NaNoWriMo

I shall be doing it again. Sucker for punishment that I am.

Oh God. Has it really come round again? I'm very tempted to actually do it this year. Very tempted.

I think that is a great initiative - but do post your pieces on here too! I love to read them as they come along and I'm sure many others do too.

i can see myself doing it again for the 3rd year on the trot got an idea of a story involving message boards/stalking you can audition for a character on this thread :-)

Can't again. Too much other stuff to do. Really enjoyed nanowrimo the year before last, and I'm hoping to do it again next year.

I might do it this year. In fact I think I will.

hurray!

I might give it a go... am encouraged by the talk of gagging the inner editor, but I think perhaps I could do with letting him have his head more often.

this is going to be nightmare time for the Editors on here (mainly me) but please please do post them on here as well - I love to watch them grow!

Can anyone who has tried it in previous years talk us through what happens/how was it for you? What did you gain from it? Did you get your book published/self published at the end of it all? Were there any other benefits besides the feeling of being part of a community effort which might inspire you to keep going? What was the quality of your writing like, when cranked out at such speed? Any pitfalls to avoid? Any lessons learned? Anything you did then that you would do differently now? What did you learn about yourself (a) as a person (b) as a writer? Did you start with a blank page on day one or had you already plotted your novel, possibly even written the opening chapter? How did you feel at the end of it all? Sorry to ask so many questions but it would be really interesting to hear what people's experiences were, if they have the time to describe them.

i've done it twice, in order to satisfy the wordcount god, you basically have to write without editing, just blast out the words, I tended to have a lot of dialogue which padded out the story. Has it made me a better writer, it's given me a lot more confidence. I haven't done anythign with either of the books, I keep meaning to go back to them and edit them. but put it off, then November comes around and i'm off on another odyssey.

is the nano site excessively slow at the moment?

It's always slow, especially when America's awake. They're doing remarkably well this year - normally it's fallen over in a big heap by now.

aargh it is murderously frustrating ... how does anyone put up with it long enough to write a novel? i doubt that it does actually work ...

It does normally get a bit better by November (but nearly always crashes in the wee hours of the 1st when everybody updates their wordcounts before going to bed) Since writing the novel is the thing you do when you are *not* looking at the website, I wonder if they don't do it deliberately.

Thanks for the answers Martin and Maddan. Really interesting.

Can anyone who has tried it in previous years talk us through what happens/how was it for you? Sure. I wanted to write my own comments before reading anyone else's so excuse me if I repeat things others have said. What did you gain from it? Did you get your book published/self published at the end of it all? I managed the 50k words, and I managed to get to 'The End' (of the story that is). But no, I never considered publication. Were there any other benefits besides the feeling of being part of a community effort which might inspire you to keep going? Loads. I loved it. My girlfriend and others thought it was a bit of a weird thing to be doing ("But what's the POINT?", etc), but I was mostly left to get on with it. It was fantastic to write every day. It made me wish I was a proper writer so I could write all day every day. Oh - and don't undervalue the community. Those forums there (when the website's up to speed) are great, and the meet-ups are good too. It's a good thing to be part of. What was the quality of your writing like, when cranked out at such speed? Below par, as you'd expect. A few good moments, though. Any pitfalls to avoid? Too many to mention. Anything that counts as distracting. One thing in particular though, as advice, is to make sure you storm the first few days, to build up a buffer. Then just make sure you stay ahead of the 1,667 words a day. I imagine it's more fun than having to write 10,000 words on the last day. Any lessons learned? Anything you did then that you would do differently now? No, I'm actually worried I won't be able to emulate what I did last year well enough. It went really well (in retrospect). What did you learn about yourself (a) as a person (b) as a writer? About myself? No. About me as a writer? Perhaps. (Mad)Dan said I wouldn't be able to it because my writing style doesn't lend itself to longer pieces. In truth, I thought he was right, and it played on my mind a lot that month. It was an added pressure that made it especially sweet to finish (*ahem* and finish before Dan..) Did you start with a blank page on day one or had you already plotted your novel, possibly even written the opening chapter? You're not "allowed" to have pre-written any part of the story, and I hadn't. I had a few story arcs in mind, all of which came in handy. I made most of it up as I went along, as I usually do when I write. How did you feel at the end of it all? I think that might be the wrong question. During it, I felt great. It sounds stupid but it was really exhilarating. I fell in love with writing on a daily basis, even if what I wrote that day wasn't very good. I woke up one day knowing I'd finish in the evening and spend the whole day thrilled at the thought. Then, when it was over, it was a little anti-climatic. I fell asleep, because it was late. But a couple of days later, when it had sunk in, I really felt quite proud. The story was poorly written, but basically sound and coherent. My sister enjoyed it. There was a lot in there to lift and use elsewhere. And, most importantly, I'd written 50,000 words in less than a month. And that's a lot of words. Why not do it and see for yourself? Enzo.. www.thedevilbetweenus.com

Cheers Enzo. I'm weighing it up. I've just checked my typing speed and can manage about 75 words in a minute which means perhaps 4,000 in an hour. So in theory it could be done over an intensive weekend. The result would of course be unreadable garbage. But there again no one else need see it and I would have a sense of achievement, possibly. It's a tough call.

By the way Enzo thanks for such a detailed answer. Very illuminating.

right if nothing else has convinced me it was this comment from ben "I fell in love with writing on a daily basis, even if what I wrote that day wasn't very good. " has convinced me ... cheers ben xxx

It sounds like great fun. I might give it a go, although I've already written one book this Summer and am already shattered (I'm editing now - in fact, task at hand is to find out how much water is used by this country every day to flush the toilet after you've had a wee.) But the writing every day is the fun part - I'm always saying that. Editing is not so fun. Do it fish! And everyone else. Ben, can I read last year's effort? Is it on here? Drew http://www.frontlinebooks.co.uk/frontline/viewBlogPost.asp?postID=2094

hm, it's not easy to find the figures - I've worked it out myself - 880,000,000 litres of water a day wasted. Does that sound right? I also found out that there is the same amount of water on the planet now as when the dinosaurs lived. Obvious, but a nice fact. How much space would 880,000,000 litres of water take up? If you put it in a big box?

No idea how big the box would be but think how much water would be saved if everyone used a water hippo: http://www.hippo-the-watersaver.co.uk/ Even a brick in the cistern would do the job. (Nanowrimo much too daunting for me at the mo... too many time-consuming kids to deal with plus it's taken me about 10 years to write 3 chapters of a novel which I recently binned :) But will be interested to see how everyone fares.)

it does make you fall in love with writing - it also makes you obsessed with it, i was writing at work and emailing myself stuff at home, writing on my mobile phone at bus stops, carrying around notebooks just in case i thought of something else, some of the sadder amongst us, even had excel spreadsheets recording the word count daily and how behind or ahead of schedule we were the fist year i finished with about a week to spare, the second year i had a couple of days to spare, there are some obsessives on there who manage about 150,000 words or so, when i got to 50,000 i stopped straight away, although i was near the end of the story so tidied it up so it made a little more sense

I think I might sign up... No harm in giving it a go, eh? pe ps oid What is "the art of tea"? And what does an "odd courgette" look like?

I'm trying to convince myself that I don't want to do this, but I am really tempted. Might do a series of short stories and not a novel, as all I've been doing for months is the novel I just 'finished'. Anyone else going for it? Lisa

Nearly there! Everyone still in? pe ps oid What is "the art of tea"? And what does an "odd courgette" look like?

Yeah, I'm in. I've got plot problems though. The biggest problem is that I've only got half a plot. It turned out I'd unconsciously stolen the other half of the plot from a Brautigan novel. Another problem is that I've got a baby that likes to stay up until after 11pm, which seriously eats into daddy's-pretending-to-be-a-writer time.

I've got no plot (so to speak), no title, nothing! Thought I'd go for the blank slate approach... ;) pe ps oid What is "the art of tea"? And what does an "odd courgette" look like?

I'd sort of got a title and half a plot worked out and then I suddenly find myself facing loads of extra work in November so writing a novel is probably not practical. Good luck to everyone who signs up. It would be fascinating to hear how you are all faring during the month, so I can enjoy the experience by proxy.

How about trying a NaNoWri2Mo or sommat, broosh? pe ps oid What is "the art of tea"? And what does an "odd courgette" look like?

What's that peps?

i'm doing it this year ... i've got my idea ... i've already been warned not to bore my friends to death ...

That would be "Write a novel in 2 months," broosh. :) pe ps oid What is "the art of tea"? And what does an "odd courgette" look like?

Ta Peps, but it wouldn't be quite the same. Fish you wouldn't be boring me. I really am fascinated by the idea of people writing novels. We should start a separate thread on it, so people can update everyone on their progress. That's assuming anyone else besides me is interested.

My progress (or lack thereof) will be blogged here: http://nano07.wordpress.com/ So far I've written a little about NaNo but more about Dragons' Den & Bringing Up Baby, which wasn't really the point. But from tomorrow, I'll be posting up what I NaNoWrite each day, for better or, more likely, for worse. It's tough to read much during NaNo, but last year I followed a couple of other 'Talers through most of the month. I'm sure they'll be posting their work somewhere this year too, either on here or elsewhere - and I'm very curious about what Fish is going to write... Good luck to all participants, only an hour and a bit to go!

I know I'm being more than usually thick, but where do you actually post what you write on NaNoWriMo? On the novel excerpts bit?

where do you actually post what you write on NaNoWriMo? Wherever you want, or nowhere if you prefer.