Nano Shmamo
...and if you're inspired by those Booker prizewinners to finally write that novel, November is the time to start.
Once again it will be NANOWRIMO or, for the uninitiated, National (well, international really) Novel Writing Month. The challenge is to write at least 50,000 words of a novel between 1st and 30th November 2006.
October is preparation month. You can plan your plot and your characters and whatever else you need or want to do in advance - or you can make no preparations at all, it's up to you - but the rules say you can't start actually writing until 1st Nov. Then you go hell for leather to get it down while being egged on and egging others on to do the same via the online forums and at face to face meetings and write-ins in your own area.
It's a liberating process - no time to think about what you're writing - just go with the flow and see where your creativity takes you. Time enough to edit and correct in the other 11 months of the year (just what I'm trying to do now with my last year's attempt.)
Last year was my first nano - I went into it with no idea what I was going to write, and the first couple of weeks I produced nowhere near the target figure. But as the month went on the bug bit, a plot began to emerge from my ramblings and my natural competitiveness induced me to actually complete the 50k.
This year I'm better organised - I actually have a plot and some brief notes to guide me. Can't wait to get started.
Oh, one final and very important point: nobody but you has to see what you've written (although you can share it if you want to). And it really doesn't matter if you don't make the 50K - whatever number of words you manage, those are words that you might never have written otherwise. It gets you writing, it gets you creating, you've nothing to lose - and you might even end up with a publishable novel.
So what are you waiting for? You can sign up now at www.nanowrimo.org
Good luck - and leave a comment here if you sign up, with your usename - then we can all sign up as writing buddies. My usename is Nicki Picki - feel free to add me to your profile page.
See you there?
Once again it will be NANOWRIMO or, for the uninitiated, National (well, international really) Novel Writing Month. The challenge is to write at least 50,000 words of a novel between 1st and 30th November 2006.
October is preparation month. You can plan your plot and your characters and whatever else you need or want to do in advance - or you can make no preparations at all, it's up to you - but the rules say you can't start actually writing until 1st Nov. Then you go hell for leather to get it down while being egged on and egging others on to do the same via the online forums and at face to face meetings and write-ins in your own area.
It's a liberating process - no time to think about what you're writing - just go with the flow and see where your creativity takes you. Time enough to edit and correct in the other 11 months of the year (just what I'm trying to do now with my last year's attempt.)
Last year was my first nano - I went into it with no idea what I was going to write, and the first couple of weeks I produced nowhere near the target figure. But as the month went on the bug bit, a plot began to emerge from my ramblings and my natural competitiveness induced me to actually complete the 50k.
This year I'm better organised - I actually have a plot and some brief notes to guide me. Can't wait to get started.
Oh, one final and very important point: nobody but you has to see what you've written (although you can share it if you want to). And it really doesn't matter if you don't make the 50K - whatever number of words you manage, those are words that you might never have written otherwise. It gets you writing, it gets you creating, you've nothing to lose - and you might even end up with a publishable novel.
So what are you waiting for? You can sign up now at www.nanowrimo.org
Good luck - and leave a comment here if you sign up, with your usename - then we can all sign up as writing buddies. My usename is Nicki Picki - feel free to add me to your profile page.
See you there?
posted by Nicki at 4:29 PM
7 Comments:
This is my third year for NaNo and I'm getting so excited.
It is so wonderful to write for the joy of writing. No editors. No expectations. Just writing.
I hope you have a wonderful November.
Darilyn
(Speedbump on the NaNo board)
yeah, I'm in. Failed two years ago. Good luck to everyone!
Arthur_Indy in Nano.
Hi to both of you.
ts - I do so agree that it's a liberating thing, at least to think about - when I started the writing last year I found it was nothing less than tyrannical at first, forcing me to write when I didn't really want to. But once I wrote myself through that phase then it began to flow - couldn't shut my writing demon up!
arthur - go for it! hope you succeed this year.
Good luck in November to everybody brave enough to try!
Okay, against my better judgement, I'm gonna do it. I'm signing up. I'll let you know how it goes.
Welcome to writers blog, stewart - and to NaNo. Good luck with your first attempt!
I signed up. Mamalujo.
I will do this next year as I'm preparing myself to write my first novel starting January, and I don't want to waste my 'energy' until then. (I'm actually going to try and get a first draft done in 2 months a la the writequickly.com *methodology*. If I fluff my lines and nothing useful is written before November, then I will go for it.)
Good luck to everyone.
By the way, I've got a similar blog to this one (write1stnovel.blogspot.com) and have just updated it so you can add labels to your postings. It makes for a much better read, in my humble opinion, and I recommend you go with Blogger Beta, if you have time.
Tara
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