National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) 2009

**ola** · 10-13-2009 08:55 AM

About 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.

I think this sounds fun, is anyone here doing this? It also sounds crazy and unrealistic, but I'm always up for that.

**Lily-sai** · 10-13-2009 09:05 AM

I've wanted to participate for a several years now. Mayhap now I'll do it at last.

**Jean** · 10-13-2009 09:22 AM

I'm dying to participate, but know I will be too busy for this...

**pathoftheturtle** · 10-13-2009 09:23 AM

Never heard of it. *thinks for a-sec* Sure, I think I will.

Maybe I'll become the next Jack Kerouac.

**Lily-sai** · 10-13-2009 09:25 AM

Originally Posted by Jean

I'm dying to participate, but know I will be too busy for this...

I'm so sure you would've written something heart-breakingly beautiful.

path, awesome! If any of you participates, tell your author names as well.

*whispers* mine is liisasy

**Bev Vincent** · 10-13-2009 09:48 AM

I've done it twice. Once I planned the book out and wrote to a mental outline to keep me on track every day. The second time I had about 9 days at the end of the month where I wrote 4-8000 words a day that got me to the finish line.

**Lily-sai** · 10-13-2009 09:58 AM

This made me giggle.

1) I hereby acknowledge that I am capable of amazing feats of literary output in ridiculously short amounts of time. When the going gets tough this November, I will keep writing, and I will not stop until I reach 50,000 words. Or until my arms fall off. At which point I will type with my nose.
3) I promise to have fun this November. To give myself permission to make mistakes, write some deeply imperfect prose, and not beat myself up over every word and paragraph. Life is short. The world needs my novel. This fall, I will get it written.

**candy** · 10-13-2009 10:03 AM

this sounds really cool, i may just give it a go. (i am one of those people that always wanted to write a novel but ended up binning it half way through because i thought it was rubbish)

Liisa have you done this before then?
Ola are you signing up for it?

**Lily-sai** · 10-13-2009 10:11 AM

Nope, haven't done this before, so I'm really excited to give it a try. It'd be great if you'd participating too!

**candy** · 10-13-2009 11:12 AM

Originally Posted by Lily-sai

Nope, haven't done this before, so I'm really excited to give it a try. It'd be great if you'd participating too!

i am in!!!! manxgirl is my name.

i am a bit peeved as mr c says he has no faith that i can do it. so i am going to do it just to proove him wrong

**Lily-sai** · 10-13-2009 11:41 AM

worry not, I believe in you. then mr c will be peeved when you've done it.

**ola** · 10-14-2009 02:02 PM

Somehow I missed all these responses!

candy: I just signed up. The last story I wrote was in high school (some bits and pieces since then), I used to want to be a fantasy writer and then lost confidence...so I feel like I should at least give it a try. I have a few ideas stored away for something like this. I'm glad you're in!

My user name is same as here (ola).

**Lily-sai** · 10-15-2009 03:28 AM

I'm excited and a bit nervous, too.

But I'll do what I can do - until my arms fall off and then I'll type with my nose. ^^

**pathoftheturtle** · 10-15-2009 09:32 AM

Originally Posted by Lily-sai

path, awesome! If any of you participates, tell your author names as well.

Dük Maturin *lol*

**Lily-sai** · 10-15-2009 09:37 AM

YAY! \o/

**candy** · 10-15-2009 09:39 AM

oh this is so cool, this is going to be fun.
Without giving anything away (if you dont want to) has anyone got any ideas?
i have a few bubbling around but nothing definate yet

**Jean** · 10-15-2009 11:09 PM

bears are very excited, please don't give up anyone, post track of your progress

**ola** · 10-15-2009 11:45 PM

Lily-sai, is your user name the same as here? I searched and couldn't find it. :/

**Darkthoughts** · 10-16-2009 07:41 AM

There's an existing Nanowrimo thread if you want to merge, Jean

http://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/...read.php?t=685

I'd forgotten about it this year, I think I'm still on there as Shadowself, I'll have to check...

**Jean** · 10-16-2009 07:50 AM

Originally Posted by Darkthoughts

There's an existing Nanowrimo thread if you want to merge, Jean

http://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/...read.php?t=685

I'd forgotten about it this year, I think I'm still on there as Shadowself, I'll have to check...

thank you love! I was going to merge them after this season was through

To avoid confusion, I will also rename this thread, adding the year, if ola doesn't object

**Darkthoughts** · 10-16-2009 07:54 AM

**pathoftheturtle** · 10-17-2009 10:24 AM

Originally Posted by candy

oh this is so cool, this is going to be fun.
Without giving anything away (if you dont want to) has anyone got any ideas?
i have a few bubbling around but nothing definate yet

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/526420

**ola** · 10-17-2009 02:21 PM

If anyone is raring to go, I liked this warm-up idea:

"I thought that while we waited for November, we could write 'practice scenes' in under two hundred words to get better acquainted with our (and each other's!) stories. Not to be used for the November word count... but it's one thing to list the hero's traits and quite another to demonstrate them.

So, here's my challenge: write a scene in under two hundred words that epitomizes a character, a relationship, or maybe just the tone of the story you wanted to work on"..."The simpler, the better."

Edit: here is the thread since it probably makes more sense to do it there:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3271442

**candy** · 10-18-2009 02:34 AM

Originally Posted by Lily-sai

*whispers* mine is liisasy

Originally Posted by ola

Lily-sai, is your user name the same as here? I searched and couldn't find it. :/

hope this helps ola? i have got liisa as a writing buddy now so just take a look on mine

**ola** · 10-19-2009 10:41 PM

Thanks!

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