NaNoWriMo

[Cubbymug]

This is a little late to be asking, but is anyone else in this forum involved in National Novel Writing Month? I know we have a lot of writers. If so, I'd love to add you as a writing buddy (my user name is "humebabe"). For those who don't know what I'm talking about, here's how the official NaNoWriMo website describes it:

"National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30. 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."

Part of the fun of the month is there are people all over the world who are all working toward the same goal. You can commiserate together on the forums, gather locally with other participants for "write-ins," and track your progress on the site. This is my third year participating (although I haven't yet actually "won" by reaching 50,000 words).

If this sounds like a fun challenge to you, I encourage you to check it out at http://www.nanowrimo.org.

[Kasia]

I wish I'd known about this sooner, because it sounds like something I would have enjoyed participating in, but I think it's a little late now to start being as we're already halfway through the month. Oh well, maybe next year!

[Cubbymug]

Terribly sorry I wasn't more on the ball! I've mostly been consumed with trying to keep up on my word count (I'm 6000 words behind at the moment, but hoping to catch up some on the weekend). Yes, you should definitely try it out next year. It's challenging, fun, maddening and useful for those of us who are too lazy to do much writing the rest of the year. There's a similar event called Script Frenzy in April for those working on any type of script (screenplays, graphic novels, stage plays, TV shows, whatever). There might be some interest from some on this site for that as well. The challenge is to produce 100 scripted pages within the month of April. For more info on that, go to www.scriptfrenzy.org.

[Avery]

I've always admired those who attempt NaNo. I have two friends who completed it this year and another two who did it in two weeks last year. I could never do it, at least not at this point in my life - don't have the willpower/patience! How did you do, Cubbymug?

[Cubbymug]

How did you do, Cubbymug?

Sorry, I didn't see this question until a month after you posted it. I was so focused during the month of November that I kind of took a break from everything else (forums, etc.), and the break lasted through the rest of the year.

Amazingly, I actually reached the word goal of 50,000 words! This is my third year of attempting it, but first “win.” I just had to figure out what worked for me. Here are some things that got me to my goal this year.
1. Forget the backspace key, even if what I just wrote is the most idiotic thing I’ve ever read. If I wrote it, I counted it. (And by the way, this is not cheating. The sponsors of the event instruct you to keep everything, pad your word counts, etc. It just took me three years of participation to really turn off that self-editor and write whatever came into my head. Long dream sequences are very useful in this aspect). Save all your editing for after the month is over. This is just a rough draft, after all. I probably won't be keeping a lot of what I wrote.
2. Use Write or Die ( http://writeordie.drwicked.com/). I really couldn’t have done it without this tool. Basically, you set the timer and your word goal (usually 500 words in 15 minutes for me) and keep typing! But if you stop typing, you will be “punished” (depending on the amount of motivation you need, either a very ugly sound or having your text deleted one letter at a time until you resume typing). If you beat the timer by meeting your word goal, there’s a trumpet fanfare. In an ideal world, this means if I met that 500 word goal every time, I’d have my daily quota met in just under an hour. It never quite happened that way, but at least it was something to shoot for. The online version is free, which I’ve been using for years, but this year I spent the $10 for the desktop version.
3. Frequent breaks (and rewards!). After those word sprints with Write or Die, I’d reward myself with something fun (usually TV I was trying to catch up on, even if it was only for 15 minutes at a time). It helped me focus when I needed to, knowing I had something to look forward to.

I don't know if I will ever finish what I started in November, or if I even want to look at it again, but it feels good to have accomplished something many people will never attempt. I'd encourage anyone with an interest in writing to try it out, even if you can't imagine getting to 50,000 words. I got to about 6,000 words my first year and gave up, but I still had fun.

[Kasia]

I definitely would like to do the screenwriting one in the spring. I've never actually written a screenplay before, only stage plays, but if I just forget about proper technical formatting, write what's in my head, and then go back and rework it to the proper format, I think I can manage it. I have two story ideas in the works and I'm not sure which one I would use for this project, but I think it would be pretty fun if several people from this forum were to do it together and then trade scripts at the end for peer review.