I think I'm finally going to do it this year: NaNoWriMo.
Some of you are thinking, "Uh, are you insane?" Some of you are thinking "Awesome!" And some of you are thinking, "I have no idea what you're talking about."
I'm somewhere between the first two opinions. First, let me explain: NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. You have between November 1 and November 30 to write at least 50,000 words. That's it. If you write 50,000 words – even if they are total crap – you win. You can hash out your plot and all of that beforehand, but no novel writing can actually begin until November 1 at midnight. Novels can be any theme, any genre, any language. Seriously anything is allowed – the FAQ on the page says, "If you believe you're writing a novel, we believe you're writing a novel too."
The problem isn't the skill - I think I am a pretty decent writer (although I may be flattering myself). The problem is the plot. I guess maybe my day job of writing about finances and earnings releases and promotions and the implementation of projects and world-class teams and "innovative" initiatives has turned the truly imaginative part of my brain to mush. I have zero plot ideas.
Also? I have the attention span of a gnat. So the thought of writing 50,000 words in a mere 30 days is, you know, a bit daunting. I know it's only April, but I figure I'm going to need a couple of months to come up with a decent idea for a plot.
Anyway, since I have NaNoWriMo on the brain, I thought I would share it – and a few facts about it - with any fellow aspiring novelists out there.
•NaNoWriMo is celebrating its ninth birthday this year. It was created in 1999 by Chris Baty of San Francisco.
•50,000 words isn't as long as you think it is. Novels that hover around the 50k word count mark include The Great Gatsby, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Brave New World.
•50,000 words in 30 days averages out to about 1,667 words per day.
•
Sara Gruen, the author of Water for Elephants, was a participant in NaNoWriMo.
•A scant 21 people participated in 1999, NaNoWriMo's first year. Just for reference, last year, 101,767 writers spent November scrabbling a novel together.
•No one will actually read your novel unless you want them to. When you submit it for a word count, a program actually counts the words – not a real person. So, if your novel is crap, no worries! No one has to know but you.
•The collective word count for 2007 was 1187,931,929
•Participants who have had their books published are:
and The Mote in Andrea's Eye
So, help me out here, Neatorama readers! Anyone ever participated before? Was it worth it? What was your novel about?
If you're a regular blogger, I think NaNo will seem pretty easy. The continuity part is kind of hard (sometimes I'd forget that I'd written something like what a character did for a living and then go on later in the book with a long passage about their job), but then again I don't plan ... at all. One year I wrote a novel based soley on a title I thought would be good. Another was based on Murphy's Law.
(BTW - April is Script Frenzy - there are a bunch of people writing 100 page scripts right now!)
(Point of interest: I went to see Chris Baty promote his book about NaNo a while back, which is called "No Plot? No Problem!" You ought to be fine. Good luck.)
I've tried once to start a short story (not related to NaNoWriMo) and like you my brain at first was all mushy from doing nothing but projects and work for Uni. But, I began to write about my daydreams and eventually that kicked off my creative juices. I always carry a small notebook with me that I write down story ideas in point form and titles for my stories.
My short story wasn't that good. It was about a young man who ends up trapped in an apartment and eventually tries to escape from some entity that slowly is consuming the occupants and neighbours around him. It had some kinks in it but I'm hoping to give it a good read through and edit some bits in it.
Tip: From a friend of mine who did participate in NaNoWriMo - Don't burn yourself out in the first week. Let your brain "marinate" in the story and use a small notebook to write and jot down notes and ideas. As well, you have to schedule your writing. Best times to write are early in the morning when your brain isn't cluttered with work...or at night when your relaxing.
Hope that helps! And give us an update on how it goes! :D Good luck!
So do it! Write a novel!
Take more than a month!
(Point of record, I am, painfully, writing a novel myself these days. I just set aside an hour each day to sit in front of the computer and I either write or stare at the computer screen.)
it definitely took a lot of time and i'm not sure i could've done it had i not been on sabbatical. but plenty of people find it easier than i did and manage to do it while also working.
the community aspect is great, as you'll later find out. you can ask the other participants questions to help your story be more realistic, such as "what type of gun would an undercover cop carry if he tried to infiltrate a biker gang?" and awesomely enough you'll get very detailed and accurate answers.
plus, having the network to compete against and support one another makes it a lot easier.
good luck!
oh, and my plot was about some scandalous politicians, journalists, and cuba. i'd tell you more, but i'd have to write you into my story, then kill you. :)
I won in 2005 (and still mean to go back, re-edit the story I wrote, and re-write it), but in previous years I couldn't even get halfway through the wordcount.
Basically, you want to be sure you do not fall behind on your wordcount. When you get behind, the words rapidly add up, you start to feel stressed, and give up on it a lot sooner then you would have had you kept up.
1,667 words is somewhere around 3 pages of Times New Roman 8 pt. font in a Word document (without too many paragraphs and speech.) If you write fast, it will take you under an hour. If you get stuck, you can try putting in a random sentence to keep you going. It could be about anything, for instance about how Shirley just noticed the pink elephant grinning at her maniacally in the corner. When you have to explain and write into the story the sentence you just put in, the words run by much faster.
That is, if you're not as worried about quality (though it can also provide you with good plot twists.)
It's a fun time, the mass emails do help, and the NaNoWriMo forums are great because you can complain with all the other people out there in the same writer's hell-month as you.
I'd like to try writing something like this sometime, but I suspect that it would take me far more than a month to write.
No planning, no character sketches, no world building...just...go.
And if you have any questions - feel free to email me whenever the fancy strikes you. Nano is one of my favorite topics!
Sounds insipid.
The first time it was basically a rewrite of a story I'd written years beforehand then last year was a story about a woman who was an author taking part in NaNo. It was mad and a lot more fun than my serious attempt from the first year.
The best bits as far as I'm concerned are the word wars where you try and churn out as much as you can as quickly as possible in competition against other people.
The important thing to remember is that it's all for fun, if at the end of it you end up with something which you think is a good novel then so much the better. I'm working on random stories all year round but I know that come November there's hundreds of thousands of other people all manically trying to up their word counts right along side me :D
My advice regarding ideas for the novel:
--Pick your favoritest genre.
--Throw ideas at the wall until you get one that doesn't sound boring.
--Look up "log lines" on the internet and develop one. You don't need to know the whole plot, but if you know who your hero is and what the fight is, it's much easier.
--Start writing.
Although I have done it with just steps one and four.
I wouldn't do this until you get closer to the date, though, unless you want to start early. Once you get a good idea, it's hard to wait :)
On another note: I'm just now getting ready to submit the first book to an agent. You'll also have to learn how to edit. Writing the first draft is the easy part, as long as you just keep writing.
Be aware that it isn't only a stressful time for you as the writer, it takes a toll on your family and friends. Every time I called my friend to hang out, she said that she was at the bookstore writing (or at home writing or at the coffee shop writing...) and I could join her if I wanted to. I would go and watch her write and I would feel bad interrupting her. So, yes, not exactly my idea of quality friend time.
Be warned!
Was a blast, I definitely recommend it to everyone. I never knew I loved writing so much.
I signed up for it in 2007, but didn't get farther than day two. I'd had surgery literally a month earlier, and I just didn't have the energy. I thought I'd be fine, but I wasn't. For me, that was a wake-up call: Writing - real writing - isn't a relaxing activity.
I've already got an idea for this year, though. *grins maniacally* I'll (hopefully) be in New Orleans on a mission trip for the first week, but that should give me lots of material to make up for the lost time. Hoo rah NaNoWriMo!
(sorry, but I had to say it eventually)
1700 words in a day isn't intimidating, but the problem comes about when you skip a day. 3000 words is a pretty long day. Skip two days and forget about it!
Check it out!
the book is here on
http://www.amazon.com/Thirty-Six-Dramatic-Situations-Georges-Polti/dp/0871161095
or you can find simple versions of it online..like here..
http://changingminds.org/disciplines/storytelling/plots/polti_situations/polti_situations.htm
Maybe that will help a little?