First up, I can tell you right now, despite my criticisms the general idea of NaNoWriMo is sound. I officially started MOCKINGBIRD at the front of October and I am now 60,000 words deep — and I’ve still got a week left in the month. Further, I don’t really write much on weekends. So, like I said: doable. That being said, it’s maybe kinda sorta important to note that writing is my job. Like, my full-time I-spend-all-my-hours-bleeding-imagination-juice-on-the-page job.
(Also worth the reference: I dunno if you saw, but the Mighty Matt Forbeck is doing his “12-for-12” project, meaning, 12 novels in 12 months. An impressive and, even for me, mind-boggling endeavor.)
Whatever the case, National Novel Writing Month is nearly upon us, a great heaving swarm of hungry writers getting ready to attack their stories with rabid creativity and wanton penmonkey lunacy.
So, the questions I have are these:
Who out there is doing NaNoWriMo this year?
Who’s done it before?
How did you prepare for it, and what happened to those novels that you completed?
What were your experiences?
What are your thoughts?
Any wisdom to pass down to future participants?
Like it? Love it? Hate it?
Discuss.
(Oh, and as a generally shameless point-of-pimpage, I should advise you that the current Penmonkey Promotion — wherein you buy one of the PENMONKEY books and get 250 THING YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT WRITING — ends at the close of October. Details here.)
Robyn says:
I’ve done it twice, and I absolutely love it — the comeraderie, the productivity, the winning… but I don’t think I’m going to do it this year (I didn’t think I was going to do it last year at this time, either, though). The last thing I need around here is another unedited novel. My November is going to be NaNoEdMo, and I intend to have a coherent second draft of one of these 10 manuscripts by the end.
October 26, 2011 — 12:39 AM
Dave says:
This will be my fourth year doing NaNoWriMo. My first attempt was back in college, and failed; I’ve succeeded in the other two.
Chris Baty’s “No Plot? No Problem!” is the definitive text on NaNoWriMo, so go there for advice. Avoid the associated kit, you don’t need it. Furthermore, I’d stay away from Victoria Lynn Schmidt’s “Book in a Month” – it has its merits, but it’s really just a planning and outlining tool, and you need motivation and encouragement more than anything else to tackle NaNoWriMo.
Which is not to say that planning isn’t important. If you go into NaNoWriMo with a proper outline (or roadmap of your choice), you will do much better than if you attempt to “free ball” it, so to speak. If nothing else, being able to drop the scene that’s just ground to a halt and go on to something else is a fine way to boost your word count, and you can’t do it if you don’t at least have a hint of where the book is going.
Last but not least, I need to point out that you WILL NOT get something publishable at the end of NaNoWriMo. And whatever you do get, it WILL NEVER BE publishable if you don’t put in the work to polish, revise, and fill out your manuscript. I’ve not gotten anything salable out of it yet, because I didn’t do the work (well, that and because Peter Pan’s status as public domain is a horrible mess – but I digress). Finishing NaNoWriMo, as challenging as that is, is only about 20% of what you need to do to write a novel. But it ain’t a bad start.
Less than a week left. Deep breaths now, everyone…
October 26, 2011 — 12:55 AM
Sean Riley says:
First attempt. It’s the novel I’ve had in my head for years and years. Wish me luck.
October 26, 2011 — 1:03 AM
Charlie E/N says:
Good luck with that Sean!
This is my third year doing NaNo. I’ve also been doing Script Frenzy in April for a couple of hyears, too. They’re my “holiday” from work, with time taken off specifically to get on with them.
Each one’s been different. The first I pretty much barely prepared. I used Justin Achilli’s GM “Kanban” approach but with the nine key events of the story arc, what instigates each step and hit it pretty improvised from there. The second one was actually a later draft which I was so in tune with all I needed was my hands on a keyboard.
The first NaNoWriMo was good, the second was amazing. The thing is, as it was off as vacation from my full-time work, I started off treating it as a holiday. I woke up late, I did nothing. The last week of my first NaNoWriMo I realised that this was supposed to be how I behaved professionally. I bucked my idea up then for that, for Script Frenzy and for my later NaNoWriMo. This is the practice run, not only for novel writing, but your lifestyle while you’re at it.
Wisdom-wise, I’d say don’t aim for 1,666 a day. That’s if you’re working ALL days. Have a day or few off. I readjust my minimum wordcount to allow for weekends. I’m also adjusting for Skyrim on the 11th (if I do twice my wordcount on the 10th I get to go to the midnight opening). I’m skipping the 30th as it’s the date of a protest I’m attending. Because of that I have a minimum amount of 2,500 a day. After last year where I ended with 70,000 words, it’s totally doable.
I’d say go to the community things if you have any in your area. You get to meet writers which is a good and bad thing. Like trying to hit a good wordcount a day, like trying to get up and hit your own deadlines, have a life AND be that dude off his face on coffee writing in an attic, this is a draft zero for you as a writer.
Personally, I am not short on inspiration, I just work long hours, am applying for jobs and trying to maintain a tolerable geek social life. I need time with my fingers on the keys, then I can get all of this done. That’s what NaNoWriMo is to me, and why it works for me.
October 26, 2011 — 2:06 AM
L. Harrison says:
I am not doing NaNoWriMo per se. Hell, I am just trying to get the thing written, whether in a month or not. But I am participating in the spirit of it, you could say. I can honestly say that I cannot guarantee a word count any given day. I wish I had an hour or two a day that I could devote to writing. It seems that more often than not I resort to thinking and planning the whole day and typing like mad while on the pot ( TMI?) because that is the only time I have, and that is okay. As long as I write. Inspiration? Your 25 reasons I will not finish my manuscript! Damnit, it will get done, by hell or high water.
When I was in the army we used to do marches. 10, 25 miles or more. I did 25 or so miles in a night, no sleep, with 80 pounds in my ruck. But I made it. You know how? One foot after the other. The fact that failure was not an option was also an incentive. This feels like that. One foot after the other and everything will be okay.
October 26, 2011 — 2:34 AM
ZC says:
First attempt. I’m a plotter though, so I’ve been working on this for a while. Characters, plot points, mind-maps ala “Doom Came To MonkeyTown” (Thanks for the links in a previous post, Chuck).
NaNoWriMo is my way of getting my first (no doubt poor) novel out of me. That way I get one step closer to the future-novel I have locked in the freezer.
October 26, 2011 — 2:35 AM
Scath says:
[raises hand] I am. My first year to participate was 2007. Threw my ‘winner’ away after two years. OMG, the suckage of it. 0_o
2008 & 2009 garnered three ‘winners’. One’s still waiting to be hacked apart and sewn back together.
2010, I was working an average of 60 or so hours a week at a day job, so no winner for me. Wah.
I love NaNo, because it really does help me get an idea out in a first draft quickly. Of course, then they’re locked away for a year or more, but still… 😉
This year, I’m working on a second title in a new series. Maybe if I get lucky, I’ll end up with two rough drafts for the series. 🙂
October 26, 2011 — 3:07 AM
Lynna says:
Well, I’m going to try it – can’t say how successful I’ll be at it until I’m there, because a lot may depend on the comings and goings of actual pay-the-bills work (which writing is not, for me – yet). I certainly don’t expect to produce anything fabulous and polished and ready to start submitting to publishers in that length of time, but I’ve had this novel idea knocking on the inside of my head demanding to be let out for some time, and I think this could be a good way of at least getting started…. Because you can stall and plan for ever, but sooner or later you just have to sit down and actually WRITE, and that’s what I hope NaNoWriMo will help me do.
October 26, 2011 — 4:08 AM
Jonathan D. Beer says:
This will be my first proper attempt – last year what I thought could be a 50,000 word novel rapidly became a 10,000 word pitch for a 120k novel. But I have learned much since then, and am going into this with eyes open and brain wired in.
I’ll be writing a pair of novellas, one 20k and the other 30k, and I have the majority of my planning done, aside from the small matter of the second novellas actual plot… But nevermind, there’s still five days to do that. I am not much of a pantser, but I think that I have this one down – these are characters I’ve wanted to give some time for ages now, and the first story is really strong. Hopefully I will prove equal to the task!
Good luck to everyone taking it on!
October 26, 2011 — 5:08 AM
Snellopy says:
I started it last year, but planned on doing most of my writing at work – and then they threw extra tasks at me (which seemed unfair). I also didn’t really have a plan, and had a metric shit ton of main characters, I think 12 or so, and that was far too many for my attention span.
This year I’ve been slowly plugging away at my outline since about March, so I’m all raring to go – tent poles in, motivations worked out, and picked a story I’ve become invested in. I’ve got the go-ahead from the wife to have typing time at home (as she wants me being more dedicated at work) but I think that may get rescinded partially, so I have to make sure bang out the words right quick and no lollygaging on the internet doing random bullshit so I go back to spending quality time.
As a final build up, I’m reading Confessions of a Freelance Penmonkey one last time, and filling it full of notes. If I play again next year, I’ll read it before hand again, and see how I stacked up to all my jottings
October 26, 2011 — 5:27 AM
CjEggett says:
On it again this year. A better plan that last year’s (which now sits, hobbled in the darker corners of the warehouse file system) and a lot more detachment.
It’s a “End of human existence novel” focused around the YB Yeats loved concept of the gyre. Got most of it outlined, I hope I’m actually going to be mainly adding meat and editing during NaNoWriMo.
Blog post idea for you here: http://cjeggett.co.uk/post/11033653037/5-places-i-would-like-to-write-my-nanowrimo-from-this
October 26, 2011 — 6:00 AM
Cyndi says:
My 2005 NaNo effort became the basis for my creative writing thesis; my 2006 draft, after many rewrites, edits and revisions is with an agent for consideration. In the meantime, I’ve published several short stories, an anthologized personal essay, and a non-fiction history book. NaNo was not the end for me, only the beginning. It gave me the confidence to push forward with my writing, knowing I really could finish a novel-length manuscript.
Cyndi
October 26, 2011 — 7:09 AM
Amber J. Gardner says:
I’ve tried NaNo several times, but since I barely tried except for the time I actually won, I only count that one time I won lol.
Ironically, if I can finished the damn outline in a week, I will break some rules and rewrite my previous nano winner this NaNo.
My experiences with NaNo were good ones. It was my first writing achievement, well the first time I finished a novel and thus the first time I actually felt like I was a writer or this writing thing can actually work for me.
But I didn’t write 50,000 words. I wanted to finish the damn thing. I already had 30k by October, so I wrote 85k that November in order to finish around 114k fantasy novel.
The writing was horrible, still is horrible, and it was difficult to look at it for over a year (so I didnt look at it till a year and a half afterwards or so). But I believed, still believe, in the story and desperately want to make it the first novel I publish.
I think since NaNoWriMo offers no real prizes other than the novel, I think you should bend the rules as you see fit…with at least to the point you still only count words written in November and the limit is still at least 50k in a month.
I say if you started early or you wanted to rewrite a novel during the month, I think that’s fine as long as you have what you wanted in your hands at the end of this.
October 26, 2011 — 7:12 AM
RK Bentley says:
This will be my 7th year doing NaNo.
I’ve a seat of the pants type of writer but I found that’s gotten me into spots so I’m trying to plan this NaNoWrimo out.
The other novels I’ve worked on during NaNo, only one of them was a Serenity/Firefly fanfic, the rest of them are on the backburner to be worked on later.
I’ve had fun experiences, I’m one of the coordinators for Rhode Island, we had a open mic night once with comedians at a coffee shop we were having a write in at that was fun and nsfw.
It’s a good event to try if your looking to ever do this full time since this is what it will be like of sorts.
The only downside from a coordinators stand point is, the event is getting big enough now where our groups are getting too big and libraries are the only option sometimes. The good news is most of the libraries in the area are free, but the bigger ones in Providence charge for meetings rooms which is unfortunate but I can understand where they’re coming from.
Wisdom: Dropbox is your friend. Backing up yer work is good idea. USB Stick is your friend. Do you notice a trend? Find a word war buddy. Have fun. Get planning now before the event. Figure out scenes and characters now. And, don’t do a fanfic or self insertion, try something else new instead of a fanfic.
October 26, 2011 — 7:15 AM
Kathryn says:
I plan on giving it a go for the first time this year. I have a short story that’s been itching to become something bigger, a nice outline I’m finishing up and that college student energy where writing > sleep. I’m not sure how well it’s going to turn out, I’m big on editing as I go so I don’t have a discouragingly large stack of raw pages to plod through once i ‘finish’, but the community and the word count demand seems to be right up my alley, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed!
October 26, 2011 — 7:19 AM
Josin says:
I’m doing NaNo this year. I’ve only done it once before, and that book still exists as raw material for what I think will be a great story once I weed out the 1/3 that’s garbage.
I’m not usually big on the whole outlining thing, preferring to “script” my chapters like a screenplay, but for this year, I’m going to try the detailed outline approach and see how it works out. What’s NaNo good for if you don’t try something a little different, yeah?
October 26, 2011 — 7:20 AM
Frank Cote says:
I’ve done it every year in the last 5 years and succeeded 3 times, with 2 workable manuscripts (that I really need to get to rewriting).
I’ll be skipping this year for two reasons:
– I did back to back summer sessions of Camp NaNoWriMo (July and August) because I wanted to see if I could write a full 100K manuscript in 60 days (success! it was fun!)
– I’ve gotten all I’m going to get out of NaNoWriMo now. I know that I can write a sizeable amount daily. I know that I can write a full complete first draft in a reasonable amount of time. Now my goal is to complete a manuscript and send it out for sale. NaNoWriMo won’t help me anymore with that.
However, looking back on my failures and successes with NaNoWriMo, I can highlight the key elements to succeeding:
– Have a story idea in your head that you love. You’ll come to hate it before the November is done, but the more you love it at the start, the further you’ll get before it becomes a slog.
– Have an outline BEFORE November 1st and as many notes as possible. The better your outline and notes, the less you’ll be stuck staring at a blank page around week 3.
– Early on, when you’re stoked. Write MORE than your quota. Your daily quota to make it is 1667 words daily. Set your quota at 2000 and EXCEED IT as much as you can when you start. This will help when you run into days where you have trouble getting words down.
– Don’t try to reach the END of your story. If you end up at 50K and you write “The End”, you’ve done it wrong. It’s not a novel and you wasted time planning it to end up this way. Just write. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to reach 50K in a month, not to complete a story in a month…just make it to 50K then commit to spending a few more days finishing. I’ve learned from experience it’s easier to trim a 100K story to 80K than to make a 50K novella into a 90K novel.
October 26, 2011 — 8:24 AM
Kate Haggard says:
Certainly going to try. It never worked out in the past (either I was in school, working, or life decided to collapse all at once and take my time away (lookin’ at you, November ’10). But I see NaNo as a good excuse to switch pattern – try a new direction or method. If anything, it gives the old gray matter a jolt in the right direction. Fingers crossed to finally have a peaceful month.
October 26, 2011 — 8:30 AM
Ed Marrow says:
I seem to start Nano every year. I have yet to finish a novel in a month. On the upside, one of the atrocities I birthed became my first novel. I took all the crap I had written and hacked it down to something that wasn’t awful and built on it.
I’m going for a PI novel this year, no demons or Cthulhu, but still plenty of inappropriate touching.
October 26, 2011 — 8:33 AM
Colin F. Barnes says:
I’ve put it off for the last couple of years due to other commitments, but I’m on it like a hobo on a hamburger this year. I’m not intending to write 50k though. I’ve outlined my novel and aim to finish it the first draft which means 80k.
I’ll be using Scrivener to help manage it, by breaking it down into scenes. My plan is to write a scene a day with a few extra on the weekends. This will be synced with simplenote so I can continue writing during my lunch break at work.
Here’s more details on my thoughts: http://www.colinfbarnes.com/2011/that-writing-malarky/nanowrimo-plus-write-a-proper-length-novel
I wish everyone good luck, I think it’s a great initiative to get that seedling written down and out of your head ready for rewriting/revising.
October 26, 2011 — 8:59 AM
Justus R Stone says:
Going to give it a try this year. First timer.
I’ve dedicated October as Nanoplamo – National Novel Planning Month. Been using Scrivener’s features to build character profiles, scenes, and arranging it all into a semblance of order. I’m hoping with all the planning, things will go easier.
Seeing as how my last book took me a year to write, I don’t plan on huge success, but I’m using it as motivation to try and create a writing routine as opposed to my shotgun hit-and-miss approach of the past year.
October 26, 2011 — 9:03 AM
Anthony Elmore says:
I’m already Doing the Damn Thing so all Nov. 30 means that I best have my book done. I’ve done NaNoWriMo once and only reached 38k since I had to also write my podcast and work 40 hrs. a week. However, it engendered good habits which allowed me to later finish the book and write at least 1000 words a day.
For me it will be National Novel OMG this Book is a As Organized as a 747 Crash Month.
October 26, 2011 — 9:04 AM
Anthony Laffan says:
I’ve done it twice before – both novellas got shelved afterwards – and am planning to do it again this year. The first time I did very little planning, I just started writing and stuff came out. Though, to be fair, I’d been thinking of that story for along while.
This year I actually have some planning done. I’ve been doing planning all october to try and break my head out of the last project – which after 5 months of failed attempts to get into gear I had to put away for a bit – with the plan being to start the next WiP in november with nano.
Course, now I have two jobs and not sure how much time I’ll have, but even if I only bang out 20k in November it will be more than I currently have, right?
October 26, 2011 — 9:06 AM
Shell Bryson says:
This year will be my second stab at NaNoWriMo, having ‘successfully’ completed a 60k novel in 21 days last November.
The good bit: it’s a great experience, it forced me to focus on *just* writing. There just isn’t time to perfect every paragraph, to go back and rework chapters. There’s no time to get distracted by research, plot fixing, getting your dialogue just-so. More than anything I think Nano taught me the habit of writing.
The bad bit: A year later, I’m 20% through editing the resulting tangle. I ended up with a novel that had a beginning, middle and end, but everything between that was horribly structured borderline conscience-stream brain-dump. What is left is a LOT of work.
So for me at least, Nanowrimo is the opposite of my usual way of working (agonising over every single word), a fun stretch.
October 26, 2011 — 9:07 AM
N.K. says:
Planning to do NNWM for the first time. I say vaguely that I’ll write, but need the butt in chair motivational goal that this will provide. November seemed distant when I decided to do this, but here she comes.
October 26, 2011 — 9:07 AM
Thomas Pluck says:
I did it last year, with no prep except tossing ideas in my head and a few scribbled notes that I look back at now and laugh at. I wrote 115,000 words in 2 months before the novel was completed, and it was a zero draft, as you call it. I am rewriting it as a first draft with a single POV instead of jumping around.
I have since plotted it more thoroughly, written character bios, focused on a single theme, changed the overall tone, and merged characters to reduce the rather large cast.
I am 43,000 words in, and may use NaNoWriMo as an excuse to set a deadline. I’ve been averaging 700-1300 words a day since I put aside all my side writing projects- a charity anthology being an exception- and think I can ramp up to 1700 for a month if I give myself enough time.
I write a lot more slowly now. My zero draft was stream of consciousness word salad that repeated itself. After talking to a first reader I trust, I think I kept one line from a six page first scene. But re-reading the draft shows my writing tightening up, getting clean, and writing flash fiction has made me consider every sentence coolly, and make them count. This may even finish like a second draft (out of four) because any time it sits for more than a day I begin one chapter back and revise it to build steam and get the mood proper.
I promised my writin’ buddy Lynn Beighley I’d join the challenge with her, and I’m using it to banish excuses and write the novel every day until the draft is finished. I’m an inkslut, according to yesterday’s post; a hummingbird to flits from project to project. Time to suck the nectar from one flower for a while.
October 26, 2011 — 9:10 AM
Fran Terminiello says:
Never done it because I’ve always had something on the burner when it’s on. But I think it’s a great idea and a huge motivational tool to just get people writing and chucking ideas down. A good place to sow the seeds for future work, and I think it can work whether you’re a pantser or a plotter, you’ve just got to prepare well and keep at it.
October 26, 2011 — 9:10 AM
Allyson says:
I’m doing it again. Only this year, I’m going to be what’s known as a NaNo Rebel. I’m not writing a novel. I’m using the month to write a nonfiction book. I’ve always done novels, but due to circumstances that year that leave me unmotivated to work on fiction (I’ve been focusing on poetry most of the year), no idea for a novel, and this nonfiction work sitting in my head since April, this is the time to do it.
I’ve been NaNoing since 2005, winning since 2008.
I’ve prepared in different ways depending on what the book needed. Sometimes, I just outlined. Other times, I did extensive research. This year, I’m doing a long outline, filling in research gaps as I go.
None of the books I completed have ever come to fruition, but they were invaluable practice in creating long works, as well as in making time for big project given the other demands of life. I don’t regret those abandoned amateur pieces. They were important learning experiences, and did a lot to get me where I am today.
NaNo is the epitome of Butt-in-Chair. It’s the only way you’re going to win. It doesn’t matter if you produce a shitty novel. It’s the best possible way to teach you to sit down and just get the work done. I feel like everyone who wants to be a novelist should participate in NaNo until they win, just to have that experience.
Having a local NaNo community helps. The Austin NaNo group consists of some of my favorite people on earth. I rarely interact with them outside of November, but each year, I love going to our Midnight Write and seeing them all for the first time. It’s like coming home.
LOVE IT. I was so sad when I thought I wasn’t going to do NaNo this year (for the reasons described above). It was thrilling to realize that this year I could join the ranks of the NaNo rebels and still participate.
October 26, 2011 — 9:11 AM
Simon Haynes says:
This is my sixth NaNoWrimo. I skipped 2009 because I was late handing in a novel at the time.
I’ve managed the required 50k each time, and although I’ve ended up with a bunch of half-finished novels NaNoWriMo has also been responsible for two completed, published novels as well. (One trade published, one self-pubbed.)
I’m a lazy writer who loves the challenge of an impossible deadline. Nano isn’t impossible, but it does require daily attention, and that’s the part I find so difficult outside November. It’s not just internal motivation, it’s the fact that for one month I can put off stuff around the house AND tell family and friends that I’m too busy to reinstall Windows or clean viruses for them.
October 26, 2011 — 9:11 AM
terribleminds says:
@Simon:
I’ve heard wonderful things about the Hal Spacejock series!
— c.
October 26, 2011 — 9:20 AM
Rebecca J Fleming says:
Last year was my first time doing NaNoWriMo, and I absolutely loved it (what’s not to love about an excuse to spend all day writing and consuming chocolate/energy drinks without feeling ashamed?). However, I think in a way it’s a bit of a waste of time, since in most cases, when you write at that speed for such a long time, most of the words you produce are crap and either have to be heavily rewritten or thrown away entirely; seems like it would be more time efficient to just write a bit slower and write BETTER so there’d be less editing later (of course there is always going to be editing no matter how good the first draft is). That being said, before NaNo last year I had about 6,000 words (good words) of my novel. I reached 50,000 words and had to get rid of a lot, but at the end of the day, I had still more than doubled the amount of words I had worth keeping (I ended up with almost 15,000 words). I’d find it easier to set a lower goal such as 30,000 words to balance quantity between quality.
I will be doing NaNo again this year, simply because it was so much fun, though I won’t really be able to get into it until mid November after I’ve handed in my thesis 🙁
October 26, 2011 — 9:12 AM
DoyceTesterman says:
I’m doing it. It’ll be my eighth or ninth or something. I’m basically just finishing the sci-fi yarn I’ve been working on. I find having all that creation going on around me invigorating. I should probably be a critique writing group — that would accomplish the same thing.
I’m also hopefully doing line edits from my Harper Collins editor. If they ever get off their ass and send them to me. Not holding my breath — it took them ten months to sign a nine-page contract. Christ on a crutch trad publishers are slow.
October 26, 2011 — 9:13 AM
terribleminds says:
@Doyce —
Wait, you have a book contracted with Harper Collins? That’s exciting.
Er, not so exciting if they’re taking almost a year to sign a contract (?!), but exciting just the same.
— c.
October 26, 2011 — 9:19 AM
Callista says:
This is my sixth or fifth year doing NaNo – started in 2005 and didn’t make it, then won ’06-’09. I took last year off, citing whatever bullshit had come up, and that was a terrible mistake, because I haven’t written anything since spring of 2010. NaNoWriMo is great, for me, at restoring the momentum that keeps me writing.
This year I’m not sure what I’m going to write. Might trap some people in a gas station. Might set zombie-vampires upon them. Might do a space pirate thing instead. Who knows!? I’ll figure it out on November 1st.
October 26, 2011 — 9:14 AM
Sean Holland says:
Trying again this year, almost made it last time. Figure worst case, it encourages me to write.
October 26, 2011 — 9:18 AM
Jennifer Davis says:
I’m doing it this year, and I’ve participated somewhere around 5 times (the first time with my writing class in college) and made it to 50k all but one time. The first few times, I didn’t bother with much preparation at all, I just started writing on November 1 and kept going. Since I’ve been writing professionally, however, I’ve found that at least a little preparation helps out a great deal, so I put together a very vague outline and some character notes ahead of time. One of my winners ended up cut drastically down into a short story, and was sold. Another of the winning novels turned out to be something useable as a novel (last year’s) and I’ve just started querying for it after a great deal of editing and proofreading by my most trusted beta readers – the ones who aren’t too nice to tell me when I’ve jumped the shark.
NaNo serves less of a good way of producing useable material and more as a kick in the ass. I have a LOT of trouble with discipline. Something about NaNo – the light competitive atmosphere, the DEADLINE, whatever – helps to reinforce good discipline. It forces you to churn out SOMETHING every day – and I always do my best to keep that going year-round.
I always tell newbies to relax and not worry so much about how good or bad their NaNo draft is – first drafts are never that great anyway. NaNo isn’t about producing a masterpiece, it’s about Getting Something Done.
October 26, 2011 — 9:19 AM
Juli Hoffman says:
I did NaNoWriMo for the first time last year. I’ll be NaNoing again this year. I really enjoyed the companionship. Writing is such a solitary thing. It was nice to have an entire month where I felt like I was part of something bigger.
I still haven’t edited last year’s story, or finished it for that matter. 50,000 words isn’t enough words for me to write a complete novel. When I went back over what I wrote however, I was surprised at what I’d written. I expected it to be crap! Instead, I had the beginings of a story with some GREAT descriptions. (The descriptions shamelessly added to my word count.) Detailed descriptions are a weakness of mine. I tend to gloss over them in order to keep the story moving. I think NaNoWriMo improved my writing in ways I never expected.
October 26, 2011 — 9:23 AM
Simon Haynes says:
Someone further up the comments mentioned Skyrim … That’s how I motivate myself each November. I dangle a desirable and I’m not allowed to use it until I have my 50k. One year it was GTAIV, another year was GTA San Andreas, and I think one year was the latest Flight Sim.
This year it’s Skyrim. I’ve preorded it on Steam, I’ll download it when it’s released, but I won’t fire it up until I’ve got the word count finished.
October 26, 2011 — 9:24 AM
Laura Lam says:
I came up with an outline, but I don’t think I’ll be doing it. I’d love to, but I’ve got another two novels to edit, I work full-time, and I’m studying for a masters part-time and I have, you know, assignments due and they take precedence. I might do a “modified” version and aim to write 500 words a day because that’s better than nothing.
October 26, 2011 — 9:25 AM
Simon Haynes says:
“I’ve heard wonderful things about the Hal Spacejock series!”
Thanks – it was Hal Spacejock No Free Lunch which evolved from my 2005 NaNoWriMo effort. Heavily edited, and perhaps not much left of the original 50k, but it explains why I’ve been promoting NaNoWriMo ever since.
Hal Junior (my latest) was written during Nano 2010.
October 26, 2011 — 9:27 AM
Kerry Freeman says:
I’m doing NaNo again this year. I dabbled at it a couple of times before I did my first serious go at it last year.
Last year and this, I spent October planning my story: research, character sketches, outlines, etc. I met weekly with a friend of mine who also does NaNo, and we bounce ideas off each other.
NaNo is an excellent kick in the @ss for me. I hate it when I’m the only one of my friends that doesn’t make word counts 🙂 It’s also the only month that I have a lot of in-person support from other writers through the write-ins. The rest of the year it’s just me, and my critique group is all online.
My NaNo ’10 book was released yesterday 🙂 My best advice to other NaNo participants is to view what you write as your first (or even your zero) draft and be prepared to edit edit edit before you submit anywhere. Or just do it for fun and don’t worry about ever showing it to another soul 🙂
October 26, 2011 — 9:32 AM
Kassil says:
This will be my ninth year as a NaNoWriMo participant. Of the previous eight times, I ‘won’ six times. I finished none of them, closing the ‘winning’ writing and intending to come back to it ‘after relaxing a bit’, which of course I never did.
This year is going to be different. I am going to finish, whether or not I ‘win’. 50k words is just a marker, the goal is a complete story – one that I can then edit, polish, give to beta readers, edit and polish more, and eventually wave at publishers as a real, proper story that can be published without being bile-soaked filth.
I expect some of the newcomers and ‘THIS IS SO MAGIC’ returnees will hate me by the end of it, because I can confirm for them the unpleasant truth that they will, at some point, hate their characters, their plot, their entire story, their computer, themselves, the world, and life itself – and that the distinction between them being ‘wannabe’ types and ‘writers’ is that the writers among them will plant their butts in the chair and write anyway.
Me, I’m not going to claim to be a writer until I have the story written and edited enough to be able to show it to beta readers. I’m not going to even pretend to be an author until I hold a physical copy of a book that produces money for me in my hands (or a PDF of an ebook that produces money on my hard drive). I will claim to be a storyteller – I won the Iron GM competition at Neoncon last year on the strength of my ability to pull a compelling story out of my ass on the fly, after all.
October 26, 2011 — 9:32 AM
Anne Lyle says:
I first did NaNoWriMo in 2006 – I was having trouble pushing past the 30k barrier and actually finishing a novel-length ms, so I thought a kick in the pants might do the trick (which it did). I did it again with a sequel in 2007, but after that I focused on getting the 2006 effort whipped into shape (it eventually became The Alchemist of Souls, which of course is being published next year by those lovely chaps at Angry Robot).
At the moment I’m rewriting the 2007 draft practically from scratch, to bring it up to the same standard, but I’ve had to take a break to work on copyedits for “Alchemist” and a synopsis for the third book (the downside of writing a trilogy to tight deadlines!). So, I’m going to use the buzz around NaNoWriMo to help me get back into the swing of writing actual words again 🙂
I love NaNoWriMo for the buzz – we have a very active community here in Cambridge, with regular write-ins and of course a party to kick off proceedings and another to celebrate when it’s all over. Although I haven’t done a “proper” NaNoWriMo (i.e. a new project from scratch) since 2007, I still go along to the meetings with my work-in-progress.
As for how I prep, I create a rough outline in the form of index cards: the major landmarks in the story, plus a bunch of ideas of how to get from one to the next. I don’t stick to it rigidly, but it gives me a safety net of always having _something_ to write about, which is half the battle in my case.
It might seem hard at first to write 1667 words a day, and you’ll worry you’re writing nonsense, but a) you can always edit it later and b) once you get in the zone, you may well find that the stuff you write fast is actually better than the words you painstakingly crafted.
October 26, 2011 — 9:34 AM
Daniel Swensen (@surlymuse) says:
This will be my ninth year doing Nanowrimo. The first time around, I didn’t prepare at all — I was newly unemployed and had nothing but time, and just jumped in.
My first Nano novel was pretty bad, but I learned a lot from it (mostly what -not- to do) and got a huge rush from finally writing THE END on a draft. That was a big step for me, as I’d previously struggled a lot with finishing things. It taught me to get over the first draft and get on to what comes after.
I participated for the next few years after that before deciding I had learned all I could from Nano and that I’d outgrown it. And yet I come back every year, because despite the grousing and criticism Nanowrimo gets, I really enjoy the community. I enjoy seeing lots of people get really jacked up about writing and pursuing their stories.
I think Nanowrimo can be a fun learning experience and a great stepping stone for writers who are just starting out and want to get over their own personal writing humps. It can also build good habits if you stick to a schedule after Nano ends.
As for wisdom — I have a few articles on my blog if people want to read them. Beyond that, I’d just say stay positive and find your enthusiasm. It’s easy to turn Nanowrimo into a high-pressure environment that stresses you out. The most popular Nanowrimo forum by far is “Nanowrimo Ate My Soul,” which fills up with despairing topics before the month even begins. I’d say try to steer cleer of the negativity if you can, and just work on honing your focus.
Also, please don’t send your unedited draft to an agent.
October 26, 2011 — 9:35 AM
Will says:
I’ll be making my second attempt this year. It’s mostly just for fun, but also to get me in the habit of writing every day. I’m thinking cyberpunk noir. I’m getting all excited, and stocking Jameson for when I’m no longer excited but need to keep writing anyway 🙂
October 26, 2011 — 9:38 AM
Will Entrekin says:
Last year, I wrote about founding National Surgery Performing Month (NaSuPerMo): http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/wentrekin/2009/10/a-writers-alternative-to-nanowrimo/
This year, I’m thinking about tackling civil engineering. At least, I think that’s what it’s called. I thought about tackling electrical engineering, but you can’t really -see- electricity, so that’s no fun. So I decided to design and build a city. That’s what civil engineering is, right?
I was thinking of calling it Willopolis, but I think this last part might need work.
October 26, 2011 — 9:41 AM
Jeanne Veillette Bowerman says:
NaNo is insane, but totally doable. I did it last year and “finished” in 19 days, but believe me, it was one pile of vile vomit.
It was worth the effort though, because I did it as an experiment. I’m a huge outliner, but I’ve always been curious about those writers who “let their characters decide their fate”. So I did that. I jumped in without an outline and just spewed out words, unleashing my characters.
It was fascinating.
I used the Write or Die program’s ticking-clock pressure to push my imagination. While the flow of the prose is horrid, the ideas born were not. Now I’m going to go back and use those nuggets, do a solid outline, and tackle the novel for real.
There are a lot of benefits of NaNo, and one of them is simply to step outside of your comfort zone.
October 26, 2011 — 9:45 AM
Seth says:
Done it three times, finished twice, happy with the resulting novel once. I didn’t participate last year and I may not participate again, but it’s a wild ride for an amateur author to take.
Here’s the novel I actually enjoyed writing/reading: https://docs.google.com/View?id=dfd5hbqf_85cpzm9nfs
October 26, 2011 — 9:45 AM
Hillary Monahan says:
I did my own write up about this a few weeks back. I toyed with NaNo for a few years and got really close to finishing one year before abandoning the project around 40,000 words. My reasoning? I wasn’t producing up to my own standards. I had such an eye on number I wasn’t doing quality control, and as my drafts tend to be really clean first go-round, it was driving me nuts. I’d rather take longer to make better words than sprint and set myself up for a huge rewrite/edit later.
Just because it’s not for me doesn’t mean I’m against it, per se. Actually, I think NaNo is a great way to learn the discipline of “Butt In Chair” time. It takes a certain amount of self control to cast off all other distractions and just sit and make story. For someone looking to develop the habit of blocking out a set number of hours per day, NaNo’s fantastic. That being said, having already adopted those habits? I don’t see the need to set myself up for a rewrite slog fest.
October 26, 2011 — 9:49 AM
Bianca says:
7th year doing Nano. Finished the book I started the last 4 years. I spend October plotting me story out. I like the discipline of it and the yearly guarantee that no matter how much I edit and polish old work, once a year, I would have started something new.
October 26, 2011 — 9:49 AM
Kaycee says:
I’ve done it twice, and I’m doing it again this year. I succeeded both times, but it was basically a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants sort of thing that resulted in slim victories. This year I’ve attempted to do some planning (I’m a copyeditor, and my days are taken over by, well.. editing), so hopefully this will turn out to be more of an interesting read that has more than 50k words and less of a bunch of thoughts that sort of fit together. Needless to say, my last two ‘novels’ have had no refining, and are sitting on my backup hard drive collecting dust.
I enjoy it, and despite this year having quite a bit less time than last, I’m looking forward to doing it again. While I write short stories often, this is the only time I’m really able to have the discipline to sit down and write what could be considered an interesting novel.
October 26, 2011 — 10:05 AM
Anthony Mathenia says:
This will be my third year participating in NaNoWriMo. Typically I don’t prepare, but I do have a general idea of what I’m going to be writing about. My first year’s work remains unfinished, almost in the same state I ended the month with. I have just finished last year’s novel Paradise Earth and I’m hoping to self-publish it in 2012.
I really enjoy the event and the feeling of camaraderie that comes along with it. I encourage all new participants to attend regional events and meet other participants. I also like the good writing habits it teaches — mainly write every day.
I do not like that the format encourages quantity over quality. I’m not enthusiastic about battling other regions for top word count. I don’t like all of the silly plot devices and dares that are suggested, just to bolster word count.
I wish there would be a sister program – post November to actually help people improve in their writing beyond just — write 50,000 words of ANYTHING.
October 26, 2011 — 10:11 AM