How do you justify working on nanawrimo when you're unpublished and have a WIP?

lucidzfl

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So basically the entirety of my question resides in the title...

I am currently 1/3 of the way through my MS on the first work I think has a shot at being published. I'm cranking along on it pretty well, but this nanowrimo thing sounds really fun.

The idea of just writing with wreckless abandon and not giving a shit about vision or art sounds wonderful. Plus I'd love to see if I could do it...

But how do I justify shelving my WIP??! :(

Perhaps I should say, that as soon as I get to the 50K point in my current WIP (2/3rds) I can start nanowrimo. (This is advantageous as I have NO idea how the third act is supposed to go down anyway.)
 

Snitchcat

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Hmm... why do you need to justify having fun?

I'm not published in the fiction world, have 2 major WIPs going and will likely hit NaNo this year, too.

IMO, you're not shelving your WIP so much as getting perspective on it. And time away from it, helps.
 

Ellefire

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It's called...
'Time Off for Good Behaviour'
'Recharging The Ole Creative Batteries'
'Exploring New Avenues'

and hell, if you aren't published and contracted to deadline, who, apart from you, is going to notice or care?
 

BenPanced

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Um, can't you use nano to get ahead on your WIP? You know, add another 50k to what you have - from teh sounds of it, that would make the first draft pretty well done
Not really, if you want the "win" to count. It's National Novel Writing Month, not National Write 50K More Words.
 

lucidzfl

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Not really, if you want the "win" to count. It's National Novel Writing Month, not National Write 50K More Words.

Yeah, and 'sides, the idea of writing without caring sounds great.

I love my WiP, but its the first book I explicitly sat down and decided I wanted to sub. That means it has a bit more importance to me. It also means that I pay close attention to what i'm doing and really put effort into it.

I'd love to write something completely by the seat of my pants, knowing that it never mattered if i subbed it or not. In fact writing something almost with the intent of NOT subbing it sounds fun.

It would be a real palate cleanser.
 

Misa Buckley

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Not really, if you want the "win" to count. It's National Novel Writing Month, not National Write 50K More Words.

Who exactly are you cheating if you "just" write 50K more words?

To be honest, I think that is between the writer and his/her conscience. Personally, I'm not bothered if someone carries on with a current WIP, or even if they cheat at the words they have. NaNo is something that inspires me to write, and that's all that matters to me.
 

bettielee

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Not really, if you want the "win" to count. It's National Novel Writing Month, not National Write 50K More Words.

ok. I am rising to the challenge. I am going to write 10 pages a day (2500 words), so I will have 300 pages in 30 days... and you better believe I care about what goes on those 10 pages.

Just because it's NaNo doesn't mean you don't pay attention to what you're doing. I have a loose idea (10 or so cards with scenes on them) but I never go from an outline anyway.

Just one outlook.
 

Parametric

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Who exactly are you cheating if you "just" write 50K more words?

This. I'm always using Nanowrimo to add more wordcount to an existing project. For me, if I write 50,000 words on a single project, I count that as a win. Honestly, I might even think of it as a win if I wrote 50,000 words of fiction total, even if there were multiple projects. Because ultimately, to me, the challenge is to write 50,000 words. I don't much mind how that comes about.

I know some people won't feel the same, and that's fine with me. Everybody uses Nanowrimo for their own purposes. :)
 

KTC

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I always care about vision and art. I always try to write my very best. What Nano gives me is the pacing I want to match for the rest of the year. It's just more BIC time for me...

I don't feel a need to justify any of my writing. My WIPS are all as important as each other...including my nano wip.
 

James81

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Nobody can tell you the benefits of this challenge. You really do have to see it for yourself.

My one stint with NaNoWriMo was the first clear month I can remember finding happiness on my own (a life benefit that I didn't see coming), learning how to pace myself with a story, and learning how to see a novel through to it's finish.

The benefits I learned in that one month were unmatched by any other thing I've ever done with my writing. It's inspiring and very satisfying to reach that goal.

But nobody can tell you this. You have to do it for yourself and see it with your own experience.
 
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I completely agree with James and really like the way his posts are going lately. Positivity is what I need to hear right now. :D

I don't have to justify doing NaNo to anyone BUT I do like to play by the rules. Sure, some people 'add' 50k rather than starting anew, but the whole point is to see if you can write a novel in a month.

Me? I never have. I've written the first 50k of a novel in a month many a time but never reached 'The End'.

That said, NaNo '08's project is on the cusp of submission, and it's the first thing I ever wrote I'm proud of. Not "Look - I writed a fiction novel!" but I actually believe this has a shot. It's worth paying money to read.

So like James says - you have to do it to see the benefits.
 

veinglory

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I have NaNo-ed a WIP, which is now published. It may not please everyone but isn't the main point for the writer to fulfill their own goals? 50,000 words should go where they are most needed.
 
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I think the key word is 'momentum'.

I know it got tt42 moving and it does the same for me.
 

Clair Dickson

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It can teach you that you DO have time to write every day and that you can keep working on a project. It can teach you about following through to meet a goal.

Whether or not you add to an additional project is entirely up to you (Really, nothing in the NaNoWriMo "rules" prohibits it) but it can be harder to give up the internal editor-- if it's a stubborn one-- several thousand k into a story.

One of the advantages to starting new is that you are starting from nothing, not potentially ruining something good. Ruin might be a strong word, but it's often a lot of work to revise such a hastily written work. Especially if you change plot directions, etc. But it depends on how you write your first drafts, anyway.

Every writer has the occasional WIP that they set aside for one reason or another. If you get some good habits-- BIC-- during Nano, it will help you when you return to the original WIP.
 

Priene

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So if you're adding 50k words to a WIP, why wait for NaNo? Start tomorrow.

I started yesterday. I found Nano incredibly helpful when I didn't know whether I could even finish a draft. Now I've got to the point of submitting to publishers, the goal of Nano doesn't have much appeal. But hanging around with a group of like-minded types for a month is fun.
 

lucidzfl

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I'm thinking about doing something truly looney.

I'm thinking of trying to do nano, in the spirit of nano, and writing 50K words in one month. (I'm not shooting for anything more)

However, I am ONLY going to write nano on weekends.

Thats 10000 words per weekend (5 weekends, roughly, in november) and 5,000 per day.

On work days I can usually do 3,000 words, so this should be very doable.

What am I going to do in the meantime on workdays? Why, my current WIP :)

I shall write two books at once! MWHAHAAHHAAHAHA
 

Satori1977

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Why do you need to justify anything? If you are not under another deadline for your current WIP, then you can do whatever you want. Work on your WIP and try to add another 50k, start a new project (a story that has been in the back or your mind), or like you just suggested, work on TWO projects. Other people have done it. Nothing is stopping you but yourself.
 

Wayne K

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I don't. Someday I might do Nanawhatevero, I see people here have fun with it. Right now I'm too into my WIP to.
 
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Mr Flibble

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Not really, if you want the "win" to count. It's National Novel Writing Month, not National Write 50K More Words.

The goal is to write 50k words. The goal is as stated by them:
Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output.

50k on a project is win. If it means you finish your first ever draft of anything, call me stupid, but that counts as a win whichever way you look at it. Besides finishing a novel IS writing a novel ( or part thereof)

It's not like it's actually a contest. Heck - you could write 'the' copy paste it 50 thousand times and claim to 'win'

As long as the writer wins ( gains something from it), the rest is immaterial.
 

lucidzfl

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Why do you need to justify anything? If you are not under another deadline for your current WIP, then you can do whatever you want. Work on your WIP and try to add another 50k, start a new project (a story that has been in the back or your mind), or like you just suggested, work on TWO projects. Other people have done it. Nothing is stopping you but yourself.

For me, I told myself that I would finish my WIP before I did anything else, because I wanted to dedicate myself to attempting to be published.
 

BenPanced

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http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/faq#node-402737
Do I have to start my novel from scratch on November 1? Can I use an outline?
Yes.

This sounds like a dumb, arbitrary rule, we know. But bringing a half-finished manuscript into NaNoWriMo all but guarantees a miserable month. You'll care about the characters and story too much to write with the gleeful, anything-goes approach that makes NaNoWriMo such a creative rush. Give yourself the gift of a clean slate, and you'll tap into realms of imagination and intuition that are out-of-reach when working on pre-existing manuscripts.

Outlines and plot notes are very much encouraged, and can be started months ahead of the actual novel-writing adventure. Previously written prose, though, is punishable by death.

And I'm taking my leave of this thread. There's enough quibbling about the actual point of NaNo over on the NaNo site where I'm not willing to deal with the bleedover here.