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I know a lot of people here are into reading, and I’m sure more than a few of you enjoy writing on some level, but how many of you would like to write a novel some day?  NaNoWriMo, short for National Novel Writing Month, is a challenge that will push you towards making that happen.

The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in 1 month.

From their official site:

What is NaNoWriMo?

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that’s a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.

In 2007, we had over 100,000 participants. More than 15,000 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.

Its an overwhelming amount to write in such a short period of time, but that’s what makes it so much fun. I attempted it last year but got no where near the finish line. This year I’m gonna try again and really push myself, I’ve already started planning my story and have a writing schedule planned. Of course, you can always wing it if you want!

Anyone else interested? We could all add each other as friends and keep an eye on how far one another have gotten.

http://www.nanowrimo.org

Good for you trying to write a Novel in a month!!!!

I might be interested since it’s more about quantity…I don’t have to worry so much with drafts and re-writes.  My main problem is that most of my story ideas are conceived as comics/graphic novels and are somewhat dependent on the imagery and comic book tradition (as far as pacing, scene set-ups and scene-outs blah blah blah)...so I’m sifting through ideas trying to see if I have anything that would be workable as a novel.  I think it’s a great idea…I really want to try this!

I actually tried doing this last year, but nothing ever came of it. I considered giving it another go this year, but I just don’t know… I’m not as imaginative as I’d like to think I am, and I’m self-critical to a fault. It’s really difficult for me to write something and not immediately start picking it apart. I can barely write even a paragraph of prose without over thinking it the the point of giving up entirely. Still, who’s to say? This would probably be good for me. I need to learn to get it all on paper before I revise anything.

I might be more willing to try if you guys did it too. It sounds like fun.

kelleynotlp1 - 15 October 2009 02:39 PM

I might be interested since it’s more about quantity…I don’t have to worry so much with drafts and re-writes.  My main problem is that most of my story ideas are conceived as comics/graphic novels and are somewhat dependent on the imagery and comic book tradition (as far as pacing, scene set-ups and scene-outs blah blah blah)...so I’m sifting through ideas trying to see if I have anything that would be workable as a novel.  I think it’s a great idea…I really want to try this!

I have the same problem except my ideas are usually geared towards movies, but you know what? smurfin it. Once the month is over you can go about re-writing and editing if you want to, but during the month the focus on quantity is what matters. It requires a surprising amount of discipline to keep writing even though you know the last paragraph was dog shit, but its a discipline that is applicable to anything creative and its really worth exercising.

My story idea is about two 12 year old best friends and their families, with each family member having their own retarded side story which twists and ties together (hopefully). Basically, I wanted to make it as broad and expandable as possible and keep it fun to write.

Yes, I believe I’m going to do this.  I found my idea…it was actually an idea I pitched to Freddy as a screenplay I wanted to write and bounce ideas off of him but I think I’ll try to write it for this.  It’s my own take on vampires (before you groan, just wait…) sort of an anti-twilight.  No one’s beautiful and no one’s in love and there are no scads of vampire families trying not to eat people.  I’m excited to get it out there.  See, cuz I love vampires but I hate almost EVERYTHING that has been written or created about them.

Just a reminder to people that this starts in a few days!

Your idea sounds good Kelley, if only for the fact that I completely agree with you. Outside of The Lost Boys there are almost no vampire movies that do the monster justice. I had a similar idea to grit up vampires in a movie where the majority of the Vampire population are homeless and drug addicts because they are the easiest targets to drink and turn.

My idea has changed from a quirky suburban slice of life story to an all out John Waters-esque sexploitation comedy. Its gonna be so smurfin stupid, I can’t wait to start writing it.

My user name is “arjue” on the nanowrimo site, if any of you attempt this please add me as a buddy so I can see how you’re going.

I’m a two time Nano-failure. I got something like 12,000 words the first year and then totally crapped the bed the next with just over 2,000. I’m probably going to crap out again seeing as every one of my classes this semester has a paper due in two weeks; English Lit, 4 pgs; Russian, 2 pgs; Comparative Religion, 5 pgs; and Existential Philosophy, 11 pgs.

Therefore, I’m cheating and using a story I’ve started already, I just won’t count the words I’ve written. It’s set a few months after the zombie apocalypse, and my MC is a chick who walks to Hollywood to find the star of her favorite zombie movie just for something to do. It starts with her finding him in his house and he’s completely inept and a coward. I guess it’ll end up being the book version of a road movie—I haven’t really figured out the plot yet. And I’m using the traditional slow zombie. I’m not a fan of these sentient ghouls everyone seems to have a hard-on for.

And, that’s right Kelley—take back vampires! If anyone can be trusted to right the wrongs of Mormon housewives it’s you. When you actually respect the genre and the legends, you can’t go wrong.

C.A.Ingraham - 30 October 2009 02:06 AM

And I’m using the traditional slow zombie. I’m not a fan of these sentient ghouls everyone seems to have a hard-on for.

And, that’s right Kelley—take back vampires! If anyone can be trusted to right the wrongs of Mormon housewives it’s you. When you actually respect the genre and the legends, you can’t go wrong.

I also like the slow zombies.  I mean, the fast ones are alright too when they’re done right but it takes something away from them being dead I think.  They seem less dead.  I like my zombies good and clearly dead.

As for my vampire story, thanks for the words of support.  I worked out my opening scene/prologue in my head last night in great detail (I wish I could start writing now, lol)...I’m hoping to pull off some disturbing stuff.  You know, my story isn’t really anything groundbreaking; I’m not trying to do anything new with the vampire legend but I am hoping to tell a good scary, vicious vampire story with no glitz and any and all vampire sexuality is ugly and shameful.  Actually there are only two vampires even in this story (although there are other things that are close, sort of ghoul/vampires…well, you’ll see) and I’m going to try and avoid using the word “vampire” altogether.  I don’t think real vampires would go around saying, “Hey guys!  Look, I’m a VAMpire!

I will take vampires back…for all of us.

I just signed up.  My username is kelleyk

So I started my nanowrimo novel today and I am 1,414 words into it.  50,000 words divided by 30 days works out to be 1,666 words a day so for the first half of my first day I think I’m doing pretty good!

I don’t think NaNoWriMo is in the cards for me this year, unfortunately.

Well, that’s okay.  It’s sort of something you kinda have to be ready to do and if you don’t have time to kinda schedule writing time I think it would be tough to just “jump into” and hope to get a lot out of it.  I have hours every day where I don’t really have to do anything so there’s no schedule to rearrange but I can see if you’re in school and or working it would be very tough.  Maybe next year?

Next year, maybe. I actually wrote around 700 words anyway, but I burned out pretty fast. Dunno. We’ll see what happens.

You guys gonna post excerpts?

I’m giving the first two days of the month a miss, but I’m going to be working on a languishing project that’s got ten thousand words to it already.

I started it a day late due to other commitments so I’m about 1200 words behind. It was a reaaaaaally awful and slow start but once I got into the swing of things it was fun. I planned the basic plots and characters, but I completely forgot about figuring out how I to start it.

As for posting excerpts, I haven’t really written anything worth posting yet but I’ll try and post up some of the more retarded moments as they are written. None of it will be particularly well written as none of it is revised and I’m writing in a kind of stream of conciousness way, and I’m simply not good enough at writing to be able to do that well.