National Novel Writing Month

[Negrek]

Iiiiiit's that time of year again!

If you aren't familiar with National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), it's a yearly event held in November that challenges people to write 50,000 words in 30 days. There are usually a fair number of people from the forums who participate, so I thought we ought to have a thread.

Who's in this year? What are you working on? Feel free to post your NaNo profile if you have one, so people can add you as a writing buddy. (Mine's here.)

If you plan on doing NaNo this year, what are you doing in terms of planning or preparation?

I'm going to be working on Salvage this year, with the goal of actually finishing up the draft! This... has been my goal for several previous writing challenges and I've never made it, but I'm really close now! At the very least I should be able to close out this arc, finally, which leaves just a couple partially-written ones to lead on into the ending.

I generally don't do any prep before diving into NaNo. Of course, I'm almost always adding words to an existing project rather than starting a new one, so the prep work is pretty much already done. One thing I should do is check whether there are any write-ins or such around here; I've never gone to one before because I've never seen any near me, but I just moved, so maybe there's something going on around here.

 

[DeliriousAbsol]

I'm definitely planning on NaNoing this year =) here's my profile!

I'm hoping to start a new 'fic that ties into my System universe, so all being well I'll be done writing System: Reboot before November! The new story is currently titled System: Outbound. You can already see a synopsis in my profile =) Things are subject to change, however.

I've made a musical playlist already, which I'm seeking new songs for that fit a more dystopian theme. I've also tried to plan a bit more, so as NaNo terms go, I'll be plantsing as opposed to pantsing!

 

[AmericanPi]

I've been on the fence about doing NaNo this year and I've decided not to. It's a really petty reason - the thing is, usually I work on a single project for November and various projects for Camp NaNoWriMo (April and July), with both instances having a word count goal of 50,000. Unfortunately this year there isn't one single project I want to dedicate myself to. Besides, I've never succeeded at any NaNo challenge throughout the years. I definitely want to try Camp NaNoWriMo in April 2019 though! Because then I can set the goal of writing 50,000 words of anything.

 

[Manchee]

Here's my profile!

I've decided to do NaNo again this year. I've done it twice before and finished each time, just never attempted two years in a row. But I want to force myself to at least put down words onto paper for Pokémon fan fic ideas I've been developing over the past year. There are two one-shots I'd like to really hammer out and then I'm working on rewriting something of mine. All of the ideas are there and mostly thought out, I just know they are at a point where I have to write them to get the little details and things worked out. Thankfully all of these ideas are related to an overarching story I want to tell, so I'm just lumping their word count together for this year.

 

[oarfish]

Ah, NaNoWriMo. Good times.
I have successfully completed it two or three times (technically, maybe -- See note below on this).
Will I do it this year? Most likely not for many reasons. Some are connected with my writing activities and my writing itself, but not all of them.
For my writing activites, I am not in a good position in my life for routine writing. I sure hope to have this position improved soon, but I am highly certain it will not improve enough by November. For my writing itself, I have been trying to focus on some of my already completed novels. This focus includes a writing conference I am actually attending in November. Other such reasons include the fact that I have been having severe computer issues over the past year or so.

This section here is not as relevant to NaNoWriMo, but does have important connections.
Long story short, I got this computer in February. I did a large amount of writing work on it since then, and I did make sure to save my work on backups (flash drives, etc.) several times during that time. When I was working on my submission for the writing conference, I discovered that especially odd things were happening with my files (formatting issues, files moving around on my computer, losing entire drafts*, and others). Before I could have a professional examine my computer, the hard drive crashed. I did use my backups to restore my files (I lost everything on my computer from that crash), but the "especially odd" things also affected my backups somehow. (* from above - The lost drafts were mostly edits and not much new content thankfully). -- That "long story short" was a bit longer than I intended, but I did leave out many sections of the story of this computer and my files.
I did recover all work for the conference through my email, but other than that, I lost all work I had done between late January and mid-September, and I cannot know definitively why or how.

Back to more relevant NaNoWriMo information.
I have completed NaNoWriMo at least twice. The first time was probably 2013 or 2014. I think that was work for a single novel, but I am not entirely sure.
The second time was a year later, but it was not a single novel. NaNo is 50,000+ words, but for my novels, I generally aim for at least 60,000+ words. (Yeah, still on the shorter side for novels, but even NaNo's word count is well above the typically accepted limits for novels.) Anyways, that year when NaNo started, I was already about 35,000 words into that particular novel. That November, I completed that novel and wrote over 40,000 words into my next one (both novels were around my general aim for word count - I completed the second of those two at a time after that November ended). I was in college during that time, but I was able to find the time and focus for this. I know I completed the writing for both of those novels listed here in a much shorter time than the full 30 days, but I am not sure exactly how long it was (estimate is about 10 days). ****Yes, I know what people reading this must be thinking. To be clear, I was not taking a particularly high number of hours that semester at college. I was able to plan my stories well enough, and I had time to write a lot. (This time was not even that close to my record for most words written in a day.) I so wish I had that sort of environment and focus in my current living circumstances.

 

[Phoenixsong]

Sure, I'm in. I'm pretty confident it's a terrible decision at the moment due to stuff, but it's also nearly impossible for me to get any serious writing or even planning done outside of NaNos for whatever reason, so I try my best not to miss out on the opportunity when it arises. I'm mostly going to be working on finalizing some information for a chapterfic so that maybe, just maybe, that fic can actually happen, but there are some other projects that will probably get at least a little attention (some one-shots, planning for another chapterfic that steadfastly refuses to have an actual plot gdi), and other stuff may happen at some point as well. Honestly, I haven't been able to focus or make progress on a single longform idea since NaNo 2010 because idek, so I generally never commit to a single project these days. And a lot of the time my "noveling" ends up being more like "extended brainstorming/notetaking" because I am a resolute planner who freezes at the mere thought of pantsing a fic and I can't write any prose without knowing where I'm going, so all that planning for Whatever Idea This Is needs to happen first. So really I'm aiming for 50k words of literally anything because literally anything is better than literally nothing, but hey, if actual forward movement can happen for any of the aforementioned things for once, so much the better.

lol I'm so cheerful about this

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I’m interested in trying this. Are there any restrictions on what we write about?

 

[Phoenixsong]

Nope, no restrictions! The "spirit" and original intent of the event is to write 50,000 or more words of fiction for a new story (or however far you can get, even without hitting 50k; progress is progress!)--to start from nothing and end up with a novel, or at least most of one. Under those guidelines, continuing an existing piece, for example like Negrek is doing with Salvage, would be "against the spirit of the event". That said, there are no NaNo police, no one who's going to check what you wrote and tell you that it doesn't count, and so people who just need a push to get themselves writing often work on existing projects or non-novel projects during the month instead. These days the official site actually recognizes that people use NaNo that way, and there's even a "NaNo Rebel" badge you can award yourself for not starting a new project if you want.

And as for genre or style, there've never been any guidelines or suggestions about that at all. Write romance or historical fiction or sci-fi or literary or whatever you want. Heck, "Fanfiction" is even listed as an option in the genre dropdown for your novel settings. So is "Other" if your work doesn't fit any of those categories. So you can start fresh on a brand-new fanfic if you want, or continue the second half of your original gothic horror novel, or whatever! Whatever you want to write, however far you want to get with it, as long as you're using it to challenge yourself to write lots and lots of words, it counts.

 

[Chibi Pika]

Against my better judgment, I will be participating. Here's my profile.

I absolutely so not expect to make it to 50k, I just want to write as much as I can, and use this month as a kick in the pants. I will, of course, be working on LC. More specifically, my goal is to have a solid script for every scene in Book 2, which will make all of my upcoming chapters so much easier.

 

[NebulaDreams]

Hello, here's my profile!

I announced in a post on my main fic The Curious and the Shiny that I'd be taking a break from writing it to focus on improving my prose, but my tune has changed since then, as I've come back with a calmer and more accepting stance on my work, since I was in a pretty bad place at that time. I realise that unless I keep consistently working at it, I'll probably never get it finished, and so, I need to be persistent with my writing, even if things might be a bit spotty at times with my writing style.

I'm under no illusion I'll be able to complete NaNo, as I have coursework to work on during the month, which means this month in particular will be the busiest period for me in a while, but I'm committed to see it through to the end, and won't beat myself up if I don't win this one. If I do, however, that will be a great confidence booster, and will not only lead to more progress on TCATS, it will also lead to me building a solid work ethic in my writing for the following months to come.

 

[Negrek]

We're a little more than halfway through the month now, so I figured it'd be a good time to check in. How's the writing coming along? How many of you are still in the game?

This year's been going pretty well for me so far. I'm way behind, but not as way behind as usual... often I'm starting from zero at around the fifteenth. I'm also starting to really get into what I'm writing, which is nice. I went up to 15k yesterday and am shooting to hit 20k by the end of today. Just got some catching up to do.

This year I'm typing rather than handwriting, which is what I usually do for NaNo. It's definitely much faster, and it means I don't have to look forward to the incredibly tedious process of typing things up later. I think I'm able to get away with it mostly because I still don't have internet in my apartment, which makes procrastination substantially harder. I've still managed to make quite a lot of progress on my Pokémon XD ROM this month, though.

 

[NebulaDreams]

Yup, I'm slightly ahead of the target with 32k words of The Curious and the Shiny done so far! Although a lot of stuff needs refining as I need to go back and rewrite certain scenes as well as add new ones and trim the fat a little, I'm pleased with what I've written at the moment.

 

[Negrek]

Awesome! You're one of the few people I know who's actually ahead, heh. So long as you can keep it up for a couple more weeks, you're pretty much home free!

 

[DeliriousAbsol]

I hit 50k yesterday, which is a real feel-good. Not sure whether to keep going with NaNo and update my word count, or get stuck in on my side project or Christmas gift 'fic now. Nevertheless, I'm super stoked with myself. I've only ever won NaNo one time before. I've been on a roll with finishing Reboot and making a good start on my upcoming 'fic!

 

[Negrek]

Congratulations! I think you're the first person on the forums who's won.

Good luck and keep it up, everybody who's still writing!

 

[The Teller]

Camp NaNoWriMo is write...er, right around the corner! Who else is gonna at least attempt the daunting task? Does anyone want to bunk (cabins, that is)? What are your projects? What are your goals? Mine? I plan on doing something something something supervillain story, with a projected 10,000 word goal. It will almost certainly not be Pokemon-related.

 

[NebulaDreams]

I want to, though I'm not sure how it will pan out, since I'm in dissertation mode atm. For this, I'm pretty much focusing on the same project as I did last time (The Curious and the Shiny), since it's not even halfway through yet. I aim to get 30,000 words done, so writing 1,000 words a day sounds like a manageable way of doing it.

I am currently in another cabin at the moment, so I'm afraid I can't join yours, though I wish the best with your project.

 

[gwen-watson]

I've never done NaNo. I always write fanfic and last I checked, that stuff wasn't allowed. I don't think I'd be able to finish an original novel honestly. It's a lot.

How do you stay disciplined and keep writing?

 

[The Teller]

I've never done NaNo. I always write fanfic and last I checked, that stuff wasn't allowed. I don't think I'd be able to finish an original novel honestly. It's a lot.

How do you stay disciplined and keep writing?

Fanfic is in fact allowed. Also, I have no plans on writing an actual novel-length novel. I'll be glad with just writing 10,000 words (roughly 20 pages). Staying disciplined? Me? You must be confusing me with someone else. There'll be days on end where no writing gets done. Then I freak out and do one day of lots of writing to catch up, and then the process starts all over again. I have a rough idea of what I want to do, but I mostly "write by the seat of your pants," i.e.: make stuff up as you go. I tried to be smart and do an outline of sorts, but I got bored of it quickly, so I'm sticking to a basic idea and fleshing it out on the fly. And since I'm not literally doing this to put food on the table, I don't stress too much when I DO fall behind, because it's not the end of the world for me. It's just a fun event for me to take part in.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I am trying to write a fanfic sequel/crossover of the Married With Children episode about the shoes Al invented and how the real life version stole his idea and he gets award money. The Bundys then move away and Marcy is overjoyed until she meets her new neighbors, the Griffins. All sorts of problems occur from Chris constantly hitting on Marcy, Meg going over to her house with potential boyfriends who think that when compared to Marcy Meg is a beauty queen, Stewie keeps using Jefferson to test out science experiments and inventions, and Peter is constantly destroying her home and property. I named the story The D’Arcys New Neighbors Or When Marcy Met Peter.