The Official NaNoWriMo 2007 Thread - important notice on last page

Mavjade, having titles is fine. So is planning out things. You just can't write any of the actual story itself until Novemeber. And your title sounds interesting.

 

You're not allowed to use fiction you've already written.

 

Mind you guys, there's no real way to prove you've started writing from scratch or not, but you'll know. Plan whatever you need, organize, outline, whatever, but not a word of the actual story to pen or processor until November 1st. You're on the honors system here. And if I do make it to the end, I know I'll have the satisfaction of doing it right.

Keep up the good work moosemouse. You'll get the rable rousers in shape by November yet!

 

Oh, forget it. I think I hit my stroke limit.

 

I picked a tentative title last night so now the whole thing feels a little more solid. I'll start outlining in the next week, a real detailed outline. Last year, it worked great; my 5000-word summary helped quite a bit, even though things didn't go entirely according to plan.

The tricky part is that I'm dealing with a set of all-original characters, and that means very lengthy character profiles for all of them except the minor charas (they get regular-length profiles). Tedious.

I also have no genre because it seems to dabble in about six different ones.

 

I did NaNoWriMo spur of the moment last year and didn't make it very far. I had a lot of fun with it though and I'm hoping to do a lot better this year. As in I'll actually do some planning and not restart a week in.

 

I am definitely giving this a go this year. I will be writing an original fic and have some of the planning done. I have a tendency to let the characters write the story as it progresses though so no over planning for me but I do have a basic idea of where it will head. The plan is to set it in the present with some fantasy elements thrown in.

So I signed up and now I can't seem to do anything, like edit my profile or even get to the forums over there. I'm hoping it is still glitches with the site even though I got confirmation. I'm guessing that it's still pretty busy.

 

NaNoWriMo sounded great when I first heard about it, but I feel I'm not really welcome there. Most of my ideas that are both interesting and potentially long enough tend to have fragments written down someplace. I've done it twice anyway, but it feels a bit silly to write less about an idea in preparation for a challenge intended to get people to get on with it.

 

Well, I've registered. I challenged a friend at work to do it, saying, "If you do it, I'll do it," and she said, "Sure, I'll do it." So, I'm in. My story is gonning to be based on something I almost did with a friend when I was a kid, but didn't 'cause we got caught before we could.

 

Well, like I said on the other board, I have a bit written from before I remembered about this, so I'll just set my personal goal to 50k + my current word amount.

 

Yes, I can see how restarting a week in could cause problems.

 

I'm really getting stoked for this. There's actually a NaNo group in the town I live in, and they meet year-round... I may go to their meeting this weekend.

 

That sounds good.

I can't log on at the moment, which is sucky.

 

I tried to go to our thread this morning UK time and the site was just hanging for me.

 

I'll be nanowrimoing again this year!

 

I haven't signed up officially yet but I'm deffinetely doing it again this year.

 

I have my plot, characters, and ideas for not just one but two full-lengths set out. I'm going to look at them both closely and decide which one is better.

 

Or you could do what the really insane people are doing, and write them both. Have fun choosing!

And the site is a bit . . . slow. They're working on it. After all, we must learn patience.

 

The idea of writing two novels while holding down a full-time job or begin a full-time student is a little insane but why not?

And wow, is the nano site ever slow. Don't people have other things to do on a Saturday evening?

 

The site wasn't too bad this morning. The main page said they will be doing work this weekend on some of the problems (including the speed).

 

Alright, I'm stupidly signing up for this again

I had a painfully short-lived attempt last time before giving up, but without the distraction of study this time I'll do better I've got myself a nice little Sci-Fi Romance novel currently plotting itself in my head, so we'll see how quickly it'll drag itself up to 50,000 words.

 

I won't be doing it because I have a hard enough time writing 5000 words a month, never mind 50000.

I do have many questions, though. I'm genuinely curious.
Why? What is the motivation for pushing yourself to write so much so fast?
Did it impact on your writing for the rest of the year?
Did you feel that you did a good job with it (if you did it before)?
Do you edit as you go along or just keep going once you've started? Do you go back and edit later?
If you didn't finish it in time last year, did you finish it later?
Do you publish your NaNoWriMo work somewhere besides NaNoWriMo?

It sounds like a facinating exercise.

 

Well, this one is an easy one for me. It's mainly because whenever I start an original story, I have a tendancy to either give up or let it sit idle forever. NaNo is all about making sure I carry my idea through to fruition. Yeah sure its basic and scrappy and whatnot, but it is at least a first draft. To this day I've never had a novel length first draft of an original story (which is strange, because I can burn through fanfic without a worry at all).

That's why I'm trying again. Its like a challenge to myself to prove that, if I tried really hard, I could make one of my ideas work.

 

This will be my third time. The first I did SW fan fiction and it was drek. Last year I had an original idea but I really had to pad it toward the end to make the 50K. It was still drek, but not as bad. This year I have a different idea and I am going to try outlining part of it so I have some structure going in.

I think with me it is the idea of having a deadline for the 50k. It makes me put pen to paper to get the words down. If you haven't read Chris Baty's book No Plot? No Problem! you should. Part of it is how NaNo started, some looks at people who have done it, tips on making the 50k, coming up with plots, etc. The second half is meant to be read during the NaNo month. There are sections for each week that say where you should be and attempt to give encouragement. I am re-reading the first part at the moment. Amazon should have the book in stock if no local bookstores have it.

As far as editting goes, the book says specifically that you don't edit. The idea is to get the first draft down without worrying about changing what you have written. In fact, the book tells you to send your 'Inner Editor' on vacation for the month.

 

That's the biggest problem for myself LAJ, ignoring the "inner editor". I always re-read the last thing I wrote to recapture my mindset before I continue, then the editor starts poking me with his hilighter...