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NANOWRIMO
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Scourge
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Closehttp://www.nanowrimo.org/
So, is anyone around here doing it? I'm giving it a shot for the first time, even though November is busy as heck for me. Got a couple of ideas buzzing around, but I need to choose one pretty quick here. Only five days to prepare an outline or something, but I might just jump right in and pray something good comes out.
So, is anyone around here doing it? I'm giving it a shot for the first time, even though November is busy as heck for me. Got a couple of ideas buzzing around, but I need to choose one pretty quick here. Only five days to prepare an outline or something, but I might just jump right in and pray something good comes out.
I've done it (and won) the past two years, but this year I'm too busy with another project. What I always have done is use all of October to plan an outline or a general direction I want the work to go. I find it quite fun to do. By no means does it ever create a work worthy of being published (you have to work to get your work to get to that stage--just because you finish nanowrimo doesn't mean it's ready to be published), but I like that it forces you to work at it and not stop because you get bored. You're getting something done and that's the very first step to writing a novel. Once it's done you can go and edit the heck out of it and prepare and prepare it to get published if that's what you want.
Makes me sad I'm not doing it this year, but I don't want to set down the projects I am working on currently.
Makes me sad I'm not doing it this year, but I don't want to set down the projects I am working on currently.
Yeah, I'm not expecting what I write to be any good without mountains of editing. That's quite impressive that you've won it the last two years. I don't think I'll get anywhere near that, especially since I'm a high school student who accidentally signed up for the legit version rather then the young writer's one.
psy_wombats
13315
Yeah, this'll be my third year. After The LCPANES Terminal, I figure I'd try to write something interactive again, this time a little longer and more thought out. I've already got about 30 pages of planning done and I'm hoping to beat last years' averages. With planning and a little practice, 50,000 words isn't bad at all. So this year's target is... 90k. Hm.
You can add me if you like: http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participants/adking
Also: the young writers' program is intended for those under 13. If you're in high school, the main site is the correct program. There's a teemingly active teens' forum for people around that age.
You can add me if you like: http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participants/adking
Also: the young writers' program is intended for those under 13. If you're in high school, the main site is the correct program. There's a teemingly active teens' forum for people around that age.
Killer Wolf
1235
I entered in either 08 or 09, but then suffered a brutal attack of writer's block and wrote nothing for like eighteen days... after which I finished all 50,000+ words in a total of about six days in the middle of the month.
I was going to try last year, but my November was just way too busy. Unfortunately/Fortunately, it seems I'm going to have plenty of time to get into it this year.
I don't really believe in pre-planning, so I have absolutely nothing prepared aside from maybe a brief vignette that came from a dream the other day that I may or may not use as a jumping off point.
The only way writing is really interesting to me anymore is when I don't know what is going to happen next.
I was going to try last year, but my November was just way too busy. Unfortunately/Fortunately, it seems I'm going to have plenty of time to get into it this year.
I don't really believe in pre-planning, so I have absolutely nothing prepared aside from maybe a brief vignette that came from a dream the other day that I may or may not use as a jumping off point.
The only way writing is really interesting to me anymore is when I don't know what is going to happen next.
I don't actually sign up. It's just a personal challenge.
Last year I got motivated and wrote something like 60000 words. That same story has been lamenting for a while now so I'll put it up in my priorities for this year, try and get past the 250 page mark. (I'm at 120)
edit:
Last year I got motivated and wrote something like 60000 words. That same story has been lamenting for a while now so I'll put it up in my priorities for this year, try and get past the 250 page mark. (I'm at 120)
edit:
author=Killer Wolfthis is basically how I write, and I go back and fix stuff later. I only have a basic idea of what I'm doing or else I get bored and writing takes forever and ever...
I don't really believe in pre-planning, so I have absolutely nothing prepared aside from maybe a brief vignette that came from a dream the other day that I may or may not use as a jumping off point.
The only way writing is really interesting to me anymore is when I don't know what is going to happen next.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Every year I do this, and every year I get to page 3 before quitting.
I claim that the thing keeping me from finishing games is always graphics, but even my novels are vaporware :<
I claim that the thing keeping me from finishing games is always graphics, but even my novels are vaporware :<
author=Killer Wolf
I don't really believe in pre-planning, so I have absolutely nothing prepared aside from maybe a brief vignette that came from a dream the other day that I may or may not use as a jumping off point.
The only way writing is really interesting to me anymore is when I don't know what is going to happen next.
And that's very valid! I however can't do that. I wish I could however, I just get stuck if I don't know where I'm going. Though even with a hefty outline, I will meander away from the outline countless times. Without one though, I get stuck right out of the gate because I just plain don't know where I'm going. I need a road map. :|
And Scourge, I did the two years in a row while I was in my last two years of college, which means I had a lot on my plate as well and I was able to do it (and my grades also didn't suffer!). Time management is usually good for these kinds of things.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
author=Killer Wolf
The only way writing is really interesting to me anymore is when I don't know what is going to happen next.
author=Ronove
I just get stuck if I don't know where I'm going.
What do I do if I have both problems? :((((
author=psy_wombats
Also: the young writers' program is intended for those under 13. If you're in high school, the main site is the correct program. There's a teemingly active teens' forum for people around that age.
Really? The FAQ on the YWP says that people seventeen and under are welcome, and that's me. I could do the adult one, I suppose, but I like being able to set my own goal rather than go for 50,000 words.
author=Ronove
And Scourge, I did the two years in a row while I was in my last two years of college, which means I had a lot on my plate as well and I was able to do it (and my grades also didn't suffer!). Time management is usually good for these kinds of things.
My time management skills are lacking, to say the least. :\ At this point, I'm considering just going on with an existing project rather than starting a new one. Is that allowed? By existing, I mean it has an outline and about four or five quality chapters written out of a planned thirty or so.
Well, you don't have to listen to the rules of NaNoWriMo. It's supposed to be a NEW project, but pfft. If using an existing project and giving it 50k more words is what you want to do, then you totally can.
And if you have both problems, one should plan the beginning, something in the middle, and then the end. And boom, just fill in from beginning to middle and then from middle to end! It leaves lots of room to make up as you go but still having a goal in mind. :P
And if you have both problems, one should plan the beginning, something in the middle, and then the end. And boom, just fill in from beginning to middle and then from middle to end! It leaves lots of room to make up as you go but still having a goal in mind. :P
Killer Wolf
1235
author=LockeZ
What do I do if I have both problems? :((((
That is what happens to me with writing for games. I have to luck into the perfect mix where I know enough guideposts along the way to keep me from writing way beyond my resources, but enough of the major points are still undecided that it actually remains interesting for me to figure them out as I go.
I've tried outlining for fiction before, and it really kills it for me.
The closest I can get, and still remain moderately interested in the project, is using note cards. I'll jot down brief descriptions of scenes/characters/conversations as they come to me, in whatever haphazard order that turns out to be. Then, once I have a stack of them, I shuffle them around until they seem to make the most sense and work from that.
It keeps it fluid enough to be fun. Read one card "Well, this doesn't make any sense unless this happened first... oh wait, <shuffles> now it did! Perfect"
Life is a cut-up.
In light of NaNoRiMo, I'll be writing small segments to go with the pictures in the Plucky Adventure.
As someone who's actually finished several novels on their own schedule (and as someone who sadly hasn't done any serious writing since 2009 due to laziness, distraction, illness, and life) I have never really "gotten" the point of Nanowhatever.
I have always been of the attitude that if you want to write a novel, you don't need a special occasion to do it, and if you don't really want to write a novel, no special occasion is ever going to help. I'm really not a fan of the entire idea, I don't think it generates a lot of GOOD prose, generally speaking. I don't think, as a very very broad and obviously not all-inclusive generalization, that the novelists who need something like NaNoWriMo to motivate them are the ones in any danger of producing good writing.
Obviously LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of people disagree with me. I'm in the minority on this and I acknowledge that.
I have always been of the attitude that if you want to write a novel, you don't need a special occasion to do it, and if you don't really want to write a novel, no special occasion is ever going to help. I'm really not a fan of the entire idea, I don't think it generates a lot of GOOD prose, generally speaking. I don't think, as a very very broad and obviously not all-inclusive generalization, that the novelists who need something like NaNoWriMo to motivate them are the ones in any danger of producing good writing.
Obviously LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of people disagree with me. I'm in the minority on this and I acknowledge that.
psy_wombats
13315
author=Max McGee
As someone who's actually finished several novels on their own schedule (and as someone who sadly hasn't done any serious writing since 2009 due to laziness, distraction, illness, and life) I have never really "gotten" the point of Nanowhatever.
The idea is that most of us aren't "novelists" and that most people just never get around to starting their writing because of laziness, distraction, illness, and life. It's an excuse to take a month off from all of that and just start writing.
(also yes the prose will suck, that's why it's a first draft)
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Starting stuff is the hardest part of doing stuff. Events and deadlines give me a kick in the pants. If I didn't have events and deadlines I would literally never do anything ever. I would move my computer to my bed and stare at online forums for the rest of my life.
This doesn't mean I will actually produce anything for NanuNanu. But I might at least work on my game or clean my bathroom while trying to work up the motivation to start writing.
This doesn't mean I will actually produce anything for NanuNanu. But I might at least work on my game or clean my bathroom while trying to work up the motivation to start writing.
Right, I don't think it's adressed to novelists or even people who would aspire to become regular novelists, just those with a will to write something and a taste for literature, and I think it's a good thing.
Killer Wolf
1235
I do a lot of writing on my own time as well, but the problem is that without any sense of deadline I start to meander. I entertain little asides that really don't have much place with the rest of the narrative's direction, I fold in new characters, I generally just dig around in what I've written for new directions. The sense of an external deadline, and the sense that I am competing against other people to produce something within that set limit helps keep me motivated.
Or not, considering the year I "won", I slacked off for half a month and wrote my book over the course of a few evenings.
I think anything that gets people to write something (hopefully) more complex than "im goin out 2 nite, u wanna hang? :D" can't be entirely bad. Who knows, perhaps a few of the people who try it on a whim, or just need a little kick to get started, end up discovering a passion for writing?
Or not, considering the year I "won", I slacked off for half a month and wrote my book over the course of a few evenings.
I think anything that gets people to write something (hopefully) more complex than "im goin out 2 nite, u wanna hang? :D" can't be entirely bad. Who knows, perhaps a few of the people who try it on a whim, or just need a little kick to get started, end up discovering a passion for writing?
I think NaNo is really just to give peeps a date. If peeps usually don't write or their lives are pretty busy, it can be used to say hey, you've had that idea for a while now, use November and get to writing. Granted, you can just do that any time of the year, but I think what helps people sometimes is being in it with a group. You know when you're writing on NaNo, other peeps are doing the same thing and you can go on their forums and talk about it. I think it's more community than anything else for most people.
I know I find myself enjoying NaNo far more when I do it with a group of people as a sort of contest between us. If I didn't have that, I don't think I would bother because I can do that any time of the year. However, having a time to sit down with peeps and write our novels and brag about what word number we're at now and laugh later at how terrible some of our drafts are, it's just fun.
And NaNo isn't really geared to give you a piece of art right away. It's just to get the basic idea down so you know what you have and can continue to perfect it during the year, etc.
I know I find myself enjoying NaNo far more when I do it with a group of people as a sort of contest between us. If I didn't have that, I don't think I would bother because I can do that any time of the year. However, having a time to sit down with peeps and write our novels and brag about what word number we're at now and laugh later at how terrible some of our drafts are, it's just fun.
And NaNo isn't really geared to give you a piece of art right away. It's just to get the basic idea down so you know what you have and can continue to perfect it during the year, etc.
psy_wombats
13315
author=Ronove
I know I find myself enjoying NaNo far more when I do it with a group of people as a sort of contest between us. If I didn't have that, I don't think I would bother because I can do that any time of the year. However, having a time to sit down with peeps and write our novels and brag about what word number we're at now and laugh later at how terrible some of our drafts are, it's just fun.
Yeah we should put together RMN word wars or something.
