NaNoWriMo is here!

[dadevvtsvre]

Exactly one year ago, I made a thread about NaNoWriMo. So here we go again!

NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. For those of you who don't know what it's about, the goal is to write a novel consisting of at least 50 000 words between November 1 and November 30. To quote the official website:

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.

To finish your novel within a month, a momentous task to say the least, you'll need to write at least 1 667 words a day. There's no prize for "winning" (getting to 50 000 words by November 30) in the traditional sense. The prize is the satisfaction of writing a novel, and gaining some insight into writing and what it takes to write a book. Plus you get to tell all your friends and family that you're officially a novelist. :3

So is anybody planning on taking on the NaNoWriMo challenge? Last year I never got around to it but I definitely plan on tackling it this year. I've got my book idea and want to flesh out my characters and develop the plot before November. But I'm feelin' pretty confident, I have to say! (I just have to hope that November ends up being a quiet month!)

Who wants to write a book with me? :smile: (Peri and Guardian, I'm looking at you!!)

Learn more about NaNoWriMo at their official website.

 

[Stardust]

Haha way ahead of you: http://guardian1239.blogspot.com/2009/09/dream-away-from-brilliance.html

I'm getting really excited about this, which I wasn't expecting to happen. I have an idea in my head and it's killing me that I'm waiting until November to start writing it! XD It's the perfect opportunity for me to actually finish something big. I know I won't have a problem with the word thing, but sticking with it is really hard for me on big projects like this. Hopefully knowing that I won't have to go back and edit anything for a while will help.

 

[Perihelion]

Oh shit, NaNo. Man, it's gonna kill me not to participate, but I really probably shouldn't. I'm busy as fuck and need to do well this semester. I dunno, I guess we'll see how I'm doing in my classes by the time NaNo rolls around and how motivated I'm feeling.

I'm actually not sure what I'd write. Maybe something to generate ideas for my game. Like, it doesn't even have to be the events of the game, but I could at least flesh out the characters and the world. I tried to write it last year, and it didn't pan out (fucking school, man ;-, but I've developed it more since then.

Errrrmmmmmm. Devvy, I was really set to not do NaNo this year, but now you're making me think about it. Damn you.

 

[Tindy]

I....kind of want to do it >_> But my freetime is like nil even on my days off (or rather, I just don't want to write? :/) I've had an idea floating around that I actually initially wrote with a friend years and years back that I've always thought was a good idea but that never actually got fully fleshed out. So maybe...

 

[Daxis]

It's not that I don't have free time, it's that I waste it so bad... I can do 83 words a minute, adjust for mistakes and that'll be 50 words a minute, and with ~6 hours of free time a day, I can do ~18000 words a day. so I tell myself. I'm joining, learned about it last month, although I'll probably get to 12000 words and then quit.

 

[glorious caesar]

i used nanowrimo last year as a way to jump-start work on my honors thesis, which was planned to be a novel. ended up being a novella and it certainly wasn't finished in a month, but it was finished to some extent which felt pretty cool.

i doubt i'll actually be able to nano it up this year either, but it will definitely be on my mind when i write (i tend to write a lot whenever inspiration or creativity hits me (usually when im high)).

 

[Love]

I'll give this try. I have written a novel before and it took some time, but no worries. I'll do my best here. I might not be able to finish, but it'll feel cool to feel that I am writing something. <3

 

[Skyla Doragono]

Nerrrgh... dunno if I'll participate this year, with all my school work going on and all... like, the second week of November is going to be finals week for me. No lie.

 

[dadevvtsvre]

November is usually the quietest and least exciting month of the year for me, so I guess I'm pretty lucky in that regard, and all big assignments I get are usually dumped on me in December. :]

I'm debating whether or not I should have a solid outline (complete with specifics on plot and character) or just sort of leave my idea broad and general, and as I'm writing see where it takes me. I've never tried anything like this before, so I'm not sure which would let me have a higher chance of seeing completion.

 

[Velocir_X]

This looks fun, a reason to re-open writing...

 

[Ellie]

Do any NaNo novels ever get published? Anyone know of any?

 

[dadevvtsvre]

From what I know, yes, a few have been published, although not without some heavy editing first. You'd have to be an experienced novelist to write a literary masterpiece in 30 days. I don't think most pursue publication after their novels are completed, but there are many that do seek for their books to be published.

Sarah Gruen's Flying Changes was actually a New York Times bestseller. Other published books include Rebecca Agiewich's Breakup Babe, Dave Wilson's The Mote in Andrea's Eye, and Gayle Brandeis's Self Storage.

So it's definitely possible to get your NaNo book published. Depending on the quality of the novel, that is.

 

[Exkimo_Kidd]

Haha :D the strangest thing is I don't normally write but I'm interested in trying this! Though whatever I attempt to write could be filled with plot holes and mary sues, I guess I'll give it a go! XD

 

[candle]

I was never really clear on that. What exactly is a Mary Sue?

 

[Ellie]

A cliche, afaik.

 

[Incognitus]

No no no, Wyatt. Too simplistic.

A Mary Sue (sometimes just Sue), in literary criticism and particularly in fanfiction, is a fictional character with overly idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, lacking noteworthy flaws, and primarily functioning as wish-fulfillment fantasies for their authors or readers. Perhaps the single underlying feature of all characters described as "Mary Sues" is that they are too ostentatious for the audience's taste, or that the author seems to favor the character too highly. The author may seem to push how exceptional and wonderful the "Mary Sue" character is on his or her audience, sometimes leading the audience to dislike or even resent the character fairly quickly; such a character could be described as an "author's pet".

"Mary Sues" can be either male or female, but male characters are often dubbed "Gary Stu", "Marty Stu", or similar names. While the label "Mary Sue" itself originates from a parody of this type of character, most characters labeled "Mary Sues" by readers are not intended by authors as such.

While the term is generally limited to fan-created characters, and its most common usage today occurs within the fan fiction community or in reference to fan fiction, original characters in role-playing games or literary canon are also sometimes criticized as being "Mary Sues" or "canon Sues," if they dominate the spotlight or are too unrealistic or unlikely in other ways. One example of this is Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue

 

[Lune de la Cruor]

Only one week left! (Well almost)
I'm already excited as I thought of something great to write about.
I wanna get started already >_> not that anybody could hinder you from starting earlier but I don't want to cheat on myself...
But yay, I just can't wait xD

 

[Perihelion]

Against my better judgment, I've decided to participate. I need to hammer out some plot and setting and character details in a bad way, though. Well, I still have, er, six days!

So, what's everyone writing about? I'm gonna do a prequel to my game, I think. Not gonna use it for anything except idea generation, though, so it's okay if it's a big steaming pile of shit.

 

[gumbo]

I'm gonna enter cuz I have a lot of free time! Might start a blog aswell... anything that'll waste time!

 

[bacon]

I think I might actually try to participate in this as well, as is piques my interest. I think I am going to a novel on the theory of knowledge and how in fact it is ridiculus that there is such thing as the theory of knowledge, as knowledge was created by someone. Basically, its going to have multiple short stories that feed off eachother to create an overall broad picture. Of course, the stories themselves are going to be wacky and somewhat insane. I dont know if I would finsih but I have fleshed some of my ideas out and hope the the best.