NaNoWriMo 2009

[Amethyst Star]

Alright! NaNoWriMo is upon us again, at least those of us who feel like dedicating November to writing 50,000 words of an original work of fiction. Basically that's all there is to National Novel Writing Month, and I encourage anyone and everyone to join in. If you love to write, this is a great chance for you to write more. If you don't know if you like writing, this is a perfect opportunity to find out. If you've ever wanted to write a novel but just didn't get around to it, now is the time! NaNoWriMo isn't about coming up with a magically perfect novel, but rather about sitting yourself down, designing your story, and then vomiting words onto the page in a reasonably coherent form. It's about writing words that weren't there previously, and even if you don't make it to 50,000 words during November, what you have is more than 0, which can be a big accomplishment for some people. There's a thrill in seeing the number of pages filled with text increase as you discover more about your characters and the world inside your head. There's always time to make a story perfect later, but you have to write it first. 15 days left. Last year was my first year participating and this year I'm pretty stoked! I made it to 50K last year, but then put that novel away due to complete loss of interest in finishing it. This year, my goal is not only to write 75K, but more so to actually finish this novel. Now that I've finished the book I wanted to read, I'm focusing more on my outline. Last year I was considering trying to write a noir comedy, but then a different idea popped into my head after watching far too much Criminal Minds and then inserting Heroes into the mix. So, I'm back to my usual genre of urban fantasy. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully L (my currently unnamed female main character with the single letter as a placeholder) will be more cooperative than last year's main character. Anyway, www.nanowrimo.org. There's a forum on there where you can talk to thousands of other writers, bounce ideas off of each other, whine when the story isn't writing itself, and cheer when things are going better than expected. I'm there as Amethyst Star as well. Join! It's awesome!

[Kiza]

Beat me to it. I'm going to be doing this SO HARD. Last year, I started ten days late and only got 20,000 words down. I've had a heap of novel ideas going through my head the last few days, including something tentatively titled Professor Pterodactyl and the Vampires (which is exactly what you think its about), and a semi-serious satire kind of thing somewhat akin to Idiocracy. I'd just like to encourage anyone on the edge to attempt this. It's a wonderful experience, even if you don't get to 50k.

[Man of Steel]

I'm seriously on the fence this year. I barely got a start last year due to laziness, writer's block, and time. This year I'm going to have even less time. So probably a pass for me this year, but I look forward to reading y'alls' writing! (You still need to send me that 'unfinished' piece, Ames!)

[Amethyst Star]

So probably a pass for me this year, but I look forward to reading y'alls' writing! (You still need to send me that 'unfinished' piece, Ames!) Shoot! You're right. I'll do that now before I forget. And I have discovered that the coffee shop across the street should be a satisfactory location to work on my novel. They're going to be seeing a lot of me next month... and my money.

[Taosaur]

Hmmm, I've been thinking about it this year. I've made a couple attempts in the last few years and always gone off the rails within the first two weeks This year though, things are pretty well aligned for me to find the time and have a word processor near at hand, if I can just come up with a 50,000 word idea. The only hitches are a birthday, Turkey Day and a baby shower that might involve traveling and very little writing.

[panta-rei]

I'll be doing this. Most likely. As long as I manage not to start yet... Which may be a problem.

[Amethyst Star]

One week!! Ah! *works on outline*

[Taosaur]

I have something percolating in the back room now, so I might just get in on some NaNo action.

[GestaltAlteration]

Well here I am, year four of NaNoWriMo. I failed last year due to inexplicable depression during the period that cut me short at 35,000 words. I doubt I'll have that issue this November but I have a potentially bigger stumbling block. Four big tests coming up are all happening between November 2nd to the 7th (and yes, I have started studying for them already). In fact this hellish school semester has kept me so incredibly busy I haven't had time to get hyped for this event in the least, which previously I'd do a long time in advance. So it could be only 23 days to write 50,000 words. Plus that's ignoring tests that will no doubt creep up near the end of November. There's no question that I'll still attempt but from where I'm sitting now the odds are against me.

[Kiza]

Aaaaaaand here we go. In Australia, at least. Just a little note, as well: my blog for my novel is http://sweatydoingstarjumps.blogspot.com/, in case anyone wants to read 50,000 words of incoherent bullshit about some people taking a road trip into the centre of Australia to see Jesus. In case of that. I'm gonna be posting my writing day by day there, so I have it back-uped if I lose the file or some stupid ass thing like that. So mostly it's for my own benefit, but yeah, go ahead and read it if you want.

[Snowy Egypt]

All week I told myself I'd get everything ready and plan out all of November. It is now Halloween. So, I now will be spending the last 3 or so hours of Halloween preparing, and then as soon as my clock hits midnight, it's writing time! Hopefully this year will be better than last year. Not that it wasn't fun for my 1st time, but I only got to 300 or so words.

[GestaltAlteration]

I think I finally know what I'm writing about. Maybe... >_>; It involves mind reading like Ame's story teehee.

[Amethyst Star]

2 more hours until the mahem begins! Ahh! I don't know if I'll start at midnight, though, as my thoughts might be a little incoerrent, but who knows. We'll see. *really wishes lesson plans were done so she could write all day tomorrow* And testing to see if this word-count graph works here... I'll see if it shows up eventually.

[panta-rei]

Excited~ I've got ten hours. I'm dropping whatever I am doing and starting writing.

[Kiza]

So I just figured out I did like 15 words per minute this morning. That is totally WAY too slow. But still, even if it did take an hour and 50 minutes, 1700 words is down.

[Amethyst Star]

Word counts anyone? Day 3 and I'm up to 8192. Headed to bed soon, but I'll probably try to make 8500 to keep up the little cushion I've been working on. I know Delph was saying you've already passed 6000. Anyone else? EDIT: And yes, I am procrastinating from my writing. It's just after 11pm, so I'll be heading to bed soon.

[panta-rei]

Third day and I'm at 7100 abouts. I'm a little unmotivated.

[Kiza]

Start of day 5, and I'm on 12500. I've got nothing on today, so if I'm lucky I can get 3000 or 4000 words down.

[Abra]

*Clicked on this thread, expected to see actual discussion about composition, saw word count posts instead, died a little inside.*

[Kiza]

I've begun to find that my writing process consists of sitting at the computer then writing the most ridiculous things I can. I had an outline done up, but that totally didn't work out, so I guess now my characters are dressing up as doctors to break their friends out of hospital. Oh well. (Composition!)

[Bearsy]

I have all the time in the world (minus ~6 days) so I'm gonna make an attempt this time... I'll post back periodically.

[Lëzen]

I'm not sure why, but when I first saw the title, something in my brain assumed this was about some kind of anime con or something. Dunno what I was thinking, but it scared me away from the thread until now. I might look into this somewhat, but probably won't get too involved this year. (I have a Flash class, so I'll need to dedicate a bulk of my time to my projects.)

[Man of Steel]

Kiza, how did Mike get his appendix out twice?

[Kiza]

Ohhhhhhhh shit. Well that's a glaring continuity error. I guess I'll try to fix it up in editing, but to go back and fix it up now would be going against the spirit of NaNo, so I'll keep forging ahead.

[Man of Steel]

Ohhhhhhhh shit. Well that's a glaring continuity error. I guess I'll try to fix it up in editing, but to go back and fix it up now would be going against the spirit of NaNo, so I'll keep forging ahead. Yarp. I thought maybe you hadn't noticed, because you write like I write. So, Kiza has inspired me. I can do tons of meaninglessfull dialog and witty but strange plot twists and nonsensical story direction! So, yeah. Starting a thread soon, because y'all can help motivate me better than my blog.