Its almost November!

[Hapsburg]

(I hope no one has posted this already and I missed it...)

November is National Novel Writing Month!

There's a site Nanowrimo.org (i think that's the address) that pushes you through the process of getting that first novel out. I wrote my first novel with them, and though I didn't make it in the month it did help me immensly in keeping motivated and getting through it. They also have forums where you can have meetups with other writers in your city. It's free and if you've wanted to write a novel but needed a kick in the pants this is the place to do it. I had a lot of fun last year and got a lot out of it, hope you enjoy it too!

[Fresie]

I know, I know. I'm already there, and very curious. Let's see what comes out of it! At the moment, I'm immensely motivated: :jump :bang :snoopy

[Yeshanu]

Hapsburg:

A number of us are gearing up for a busy November. Check out the thread here (http://p197.ezboard.com/fabsolutewritefrm3.showMessageRange?topicID=779.to pic&start=1&stop=20) for the right address and other people's comments.

And good luck! :jump

[Jyndral]

Yup, been mentioned.

Yup, I'm going to do it.

Yup, I've been working on a pseudo-outline and character info.

Yup, I'm ready for it!

[arainsb123]

This is my first NaNoWriMo. November is taking too long to come!!!!

[Jamesaritchie]

Seems to me there's a problem if you have to gear up to write one month a year. Especially for a site that asks for quantity over quality.

The truth is, 1,666 words per days isn't very much writing. It's below average for successful writers. There's certainly should be no big deal about writing 50K in a month. In writing 50K of quality writing in a month.

[debraji]

I don't see the point in sniping. Different folks write at different speeds.

I did NaNoWriMo last year, and it was a great experience.

Sure, there were folks who did it for a lark. Most of them probably didn't persist until the end. (Over 20,000 people initially signed up; only 3500 completed the challenge.)

But a number of us used the framework to do some serious work.

I didn't write 50K of garbage. But sometimes you have to be willing to write through the garbage to get to the good stuff.

Having the deadline and the community of writers working on this crazy challenge was extremely valuable. Because in the past I'd abandoned novels after three or four chapters, it was important for me to push on through to the end of that 50K first draft. Along the way I developed the habit of writing every night, which has stayed with me. I'm almost finished with my second draft of the manuscript now.

Also, writing 50K in a month given my full time job, commute, and family responsibilities, was quite a challenge.

NaNoWriMo isn't for everyone. We're all at different stages in our development as writers, and have different needs. There's no need to carp at NaNoWriMo because it's not to your taste.

[maestrowork]

I agree. Anything to help motivate people to write is a good thing. Not everyone can write, on a normal day, 2000 words a day. But if something can help fire up their energy and prompt them to write that could be a good thing. It doesn't mean it has to be of poor quality. But that's just first draft.

[Risseybug]

Yeah, it's going to be fun :) I think that's all it's intented to be - just for fun. I have a pretty good story in mind, and it usually takes me much longer than a month to write 50K words - mostly b/c I don't usually give myself a deadline. Plus I have a life outside of writing. Unfortunately writing doesn't give me the income I need to do it all the time.

Don't thumb your nose at something just b/c you don't think it's worth your time. Others are having a good time. For me, just getting that many words in 30 days will be a challenge.

[Gala]

I am an experienced, published writer who writes every day, and most nights. I don't share in the challenges of many NaNo'ers.

This year, for me NaNo is a communal environment in which to write a philosophical novel that's been knockin' my noggin for a few months.

I spend little time on the forums over there, because most of the participants do seem to be having difficulties I don't share. Still, there's some very humorous and useful writing discussion mixed in.

Last year I needed to kill things, vent anger. I did that and developed some quality writing I used elsewhere.

There are many benefits for me but I'm saving my wrists for NaNo and won't bother you typing them.

:nerd

[mysteryhost]

(This message was left blank)

[Kida Adelyn]

I signed up with Nano because I do things faster with a deadline, challenge, or competition.
I'm hoping Nano will help me finish a novel for once, so I know I can do it, whether it's crap or not.

[Euan Harvey]

Seems to me there's a problem if you have to gear up to write one month a year. Especially for a site that asks for quantity over quality.

The truth is, 1,666 words per days isn't very much writing. It's below average for successful writers. There's certainly should be no big deal about writing 50K in a month. In writing 50K of quality writing in a month.

:wha

[Jyndral]

Naw. Not "gearing up." Doing prelim work I should've done before I started the story the first time in the first place.

[Eowyn Eomer]

I don't think I could get a novel written in such short a time. At least not to the point of thinking it was publishable. Maybe if I didn't work and did nothing but write, sleep, eat, and go potty. Hey, multi-tasking!

Novemeber is such a busy month, I'm surprised they would choose that month what with it being the start of the holiday season and all.

[Hapsburg]

Seems to me there's a problem if you have to gear up to write one month a year. Especially for a site that asks for quantity over quality.

The truth is, 1,666 words per days isn't very much writing. It's below average for successful writers. There's certainly should be no big deal about writing 50K in a month. In writing 50K of quality writing in a month.


Not all of us have the benefit of a stable and affluent income from our writing alone. After working a 10 to 12 hour day it's extremely difficult to have the energy and time to crank out 1700 words a day.

For those of us who are moving from short forms to a novel, it's intimidating to move from 10 page manuscripts to 200 pages of writing. It's a difficult transition for someone who's never done it.

It took courage and a kick in the pants for me to devote the time and energy into writing my first novel.

[Writing Again]

There was no Nanowrimo when I wrote my first novel.

Yet I did essentially the same thing with no time limit. I knew I had to get thru the sheer bulk of writing 80,000 words, so I did. Prior to that I had never produced anything longer than a 5,000 word short story.

I think Nanowrimo is a good idea for anyone who has never pushed out 50,000 words before.

Get the first one out of the way, the chances are it will be crap anyway, so get that out of the way too. I never intended my first novel to be publishable, but I still felt a real thrill of pride when I got to "the end."

[arainsb123]

Not all of us have the benefit of a stable and affluent income from our writing alone. After working a 10 to 12 hour day it's extremely difficult to have the energy and time to crank out 1700 words a day.

I'm in a similar situation because of school (though I'm not at school for 10-12 hours, of course). After waking up at 6 and getting home at 3:15, I'm almost always too exhausted to write much of anything (today I napped from the time I got home until 9, for example).

So NaNo should really help me get back into the habit of writing everyday like I did over summer break.

[FM St George]

hey, it's a great exercise and no one gets hurt...

and it's FREE!

heck, don't get better than that... especially on the sugar high from all the "misplaced" Halloween candy...

;D

[Jules Hall]

I think Nanowrimo is a good idea for anyone who has never pushed out 50,000 words before.

Its also a good idea for people like me. I'm about to start work on what I hope will be the second novel I complete a draft of. But there are a number of projects I just never finished in the past, and the one I have written all the way to the end, I have written twice: the first time took about 5 years, the second time about 14 months. So, I'm doing NaNo while hoping to get this down to something more like 3 months for the next one.

My average word count for days on which I work is something like 1200 words. But there are a lot of days I don't work at the moment, and I think I need a kick in the butt to get into the habit of that, and I think that could be NaNo.

So, to answer James's point: yes, I'm sure most professional writers do produce this kind of output consistently (see note 1). For many of us the point is to use it as a motivator to bring us up to this kind of productivity.

[1]: Although in a discussion of NaNo on slashdot not long ago I came across one published writer who was convinced that writing at this sort of rate most people could only produce crud and that for everyone except a select few the best way of writing a novel was at a rate of a couple of hundred words a day, producing one complete novel every two years or so. Takes all sorts, I guess.

[Gala]

[1]: Although in a discussion of NaNo on slashdot not long ago I came across one published writer who was convinced that writing at this sort of rate most people could only produce crud and that for everyone except a select few the best way of writing a novel was at a rate of a couple of hundred words a day, producing one complete novel every two years or so. Takes all sorts, I guess. If Steven King wrote that slowly the world would be seriously deprived.

Writing is rewriting.

For me NaNo is a sort of Lent. I'm giving up a couple hours a day of things I enjoy, that tend to waste time, to write a philosophical novella I've not made time for otherwise.

This won't affect my other wops, and affords a break.

One thing I like about the NaNo site: no one's over there saying, "if you have to ask that question you're no writer". Most appear to be new to writing novels; experienced writers like me don't post much but enjoy their enthusiams.

I cannot believe the food those kids are eating!
:ack

[Supersquid191]

I don't understand why some people think NaNo is ridiculous because it promotes quantity.

I like to compare it to practicing for sports. Say you want to cure your slice. You can read about golf, watch golf, study golf, but you're not going to improve if you don't golf.

The NaNo guys are saying we're all going to go out and hit a bucket of balls every night in November. Don't worry about it if you only hit one down the middle on the first day. We're hitting a bucket of balls every night. No excuses.

Everyone's style is slightly different. Sometimes you have to go out and hit 50,000 balls before you start to figure out what it takes for you to find the fairway.

It's about setting a goal and accomplishing it. It's about be a part of a community of writers. It's about doing something we love every day. What's wrong with that?

[SRHowen]

The last few months for me have been total hell. So, for me NaNoWriMo is my month to get back to how I used to write before hell seeped up through the floor boards and took over my life.

I used to write 3,000 to 5,000 words a day, often many many more. I wrote before all else, I taught full time, and my house was clean. Now---all I can say is UGH!

So, I am doing it (on my own, with my writer's group) to get back to where I need to be.

And maybe, just maybe if I can get my writing on track other things will get back on track as well.

Shawn

[Gala]

Hell as a writing stimulant is over rated. Perhaps you've met your quota for the long while. (Hell, not writing.)

Fast Writing:
Don't know how much of this is true, but find it fascinating. Discussion of well-known authors who ground out novels and major works in matter of days. The anecdote about Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 intriguing. He was one fast typist.

<a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=4078&forum=164" target="_new">Literature written quickly</a>

[Fresie]

NaNo doesn't promote quantity, and they repeatedly state it on the site. As many people have already said, 1,666 words a day is below average. But it's all about dedication and discipline. Besides, it's fun. That's why I'm doing it, in fact, for fun -- I'm pretty lonely here where I am (it's a tiny French hamlet with no one to speak to, let alone discuss literature) so meeting all these people sharing the same goal makes me feel much better about myself. What's wrong with a good old community challenge? Because that's what it is.

I've already done my words for today, started 12.04, and I've realised that I need to plan and outline much more. I wasn't writing fast enough because I constantly had to stop and think what had to happen next. Now I'll be outlining every day before I write. But I've finished a big fat scene!

Another thing: 50,000 words probably isn't too much for a novel, but it's fine with me because I tend to underwrite and omit lots of things in my first drafts, so for me editing is very much about adding and expanding. So if I finish my story at 50,000, then during the editing stage it'll easily expand to its target length.

Good luck!!

Fresie

[Yeshanu]

I was going to start a new thread, for a support group, but I think this one will do...:grin

November 1, guys. How's everyone doing?

So far today, I put out the garbage, cleaned the cat litter, did a load of laundry, drove Ally to school and dropped off library books, had breakfast, delivered Ally's clarinet to school, did another load of laundry, a load of dishes, paid my rent, had a telephone conference with the guest preacher for next Sunday and put the finishing touches on Sunday's bulletin.

Oh.

Whaddya mean, I'm supposed to be writing... :ack

Bye for now.

[Jyndral]

November 1, guys. How's everyone doing?

Umm....

I've done setups for transcription, went and did the in-person absentee voting since it's highly likely I won't be in town tomorrow, had lunch with Mom & a friend, called to clear up a question I had on a fellowship application for the Writers Colony at Dairy Hollow, and am now working on a presentation I have to give at the Avon meeting tonight.

Hey, it involves writing. :b

I plan to do my NaNo stuff after I get home from the meeting.

I think that's got me covered. For now.

[btinternet]

Hey Yeshanu, keep up the good work. Wanna come do my house next? :b

I stayed up til midnight and did a quick timed session then. I'm about to start a good-sized chunk of writing time, but that's after laundry, dishes, unpacking from trip last week, taking in drycleaning, paying bills, going to the bank and the library, etc.

Still, better some words than none!! And I'll crank out a bunch now.

Good luck!

BT

[Fresie]

November 1, guys. How's everyone doing?

Great! good idea, Yeshanu! Let's post everything NaNo-related here.

I'm stunned how well it works! The fact that you're obliged to write and there's no way out of it (I've told the entire world about it) works wonders. I'm way ahead of the word count, the story comes together very naturally and (surprise) I actually have time to write as much as I want to--despite the job, house duties and all!

Just the right thing for me... but let's see what I'm going to say on November 25th. :bang

Good luck everyone!

Fresie

[Jyndral]

After saying all that yesterday about what was going on, I did get some good writing time in last night. I'm not saying the writing itself is any good because I was tired. I hate time change. It takes about a week for me to get adjusted to it and I'm tired the whole time until then.

Anyway, I'm not up where I should be (by the #s put around here in the past), but I'm not too terribly far off from it either.

[btinternet]

But, I guess that's okay! I got a little more writing done yesterday, and a lot more thinking-on-paper, and this novel appears to be taking turns that I didn't expect.

After some heated discussions elsewhere on this board, I'm using this as an experiment to try doing as little outlining as possible, just to see how it works for me. So far, it's interesting although I find it very uncertain somehow.

Back to the mines again, since I'm still home sick - time to get ahead while I can!!

BTW, are people interested in posting their NaNo usernames over here (if they're different) so we can watch each other's progress?

BT

[tjosban]

:( I had a bit of a personal crisis yesterday, so I did not start. I am going to use this opportunity to write something completely different for me however. I do have extra time off this weekend and I look forward to making use of the time.

*I expect someone to come along and smack my wrist now. Ruler optional.

TJ

Live. Learn. Love Life.

[Jyndral]

BTW, are people interested in posting their NaNo usernames over here (if they're different) so we can watch each other's progress?

My username (jyndral) is the same here & there. Watch if ya want. :lol

[Fresie]

I'm Fresie everywhere... but I couldn't find Gala! :)

Total count 7330 words in two days... and it's not as crappy as I thought it would be. At least I've got something to edit!

[Yeshanu]

I just cranked out about 1800 words -- got some serious catching up to do, but at least I'm started. :grin

I used my real name (Ruth Cooke) as my NaNoWriMo name, but I don't post there a lot. Gotta write. :b

[mr mistook]

Now that the election is over, I can concentrate on writing again.

[Jyndral]

Gah, I know! That's one reason why I didn't get much done yesterday.

[btinternet]

Ain't that the truth? I'm trying to make up for it today, with not a huge amount of success. Sigh....

BT
(Current word count about 1900 for three days)

[Gala]

Fresie--
I don't post over there, and don't get into the chit chat about it all either.

I occasionally lurk to laugh at the weird food some people are eating, or check out lit discussion.

I prefer discussion on AW re technique.

Have a good NaNo.

[btinternet]

I don't post much over there either, although I keep up with the regional forums, 'cause the write-ins are pretty cool sometimes (good "energy", if you will). And, as with any discussion area, there are occasionally good tips. One of the gals ran a really good world-building series leading up to November 1 in the F/SF/H Forum area.

BT

[Risseybug]

Somebody on another board I post to is done already, with 2500 words to spare.

Sickening. I'm up over 7500, so I'm on a good track to make it!

[Jyndral]

I got nothing done yesterday, so I'm going to try to play catch-up today after I get some work done.

Someone's already done? How? Do they want to do my job so I can hurry up and get done too? :lol

[Kida Adelyn]

(oh look. I didn't know this was turned into a progress board)

Word Count:6824
Sanity: sanity? what sanity?

I spent several sours writing yesterday, catching up because I didn't write enough on wednesday. Now I have to type up what I wrote today during school.
:grin

Keep going everyone!



-Ally

[Euan Harvey]

6th November done. I broke 10,000 words today, and actually I'm pretty happy with the way it's going so far. Who says you have to write garbage in Nanowrimo?

:lol

[Risseybug]

I broke throught the 10K barrier last night, but I think mine sucks. Really. It's coherent, it has a plot, it has pretty neat characters, but I don't know, I just don't love it yet.

It needs some filler, I think. I'll go back today and add a couple thousand words of description I left out because I write for children and am used to writing short, concise descriptions that won't bore the crap out of a nine year old.

[pencilone]

I've got 12k, but yesterday I wrote only about 200 words and today none (social obligations kept me away):ack .

I feel awful as I am behind my schedule of 3,333 words per day (aiming to 100k).:head

[btinternet]

Wow. I think I'm around 5K now; we had a write-in this afternoon locally and it was pretty productive (for me, at least).

Need some more quality BIC time, I can see, although I'm only trying to make 50K this year, so I'm not hopelessly far behind.

BT

[HollyB]

A writing buddy of mine challenged me to NaNo -- I didn't take up the challenge, because we're traveling around Thanksgiving and I know I won't get much writing done that week.

But I did start my new novel mss Nov 1, and as of this morning, I've got 11K !!

:grin

[Greenwolf103]

You guys are starting to make me feel bad. And I'm not even participating in NaNoWriMo (got too many book projects going on).

[Risseybug]

Oh god no - not 10k in one day, 10k in like five days. Now, at 7 days, I'm up over 12K, and still not done yet for the day. Hoping to be at 15K by Monday night. Not un-attainable.

[Greenwolf103]

Ohhh. LOL! Thanks for explaining that. Now I can go back to my 2K words a day. ;)

[Yeshanu]

Holly, you're well within the range of many NaNo writers, and you can register up until Nov. 25th, so why not? C'mon and join us! :jump

Broke 7k this morning (a rare Sunday morning off -- called a "study week") but I'm still behind the kid. :ack

Kid and I spent four hours in a line-up in Chapters yesterday, waiting to have Tamora Pierce sign two of her books. Tamora Pierce herself gave us a four-hour grace period, in case we don't make the deadline! (Also found out that the person behind us in line was a NaNo writer. It's a small world after all...)

[Jyndral]

Today and yesterday I typed some "bits and pieces" I had scribbled here & there on pages in my notebook that I always carry.

Bits & pieces????

Uh-huh. Whatever. Those and the little bit that I did today before I went to the arts & crafts festival brought me up to 7170. :)

[Yeshanu]

Jen,

"Bits & Pieces" can add up to a lot! I've just spent a good chunk of time typing up "bits and pieces" on a NF book I've been working on for a couple of weeks, and I'm up over 7,000 words! Still got lots more pages of "bits and pieces" to type up, too, including a couple I did during number one son's music lesson this afternoon.

Yay for bits and pieces! :jump

[btinternet]

Today was a little of a bits-and-pieces day for me too. I'd left myself a good starting point last night (as in, I knew where I needed to go next and what I wanted to say) so I put that in and then rummaged around and fixed some things that I wanted to expand upon, etc. So, for the second day in a row, I made more than 1000 words (just over 1500 today so far, and a little over 2K yesterday). I know it's slow, but at least I'm finally getting somewhere.

BT
Words to date: about 7600

[Euan Harvey]

So, November 8th rolls round. Well, what with adding new material and finding a place where I can reuse some stuff from an unfinished novel, I'm now up to 22,000. Hurray! According to my outline, I'm nearly one-third done!

[Fresie]

I'm just taking it day by day, about 2K a day, and I'm extremely pleased with the results. I'm amazed I actually can find time to write, no matter how busy I am! I've just been on a business trip, and I even managed to write in traffic jams! So it's all possible.

Another thing that amazes me is that I only have a very basic storyline, but the book, at this rate, seems to be writing itself. The story, characters, settings seem to come naturally, and much better ones than I could come up with myself.

I love this NaNo thing, I absolutely love it. Just the right sort of thing to put my writing into perspective.

[btinternet]

That's a lot of what I've been finding too, Fresie. I had only a very preliminary outline, and I decided to take this opportunity to write with less of an outline than I usually do (based on what some others elsewhere on this Board often recommend). It is very interesting to see the story develop.

Now I've hit a place where I need to stop and do a little more planning just so I don't write myself into a hole. (There's one character that may or may not survive the next couple of chapters, and I need to decide which works better for the greater story). But it's an interesting process!

And my pace is picking up nicely. I'm kind of wishing I'd done more practice leading up to the 1st so that my pace would have started out stronger, but ah well, there's always next year.

BT

[dub]

I continually con myself into thinking I am making progress. I am at 12,000 on second manuscript in current series. Unfortunately, my mind wandered to the fourth manuscript outline, so I wrote on #4 for a day. The re-write on the first book is into chapter 4 of 20. To top that off, my Dell is in dellhell. So, I am using a borrowed Compact. Everything is saved on jump drives and floppies, so the crash of the Dell is but frustration. If regulation ever appears in the font column of my life maybe something will get done.

from the swamp - dub

[arainsb123]

I'm at a bit over 20,000 words ... but I just can't quite break into the Top 10 pages (there are 796 pages of authors, which equals about 40K authors), I've been stuck on page 11.

[Risseybug]

Though I'd bump this up to the top to get a little update.

More than half the month is gone... how are we doing??

I'm closing in on 32,000 words, with 50K in sight. I am aiming to put "The End" on it on Thanksgiving. I really didn't think I could do it, but it hasn't been that bad.

Incidentally, the story is pretty good too, but it needs to go to the jeweler for some polish.

[Fresie]

So I've won.

Who else?

I feel terrible--empty and lonely. Now I'm left face to face with my book. No community challenges, no daily updates, in other words--no fun. Coming up with two thousand words a day turned out to be much much easier than I thought. Hopefully, it's become a habit. Indeed, my writing has improved, I can see that. I can also see that writing without a strict outline is waaay more beneficial for the story. It turns out more natural, more sincere. This is going to be a good book. When I finish it. All on my own, now.

I think I need a drink. :(

[Yeshanu]

I've won--now what?

A party, Fresie, that's what!


http://pages.prodigy.net/rogerlori1/emoticons/rainbowdance.gif

And keep writing 'till it's done!

[mistri]

I 'won' as well, but my story's not finished and I have to continue to find inspiration to sit at the computer and write every day. Bah! :)

I'm sure it's helped my discipline with my writing. Saying that I have taken a couple of days off just to rest my wrists a bit. Writing 1-2k a day isn't a problem, but in the last few days I was doing 3-4k an evening, and now I'm paying the price.

[Yeshanu]

Another winner!

Here's your party, mistri:

http://pages.prodigy.net/rogerlori1/emoticons/rainbowdance.gif

Oh, about the wrist thing -- I found out from a book I'm reading that your forearms should be parallel to the ground when you're keyboarding. I don't know about others, but that meant that my keyboard was actually a little too low, so I propped it up with some books. End of wrist pain for me!

[Fresie]

Nobody mentions the cracks under your nails? The last three or four days, I've been typing about twenty pages a day, and now I can't touch anything! :\

[Risseybug]

I'm nearly done, a little less than 4K left to go and five days to get it in. It'll be done on time.


Then I'll edit out all the stuff I stuffed in to build up the word count - I actually finished the story 6 thousand words ago, but I needed some filler. Wrote all that crap in italics so I could just rip it out later.

[Gala]

Hello my fellow NaNoers.
I fell behind and needed to grind out 3k per day to break even by November 30.

I can easily write 3k, but I wasn't sure my wrists would like it. I went for it regardless, and some days have written 4 and 5k or more. My wrists are fine--I'm writing on a laptop set atop a low desk. I am thrilled to find my wrists are better than when I type only a few hundred words on my usual machine. Who knew.

I have nine thousand to go and intend to ripple if off in the morning in one sit.

Wish me luck.

Congratulations to those of you who've finished. I really enjoy NaNo, this is my second; it has proved worthwhile in more ways than one. My readers like the story I've developed.

Cheers.

[Fresie]

Good luck, Gala and all! Still four days left.

I've discovered I'm the most comfortable sitting in a low chair with the laptop on my (surprise) lap. Then your arms and wrists get natural support as you lean slightly back.

Good luck!

[Gala]

Hi Fresie,
I whipped out the last 10k today. Means I wrote the lot in 20 days total. (missed seven days and finished three early.)

Wrists are great, no carpal numbness or buzzing, only a bit of muscle fatigue. Does that mean I don't have to practice violin and piano tonight?
<img border=0 src="http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/tongue.gif" />

Surprises today--new chars came on stage and gave their all. Some good material I'll use elsewhere in short form or One Day develop the whole 50k into a polished novel.

NaNo did not stymie my "real" writing; in fact helped it along.

Fun exercise.

[Fresie]

Congrats, Gala! Who else?

I know what you mean, Gala. That's what I loved about this "fun exercise" -- the intuitive part of it. New characters, weird twists, your subconscious working overtime.

I paln to finish the first draft (it's historical, with tons of research yet to be done, so the first draft will probably end up at 150 or even 200K -- I'll cut it down later) and then I'll start all the proper outlining, planning, index card method, all the logical stuff. But the heart of it will already be there. Hopefully. :D

Congratulations again! I've printed out my "Winner Certificate" and put it over the computer and it's so funny it makes everybody laugh!

[Kida Adelyn]

I couldn't make 50k so I'm trying for 30. I don't think my novle would make much more than 30 anyway.

Almost there, just 5000 word to go.
:D

[Thekherham]

I just validated my novel.

Second year... and another win.

I'll try again next year.

[btinternet]

Congrats all.

Unfortunately, I had a major/close friend death on the 12th, and basically surrendered shortly thereafter. I've spent the last two weeks helping his widow organize finances, dealing with their creditors, helping with funeral arrangements and the like, and haven't really had time or energy for writing after that (plus working full-time).

:(

Maybe next year.

BT

[Gala]

Dear BT,
I've very sorry to hear of your friend's death, and appreciate you being there for his widow. She's fortunate to have you helping her with so many of those awful details.

I look forward to seeing you for next year's NaNo.

Take good care of yourself. I don't know if it's your way--but if you can write even scant notes on what you're experiencing now, you may be glad for the record later. Write what you most loved about your friend, memories, what you're thinking now--anything that comes to mind.

Again, I'm sorry. Prayers.

[HConn]

I have a question for everyone who participated (for the record, I didn't): Do you think you could write at this pace, keeping the quality of your writing high, for all of December? Then January?

How about every month?

[Euan Harvey]

All of December? Probably.

All of January as well? Ah...perhaps

Every month? No.

The problem is not the physical labor (typing is fairly easy work if you arrange your workspace right) nor the time (the 2,000 words I've been doing a day have been taking me about 2 and a bit hours consistently).

The problem I'm having now (I'm up to 67,000 words and I'm guessing the novel will be around 85,000) is that I can feel my creativity drying up. It's becoming harder and harder to begin writing each day, although once I've started there's usually no problem finishing.

But then again, that may be as much from the fact that I'm coming to the end of the novel, and I know exactly what's going to happen for the next 20,000 words or so. This is the second novel I've got this close to completion with (and the fourth I've started), and with the other one I finished, I remeber feeling this way as well. The last quarter of a book seems to me to be the hardest part to complete.

[Gala]

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>How about every month?<hr></blockquote>
Do and can. It's only an average of 1666 words per day.

The 10k-word marathons will be more sporadic, however ;)

One day I'd like to write an entire novel in a weekend. Writers greater and lesser than I have done so.

I'm still a lousy typist despite it all. <img border=0 src="http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/ohwell.gif" />

[Risseybug]

I couldn't do it every month. Not because I can't, but because other things in life demand my attention. This month has been tense trying to get it all in.

My house is a mess, my two year old cries every time I sit at the computer. I will still write every day(that I can get it in without too much disruption) but not like I did for this.

[Fresie]

BT, I'm very sorry. You've done the right thing. People are a hundred times more important than any book on earth. You're a good friend, and your book will get written, anyway.

How about every month?

Me--yes. I've realised how easy it actually is. I'm thinking in scenes: about 2000 words is a biggish scene or two small ones. So I write a scene or two a day. I keep going, it would be highly stupid now to stop halfway there.

The "quality of writing" is different! At the moment, I'm only busy with getting the conflict and story together. What happens to whom, how they get to certain places I want them to be at, and what exactly they do once they get there. The writing itself is pretty pathetic at the moment. But I know I'm able of editing it into shape once the story is in place, so I'm not worried too much about it.

And yes, when I write off the top of my head (as opposed to planning frist), the scenes end up more active and detailed. But surely once I get the bones down (the first draft), I'll get all the scenes on index cards and then all the planning, shifting and trimming will begin.

[Crusader]

i do hope what i'm about to ask doesn't strike the wrong tone; i'm chewing it over in my head and i'm concerned that, even politely, it may offend.

With the disclaimer done, here's the question: do those of you who have participated in the "National Novel..." event feel that what you wrote is actually good, by your standards?

i ask because my writing is generally best when unforced. Otherwise, the results tend to be so unpleasant, i can't bear to look at them thereafter. So i'm unable to comprehend or relate with what you all have accomplished.

[Yeshanu]

BT,

(((hugs))) Supporting friends and dealing with loss is more important than NaNo. NaNo will come around next year, and we'll be with you then.

I didn't get to 50,000 words. Part of that problem was the project I chose to do — it isn't a single story, but a bunch of stories detailing the history of the world that my finished novel is set in. But it filled me in on some stuff I'm missing, so I'm raring to go on the final draft. That's December's project.

Could I do this every month? Probably — in addition to the 22,359 words on my NaNo project I did write, I also wrote about 10,000 words on a non-fiction book I'm starting, and several essays that amounted to at least another 15k, and I had lots of time off to get my house completely clean. (See my posts near the beginning of this thread :D )

Would I? Probably not. I'm more of a sprint writer (same with everything else.) I don't write 1666 words per day, but I can sit down and do 5k or more in one morning. But I've learned that I can take my notebook everywhere I go, and jot down reminders, so that when I sit down at the keyboard like I did this morning, there is no time wasted at the beginning getting that first word on the page. Once the first word is down, I'm away to the races...

I might try challenging myself to do 50k in January. It's a slow month both at work and at school, so I should be able to do it, and I had a breakthrough last night on a novel that's been in the drawer for a couple of years.

Crusader,

The whole point of NaNo is to put your "inner editor" in jail for a month and just write. I don't tend to write utter garbage, even when I'm writing fast, because I've got a good grasp of the basics. But if I write slow, I labour over every sentence I write to the point where I write absolutely nothing.

Is it better to write a lot, knowing that most of it could end up on the cutting room floor, so to speak, or to make sure every sentence is perfect before going on? If I were to take the latter approach, my output for the month would have been zero.

Most of what I wrote this month will never make it into the final draft of anything. But I came up with some really amazing gems in my 22,359 words that are the seeds of whole novels in and of themselves. I'm delighted at this point to know my characters better, I know my world better, I know my plot and theme better than I ever did before. And I've been working on this particular project for sixteen years.

In summary: My own feelings about NaNo and forced writing are, if I don't force it out, it won't come out at all, and just because it's forced doesn't mean it has to be crap.

Hope the above made sense...

Anyhow, in closing:

A challenge for all you NaNo writers over on the Writing Prompts, Exercises and Games board. Ally (Kida) was given permission to take yesterday off school by her doting and extremely generous parents so that she could finish her NaNo project. Now she needs a note to take to her teacher, and we need you to help write it. Smiley party for the best note!

[Fresie]

Crusader,

I used to work like this myself when I just started writing many years ago. Cherishing my gift, you know. :D Waiting for inspiration. Writing two paragraphs a day and then polishing them to absolute perfection, taking a comma out and putting it back in. Well, obviously I'm not Oscar Wilde because I soon realised this way I'd get to the cemetery sooner than get anything published.

Another thing I've realised since then is that virtually everyone is able of producing a few powerful sentences. You don't need to be a writer to do that--my next door neighbour can probably write better than I do. But once you go beyond these first powerful sentences, the truth (for me) is, the bulk of one's writing isn't going to be anywhere near "good". I was lucky enough once to lay my hands on a few first drafts by world-famous writers, and let me tell you: I was crying with relief because their writing was fantastically poor! But then they rewrote it, on average, over 20 times, until they got all these famous masterpieces. Actually, it was after this experience that I realised I could be a writer, too. :D I found it tremendously inspiring that in their first drafts, some of my favourite writers had committed all the crimes listed in Turkey City Lexicon, and then some!

[Gala]

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>here's the question: do those of you who have participated in the "National Novel..." event feel that what you wrote is actually good, by your standards?<hr></blockquote>
Yes.
And by the standards of several readers and writers whose opinions I respect, to whom I read excerpts and discussed the story.

I won't analyze what happened but some of my best writing to date went into NaNo. "Best" = syntax, grammar, style and voice, interesting characters, and downright story.

[Crusader]

@Yeshanu, Fresie, and Gala:

Thank you for the replies. i better understand where you all are coming from now. i'm still surprised, but it's not quite so foreign now... and it's nice to know that some of you relate to where i am coming from as well. The whole "carefully removing, then replacing a comma" phase that Fresie describes, i can certainly see the pitfalls... i just honestly don't want to work any other way. [shrug]

Although, i do admit to some envy as far as Gala's obvious pride in what she has done; it would be nice once in a while to simply write something without obsessive revision.

(...he says, after revising this post five times...)

[pencilone]

YaY! I'm a winner too! I've written 50,245 words!:rollin :D

Crusader, unless you try it out, you don't really know what you miss on!

Nano really helped me not to judge my writing while I'm writing it. The rough draft is supposed to be rough draft. The gems are in the unexpected plot twists and turns that would not come out if you don't let your unconscious rule the writing.

I reached a day when I've managed to write over 6k and about 3 days when I wrote over 5k. I did not know I'm even capable of that.;) Before Nano, my usual good day was about 2,500 words.

My hubby got himself persuaded to do it too, and he was in front of me by 11k:lol most of the time. At last he wrote his novel that he had been composting for the past 2 years (well he has not finished it, but he got 50k done: pretty good for a month that could have just passed by)

Congratulation all around to everyone who started Nano and wrote more than they would have written otherwise! Well Done!;)

Pencilone

[Writing Again]

When I first started writing novels I just dumped onto the typer. I slept with a portable on my knees: woke up typing where I left off: Missed dates: lost girlfriends: 10,000 and more words a day were nothing.

However the revision later.

I don't write the first draft nearly as fast now as I did then, but the novel is done a lot sooner.

I'm seriously thinking of joining NaNo next year.

Congratulations to everyone who finished their 50,000 words. It is an accomplishment of which you should be proud.

[Yeshanu]

And parties all around for everyone who tried!

Ally's brother has a birthday on Friday (his 19th), so I'm going to combine it with our NaNo party and have one whopper of a party!