ha--I guess I'll be winging it too emo !!  

[Joonbong]

SaraDiva728

I've loaded up! There's a huge (and I mean HUGE) discrepancy between my word counter and there's, but I'm still ahead of my daily quota so it's cool for now. I wonder what it's not counting though... Or maybe I should wonder what my counter is stare . I guess that's Corel for you. Anyway, I was really posting now to congradulate you on making past 5,000 words biggrin ! Looks like we're going to be okay!!

P.S.-- Brace yourself for this one, but guess what I decided to do about two hours after midnight Oct. 31 (officially Nov. 1) and some six paragraphs in? Ha, ha, ha--you guessed it! I canned my outline to work on another story idea I had because it made more sense than the new story I had slaved to outline. Ha, ha, ha--I guess I'll be winging it too emo !!

That's awesome! And what's your NaNo page link. Let's be buddies on NaNoWriMo. biggrin

LOL, that's what I did too (two days before this started). I changed my main character and trashed my outline. It was all good though. I'm doing okay. I actually think that thinking of something at the last moment helped me. There's a lot of flexibility and more ways I can write it. biggrin What word count are you on now?  

[SaraDiva728]

As of today I'm 20,183 words in. About 2,000 words behind you. I'd be a little further but I read books over the weekend. I wrote Friday (mostly), took off Saturday as planned, lazed most of Sunday (enough to say I spent it reading), and caught up on Monday after I finished the second book I had started. I know, I'm so terrible. I read Shutter Island and Room (Room I actually listened to as an audible book, but I can't listen and write at the same time). I'm up to quota now though, and that's what matters right now. I'm running into dilemmas, however, in that I'm beginning to reach rough patches in my story. I may need to outline a plan for the next few days or I might risk writer's block. I've already jumped to other parts in my story twice (think I may have wrote my ending already, which is new for me), and I'm trying not to panic. I will have it figured out before I go to bed tonight.  

[Joonbong]

Aha, I'm glad. You're not behind at all and doing pretty well. You read a lot and that's a good thing for a writer. I'm at 30k now, and I think I'm already nearing towards the end so I need to stretch it out a little more or create another climax. I think stretching out an ending won't suffice for 20k more, so I'll just create another problem. xD I'll think about it for now. So... I told you I totally threw away my plans. I'm doing okay even so. I feel the felxibility and the love for my characters more without a plot. I believe that a plot is just flowing out anyways. Haha, I'm a lucky kid. Good luck to you!