Anyone here participating in NaNoWriMo this year?

[Varoun]

For the curious, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, where you are challenged to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. It can be about anything you'd like, and it focuses on quantity instead of quality; the mission is to write 50,000 words, not pen a perfect novel in 30 days. Editing can come later! 

If you are, feel free to post your profile link so others can add you and watch your progress! Here's mine.

[redtomato501]

Maybe! A friend at church and I have challenged each other to do this... but I've also "done" NaNo maybe 6 times, and only finished it once. Only got back 5,000 words twice, even, so.... Heh. 

 

Ooo, when does the next challenge start?! I sense a life quest....

[Varoun]

It starts on November 3rd or 4th, I think. You could always get a head start when November starts.

[redtomato501]

Do you know what you're going to write about yet? The only year that I've successfully completed it was the year that I outlined my novel beforehand... but I have no idea what I would write about this time!

[Frost of the Gloaming]

I can try, I have a story in my head it's just getting it down on paper that will be the tricky part

[Varoun]

Do you know what you're going to write about yet? The only year that I've successfully completed it was the year that I outlined my novel beforehand... but I have no idea what I would write about this time!

 

I've got my genre listed as Post-apocalyptic Fiction, but I haven't decided all the aspects of it yet. Post-apoc is my favorite genre, hands down, so I finally decided to try and tackle it this year. And sometimes it's good to not know - you could try pantsing it this time?

 

I can try, I have a story in my head it's just getting it down on paper that will be the tricky part

Yeah, that's always the trickiest bit! You could try outlining your writing beforehand, just to get the gears turning. Or you could just 'pants' it, or write what comes to you as you go.

[Jakkals]

Oh yes, another year of pantsing it. Every time I sort of plan stuff my characters decided they want to do something else so I've found it is just easier to write what they are doing.

 

This will be my 5th year of Nano. (Or written in Nano style: This will be the fifth year of participating in the National Novel Writing Month, one year unfinished and 3 years a winner. (22 words vs 8 words))

[Gobnait]

I've got a self-insert My Little Pony story trying to form that I might noodle with, but NaNo usually comes at a time of year that isn't so good for focused writing.  If something like this happened in February, I might be inclined or at least be a willing member of the cheer squad.

[redtomato501]

I've got my genre listed as Post-apocalyptic Fiction, but I haven't decided all the aspects of it yet. Post-apoc is my favorite genre, hands down, so I finally decided to try and tackle it this year. And sometimes it's good to not know - you could try pantsing it this time?

 

 

Oh yes, another year of pantsing it. Every time I sort of plan stuff my characters decided they want to do something else so I've found it is just easier to write what they are doing.

 

Put it this way... I've "attempted" maybe 6 times, and the only year I finished was the year that I made up an outline. The only other year I made significant progress (15 or 20 thousand words) was the year that I didn't outline, but I did plan out characters and have a general concept of what I wanted to have happen.

 

I think I'm going to have to set up for the Snowflake Method if I want to have any chance of success. Will get me an outline, and make the planning process easier by building on a central idea, rather than trying to develop the story arc chronologically.

[bjjgrrl]

I plan to. I've finished twice, not finished twice more, and skipped a year. My profile is here.

[Vella]

Every year I intend to, but every year, school gets in the way!  NaNo occurs slap bang in the middle of Aussie exams.  This year, I've only got essays, though, so I might see how many of those I can get done before.  Not liking my chances, though.  Might have to do it in spirit

[Ceasefire]

I'm similar. I've planned to every year and then every year I just can't get my groove and my stories sit, waiting as usual.

 

It might be a good way for me to get some character development out of the way for a site I've had in the making for ten damn years...

[sheltiechick]

I am!  I've done it three times prior and finished it all three times.  I stopped doing it after that third time because it wasn't really challenging I guess - too easy for me to put my mind to a task with a set goal and just bust through it, and I felt bad when all my friends were like I'M TRYING TO WRITE AND IT'S NOT HAPPENING and I was busy just letting the characters do what they want and hammering through page after page.  My headpeople would talk forever if I let them.

 

I guess technically it's supposed to be fiction but this year I'm trying non-fiction.  We'll see how that goes.  It should be more difficult since it's not simply a matter of unleashing the characters in my head, but telling stories about things that have happened.

[dntspard]

I'm going to try to, tried last year but job didn't really leave me with time or energy. New job isn't that much better but can work on documents a bit easier since have actual internet connection at work

 

Here is me 

http://nanowrimo.org/participants/dntspard

[sheltiechick]

It's November 1st!!  Who started?  How's it going?

I hammered out a few thousand words and might still write more tonight.

[Jakkals]

And we have got visitors this weekend. Zero words so far. And Sunday and Monday will be about the same, so I am off to a late start.

 

http://nanowrimo.org/participants/jacques

[redtomato501]

So, here's me: http://nanowrimo.org/participants/froggee501

 

211 words so far! Yeah!!! At this pace I should be done by June 19.... 2016. Eep.

[MariahSnow]

I had seen this thread for a while and was like, "NaNoWriMo?" and filed that for things to look up later which pretty much means I forgot about it. Anyway, I was snooping on Tumblr last night and ran across it and then the lightbulb went off, "THAT'S what that thread is about!"

 

So... I wish I hadn't seen this on Nov 6th...

[redtomato501]

MariahSnow, it's not too late! Just write an extra 417 words a day, or have a few days where you double your word count! You've got this!

[bjjgrrl]

I am finally caught up and on track. My schedule this month means I absolutely cannot write on Fridays (except Black Friday), so when NaNo started I was already a day behind. Realized today that I should just readjust the daily targets to include "0" on Fridays, and then managed to hit today's target between my morning writing hour and a few minutes borrowed from lunch. About 300 words/day more than a daily NaNo, but so far seems do-able.

 

My story: Amelia Earhart... in Space!

[MariahSnow]

So this is just about getting words on paper, no editing, just kind of letting it flow out, right? I mean I'm not about to write 50,000 words of gibberish just to reach a goal.

[MariahSnow]

And also, here's my info: http://nanowrimo.org/participants/mariahsnow

[bjjgrrl]

So this is just about getting words on paper, no editing, just kind of letting it flow out, right? I mean I'm not about to write 50,000 words of gibberish just to reach a goal.

 

Exactly -- NaNo is not about creating a publishing-ready novel of 50,000 words at the end of a single month. NaNo gives you a deadline and a goal, and then says, "Go!"

 

It is about getting the story down on paper finally, even if it's not quite the story you originally imagined. I consider it a first draft, and even that is using a very loose interpretation of the word "draft." I have not ever, nor will ever, show any parts of my NaNo'd stories to anyone. They are terrible. Lots of dead ends in the plot, lots of holes, lots of rabbit trails. But I learn a whole lot about the characters and the stories that rattle around in my head, and then I can start telling the real story.

[MariahSnow]

I've only written about 3000 words but i'm surprised how easily things start coming together. I was just stressing over how two characters are going to intersect and an opportunity arose while I was writing. Cool! I'm pretty excited and hopefully I can do some serious catching up this weekend.

[Jakkals]

I've got lots of hopes for the weekend myself, at 2991 words on day 7 I am in big trouble.

 

I'm not worried so much about the gibberish, but the main reason I/we do this is because there are parts that is not gibberish, and that is the best part of nano. I've had days where I wrote 7000 words just because the story flow so well.