Hi Everyone,

I was reading about NaNoWriMo earlier today and it got me wondering whether anyone is planning to sign up for it this year (it's the write 50,000 words of your novel in a month event)? Has anyone done it before? I am wondering whether it is beneficial or not. I like to edit as I go along and can't imagine what I'd end up with if I just wrote 50,000 words straight.

What are your thoughts on NaNoWriMo? Is it worth doing or a hindrance to producing decent work?

Dianne

Confessing my ignorance - I've heard of it, but don't know anything about it. How does it work? And how the blue blazes can they get 50,000 words out of someone that fast? I'm thinking illegal substances here, it's the only thing that might work for me ...

Hi,

I might do it for fun. The only people I know who've completed it praise it highly. They also say you don't get a readable novel from it but that that isn't the point. The benefits they've mentioned are: to get into the swing of writing a lot every day; to switch off that killer inner critic; to test your mental stamina for a longer piece of work and to have fun, which we can sometimes forget in the worthy fight to make it.

I've been warned however, by someone I trust, not to write something you care deeply about on Nano, as you'll ether give up because it's not up to standard or you'll finish it and be sad that it is so rough. So, taking this advice, I quite fancy just sitting down on day one with no thought in my head and seeing where the story starts.

Anyone else up for it?

I don't think I have the personality for this. But good luck to anyone who attempts it!

I know people who got their NaNo novel published, but it's rare. As Cherys says, it probably works best if you're really casual and throw-away about it - which is the whole idea.

A friend who considered herself an absolutely die-hard short ficker, did a NaNo bit of rubbish (at my suggestion, I might say with extreme smugness) and sent her short fic to an agent. Agent looked at her short fic and said, 'Can't sell short fic but could this one be a novel?' and because of NaNo the friend could say Yes. And has.

This is my take:

http://emmadarwin.typepad.com/thisitchofwriting/2008/08/lonely-obsessive-and-slightly-nuts-and-thats-a-bad-thing.html

Emmq

Thanks for the input. It sounds like NaNoWriMo isn't what I'm looking for at the moment. I'm about to start work on an historical fiction and plan to do some serious work on it this autumn so I may give NaNoWriMo a miss. I need to plan and edit as I go to have something worthwhile and I wouldn't be able to do it this way. Guess I'll just set my own daily word target to spur me on.

Dianne

yeah i've signed up and i intend to publish the work i produce from it.

Bearing in mind this competition is just a way of getting the work done - or at least started - it will take months afterwards to knock the book into shape.

Yep, I've signed up for this.
I did this last year unofficially and got just over 40000 words out of it and I thought it was great fun.
Keeping the same frame of mind for this year and hoping to get the 50k+ by the end of the month.
Roll on Nov 1!!

I'm taking part again for the third year

It's not just a case of writing 50k words, though; there has to be a story with a beginning/middle/end. I did it last year and hit the target. Half of it was junk,, but the rest of it was the bones of a story that I can build into a novel. I'm still working on it, very slowly because I have other interests in my life now and I gave up dreaming about being published ages ago, so there's no rush.

If you can think of it as splurging out the basis of a plot, then it's well worth doing - and it's enormous fun. Stay out of the forums, though... they are deadly serious in there!

Dee

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Good luck, Tanya!

why don't you join Fast First Draft instead? I found the idea of NaNoWriMo a bit much, but did 60,000 words in two months without much difficulty. And the finished article, though it needs plenty of work, is quite readable!

It's a halfway house - switches off the inner critic but it's less pressured

I am doing NaNo this year, my second year, but this year I'm not doing it by the book (no pun intended) cos I am finishing my WIP, which strictly you're not supposed to do, rather than starting a new one. But if I reach 50k this year I won't claim it (I did reach it last year, and claimed it legitimately).

(Great ad. Freebird!!! x)

Hey, I've got a great idea - how about all you NaNo-ers come and join us in Fast First Draft so we can share our NaNo experiences as they happen. Post daily word counts etc.

Come and have a look at the group and see if you feel tempted....

Deb

Deb, that's a really good idea. Much more manageable than the Nano forums. You can spend hours trying to buddy someone you know from WW anyway! Much better use of time to use WW as the pep-talking/time out coffee-chat room.

Yes, good idea, Deb, I've just joined. The nano website does look rather vast. It's all so much clearer here.