NaNoWriMo
12National Novel Writing Month. http://nanowrimo.org
Have you done it... or tried to do it? Have you thought about trying?
It looks like a handful of mehtizens gave it a try last year, but I'm not sure if anyone finished out the month. (@foxborn? @jont? @joelmw?)
I've decided this is my year. Fiction isn't my thing. I'm not a great story-teller. November is a relatively busy month. But I'm pretty sure I can hammer out an average of 1700 crappy, loosely-related words every day. And the discipline of setting aside time to write, whether I feel inspired or not, is sure to do good things for me.
Anyone want to join me?
- 20 comments, 30 replies
- Comment
I just saw a meeting scheduled for this at my local library. Afraid I'm not good at writing. Or at least not good at ideas. I have writer's block before even starting.
@KDemo You're a good communicator, so you're probably a better writer than you think. Either way, you need not write well to write!
@christinewas - Thank you. It would be a great mental exercise, if I could come up with something. I'll try.
@KDemo Yay!
What a cool idea! I am tempted to try it, but I haven't felt terribly creative lately. But maybe a jump start like this would help.
@jaremelz That's what I'm thinking. Jump start. Work the muscles and maybe creativity will start to show up, somewhere along the way.
I fail that go round but did both summer sessions with a 10,000 word success on the second one. Have to skip Nano this year, I should be back for next year. though I had such a great summer session that my "cabin" reformed for the second one and ended up building a members only site for ourselves, though I have been too busy for that too
I did get Scrvener for 20$ though :)
@Foxborn Do you recommend?
@christinewas I haven't messed with it much, but if you look into novel and other types of writing software it's almost always top of the list and what poking around I've done with it I agree. I think if you do the Nano then you can get a 30 day free trial and even if you don't hit 50,000 words I think there is a discount. It's normally around 40$ for meeting my camp goal there was a 50% discount. Well worth it
@christinewas There's a special trial version that will last for the entire NaNoWriMo (until Dec 7th) and then you can purchase it for $20 afterward if you meet the goal.
https://www.literatureandlatte.com/nanowrimo.php
@christinewas I've been using Scrivener to write my dissertation for the past two years. I used to use Word and it is a huge improvement. Pretty much does everything I want it to - actually it does more than I want it to. I probably only use 40% of its features. It's a little complicated at first, but there are some great tutorials built in. I recommend it.
@mikey Thank you for this link! I was a little concerned about the 30 days, so this is perfect!
I've done it MANY times, used to ML for it in my college days. It's definitely worth it if you are at all inclined! I haven't decided if I have time this year, I freelance edit and have a dayjob on top of that. If I find time around clients, though, I'm going for it!
@Jamileigh17 I hope you can find time. Please let us know if you end up going for it again!
Is it just like "okay, write a novel starting... NOW. you've got a month" or are there prompts of some sort for people who have no idea how to write a novel?
@mikey They send Motivation, and its not all novels, there are rules for revisions plays poetry. you can even calculate serious research into your word count. I like the Camps better though, you have a "Cabin" to support you
@Foxborn I just signed up. What the hell. Worst case, I suck at writing. ;)
@mikey Even if november doesn't pan out check back for the summer writing camps, I like them a lot better, I think because you a group to help support you
@mikey woohoo!
I've tried the last 5 years or so, but still haven't finished once. November always ends up busier than I expect it to be. Or when I do have time I'm uninspired. Maybe this year will be my year.
Hmmm. Might, even tho my recently published novel is doing well.
(What pen name did i use? Robert Galbraith? Stephen King? John Grisham? Harper Lee? I forget...)
I have actually pondered taking this on in 2015. Anyone know any decent fiction writing app that works w Android? So the results can be pulled into Win Scrivener?
@f00l If you find something let me know 'cause I've been looking for something like that and haven't found any that peak my interest. I use officesuite Pro (free app of the day on amazon) save it to google drive (I think it takes drop box too) the get it off the pc and save it to Scrivener
@Foxborn
Re android:
If you search for "Scrivener" in Google Play Store, Jotterpad comes up, and has v nice user ratings. Have not used. Seems well designed and supported. Syncs to Dropbox. I don't know how well it autosaves, separates chapters, handles versioning, or anything.
Also don't how how easy it is to pull stuff in and out of Scrivener on a PC or Mac.
I hear from people who write that Scrivener and MS Word or clones are the gold standard on a traditional computer. People who used a trad word processing program and then tried Scrivener seem to mostly stick w Scrivener (among my friends). All of these programs will have learning curves and frustrations.
These programs and apps obviously must have sturdy "undo" functions, autosave, and ease of import/export.
Other possibilities might be Evernote, OneNote, and other note-taking programs. Again, learning curve and ease-of-use for this purpose q's. I am a total n00b.
OneNote will let you dictate into a note on Android. However, tho i find i great for short notes, it might be a total pain for fiction. Dunno.
Other programs might also accept dictated text entry for when you are driving or doing housework or whatever. Again, dunno.
Also have no knowledge of what's available on the IOS side of things.
I don't want to sound like one of the creepers at the mall handing out business cards to 19 year old girls, saying: "we're always looking for models", but...If you come up with a great story, we are always looking for good material that we publish as episodic literature (like television in book form), which goes through full editing, cover design and etc. by our team (all free).
Then after running as a series, it goes through another round of editing and we publish the series as a traditional book with royalty splits that are approximately opposite that of most publishers (in favor of the author). Over 90% of our series are offered a publishing contract after the series runs. www.bigworldnetwork.com
It shouldn't be hard to figure out who I am on the 'about' page, given my user name here, LOL. Good luck with your writing! NaNoWriMo is a fantastic motivational organization for writers.
@PilotJim Hahaha! Now that you've said that, I'm definitely picturing you as a creeper at the mall.
@christinewas Haha! I'm working on printing my 'modeling agent' business cards at this very moment! ;)
@PilotJim If the Name isn't enough the photo seals the deal LOL
@PilotJim Sounds tremendously similar to what our @Pavlov does a lot of, but he does video/film, not print. Rev share is a big part of his business and he too cuts in favor of the artist.
Has anyone here started a book during the project month, and either finished it or is still working on it, and believes they have something good?
I'm sure Dickens and Nora Roberts could turn out compelling stuff quickly and under pressure. What about us newbies and non-professionals?
@f00l I'm still working on the sci-fi novel I started during NaNoWriMo 2013. It's currently up to 18k. Turns out I'm an extremely slow writer and was unable to hit the daily recommended word count, even on the days that I took off from work to write :(
Today I finally did some serious work on the Novel, which was mostly transferring the first three chapters into Scrivener, which I like so far, because it allows me to keep notes and remember stuff in the Novel, but honestly, during NaNoWriMo, the only way to survive is to just churn out words and don't look back. Something that you can access from your computer, laptop, phone, etc. will serve you better in adding a couple dozen words here and there. I wrote on my bus commute on my phone.
Good luck ya'll!
Edit: I used Google Docs during NaNoWriMo, it also allowed me to have a short list of people who read it during the month and left me nice notes. Would recommend.
Nah, there's just so much pron and so little time.
I've tried a few times. Thought I might and never started a few others. Damnit, kid, you gonna make me do something else I decided I don't ever want to do (in this case, again)?
I feel your pain on the fiction thing. But I think it's time for me to start working on my own more-or-less true story. Should be good therapy if nothing else.
Yeah, I'm in. No guarantees how far I'll get, but I should be good for a few earnest and frustrated days at least.
I logged in and created my novel for this year. I've got the same username there as here, yaknow, so you can mock my eventual failure.
http://nanowrimo.org/participants/joelmw/novels
I'm JonT's writing buddy from last year.
@joelmw as joelmw, writing the story of joelmw:
The November SCRIBEdelivery box is Nanowrimo themed. I love the concept of it.
Seriously considering this. I've never done it before, but wanted to. I never followed through on my dream of writing. Maybe this will be the kick in the pants I need.
Last year's thread.
I'm going to low-key try this year. I really struggled finding inspiration but I think this year I'll have some tools to help me. ;)
Feel free to add me as a writing buddy, if you are interested:
http://nanowrimo.org/participants/christinewas
(@pitamuffin, @hollboll, @kdemo, @jaremelz, @metaphore, @f00l, @mikey, @Jamileigh17... other people)
@christinewas - If I can focus in that direction, I definitely will. Thank you!!
Wait, you have a month to write a novel?? That's novel.
@christinewas
Weeeeellllll....
maybe i'm going to do it. Or maybe i'm going to cheer everyone else on toward lotsa words.
Undecided. No login yet at that site. For some no doubt irrational reason the whole twitter/announce/contract this skeeves me out even tho i accept that the psychological impetus is valid.
@KDemo It's more like a novella, only 50000 words, about 30 pages. A page a day isn't that bad. Think about all those 12 page essays written in a night. You can do it!
I gave in. I was going to work on finishing off an old project or 3, (I have enough unfinished WIPS I just need to bash the ends out on. I detest endings) until I was watching Doctor Who yesterday, and there was a quote of the Christina Rossi poem "Goblin Market". Combined with a conversation a friend and I were having about gender roles/classism, it set off a plot bunny. So, er, new story in progress, pantsing it, and we'll see where it goes!
@Jamileigh17 Sounds exciting! I still don't know what I am writing (havent started yet), but I do know that I will be starting something new. Happy writing!
Day one word count: 1808. Yeah, baby!
@joelmw I will rejoice in the small triumphs.
@joelmw Woo hoo! You're on a winning streak!