Anyone doing NaNoWriMo this year?

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TheIncredibleLioness

TheIncredibleLioness

kiwifarms.net
Joined
May 15, 2013
I'm mostly asking out of curiosity: I haven't met many people who actually do NaNoWriMo, aside from my small collection of online friends. You guys seem to be, on the whole, a pretty creative bunch so I thought I'd ask.

For those not in the know, National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, is an exercise in creative writing. During November, your goal is to write 50,000 words, with the idea that by the end of November, you'll have a whole book to call your own. You don't have to stick to 50,000 words, but that's the minimum to 'win'. You get some neat offers and prizes if you win, though the only one I've ever utilized is getting 5 free (self-published) copies through CreateSpace. It's more for my personal use and not for sale, but there's still something exciting about holding a print copy of my book.

I've done NaNo since 2009, and won each year, admittedly not an easy feat. I plan on doing it again this year, though the hectic pace of library school makes me wonder how well I'll keep up with it. I find it fun, even if some people think that NaNo's not a good way to write a book. Perhaps not, but I enjoy myself, even if I find errors and poor writing every time I reread old NaNos (repetition, so much repetition). This year's project is called Aspera Virtus (because fantasy's not fantasy without a pretentious Latin title), the story of a TRUE AND HONEST sorcerer attempting to overthrow the DANG, DIRTY PRINCE of his area, mostly by trying to lure him with a fake girlfriend he found somewhere. There's also some stuff about EMANUEL GOD the god that granted the sorcerer his powers, but...yeah I haven't worked out all the details just yet. :oops: I probably should get on that before Thursday.

(Yes, I like to describe stuff in CWCisms because it makes me laugh, even if it's not quite accurate. My 2011 NaNo was better for that though.)

So, after all that spergin', is anyone else doing NaNo this year? Does anyone want to talk about their story ideas? Maybe we could swap NaNo usernames, if there's enough interest?
 
Oah, oooh, ooh, ooh, I've heard of it! I have a friend that would do it every year and post her results on another forum. She'd also go there to narrow down ideas. I think we may have had a thread for it here last year, but with the whole TOS'ing thing, it was probably lost and forgotten about.

I don't think I'm gonna do it this year. I have a lot on my plate for the month and can't be arsed to write a novel.
 
I'm not going to write anything, but [cwc]A Girl Who Brought Down the World[/cwc] was written for nanowrimo by Clyde. I always liked it. There was a free printed copy that Clyde had sent to Chris. I was going to try to use my connections to get it myself, but fatty gave it to Rocky, who read it and told Chris it was making fun of him. She ended up keeping it or throwing it away or something, and that always annoyed me.
 
Marvin said:
I'm not going to write anything, but [cwc]A Girl Who Brought Down the World[/cwc] was written for nanowrimo by Clyde. I always liked it. There was a free printed copy that Clyde had sent to Chris. I was going to try to use my connections to get it myself, but fatty gave it to Rocky, who read it and told Chris it was making fun of him. She ended up keeping it or throwing it away or something, and that always annoyed me.
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Was that a NaNo project? I had no idea!

But yeah, for the past 5-6 years, NaNo offered a deal to winners in conjunction with the self-pub company CreateSpace, where winners could get one free proof copy (essentially a copy just to see how the finished product will look, but not the finished book itself). Was that the copy that was sent to Chris? In which case...damn, that's terrible. For some reason I always thought that they'd just mailed Chris a printout or something, not an actual book. There's only one (physical) copy of that and it's possibly sitting in a desk drawer somewhere, at best. I can understand why you're annoyed.
 
TheIncredibleLioness said:
Marvin said:
I'm not going to write anything, but [cwc]A Girl Who Brought Down the World[/cwc] was written for nanowrimo by Clyde. I always liked it. There was a free printed copy that Clyde had sent to Chris. I was going to try to use my connections to get it myself, but fatty gave it to Rocky, who read it and told Chris it was making fun of him. She ended up keeping it or throwing it away or something, and that always annoyed me.
Click to expand...

Was that a NaNo project? I had no idea!

But yeah, for the past 5-6 years, NaNo offered a deal to winners in conjunction with the self-pub company CreateSpace, where winners could get one free proof copy (essentially a copy just to see how the finished product will look, but not the finished book itself). Was that the copy that was sent to Chris? In which case...damn, that's terrible. For some reason I always thought that they'd just mailed Chris a printout or something, not an actual book. There's only one (physical) copy of that and it's possibly sitting in a desk drawer somewhere, at best. I can understand why you're annoyed.
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Oh, yeah, that was what they had sent to Chris. And he gave it to Rocky and, yeah, it's probably just sitting in a desk drawer or something.
 
My mom told me about it last week and I thought it would be fun to try.
 
Marvin said:
I'm not going to write anything, but [cwc]A Girl Who Brought Down the World[/cwc] was written for nanowrimo by Clyde. I always liked it. There was a free printed copy that Clyde had sent to Chris. I was going to try to use my connections to get it myself, but fatty gave it to Rocky, who read it and told Chris it was making fun of him. She ended up keeping it or throwing it away or something, and that always annoyed me.
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What always got me was when he said something along the lines of "Um yeah Rocky said she didn't like it because it wasn't very nice so I don't like it because it wasn't very nice."

I don't think this is a bad way to write a first draft. Get out the story you've always wanted to write, and then look it over when finished. Are you still just satisfied with having the story out? Or do you want to take it further and write another draft and see how far you can take it? Like I said, it's not a bad way to get the ball rolling.

I don't think I'm going to participate. However, I would like to write a short story about an old tornado legend that may or may not have been passed down through certain indian tribes (even if the "old indian legend" part is bullshit it's an interesting concept I'd like to explore).
 
I might try it for the heck of it, like writing the biography of the lolcow I wrote about in the lolcow forum, Richie (aka Dick) Ryder. It will probably be crap, but that's OK. I don't fancy myself a writer but it would be fun to try to write a novel.
 
exball said:
My mom told me about it last week and I thought it would be fun to try.
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You should definitely try it! I tend to like planning in advance, but planning as you go, or even just going by the seat of your pants, can be fun too.

MysticMisty said:
I don't think this is a bad way to write a first draft. Get out the story you've always wanted to write, and then look it over when finished. Are you still just satisfied with having the story out? Or do you want to take it further and write another draft and see how far you can take it? Like I said, it's not a bad way to get the ball rolling.

I don't think I'm going to participate. However, I would like to write a short story about an old tornado legend that may or may not have been passed down through certain indian tribes (even if the "old indian legend" part is bullshit it's an interesting concept I'd like to explore).
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I agree! Unfortunately while I keep saying I'll rewrite mine, I keep going back to work on an older (non-NaNo) story, and they've remained first drafts ever since. School doesn't help, haha. One day they'll all get rewritten and made somewhat less shitty and repetitive. One day. I also like the short story idea too -- I get a lot of ideas from stuff like that as well (even if the supposed concept behind it is bs, they can really get you to think.)

GrandNumberOfPounds said:
I might try it for the heck of it, like writing the biography of the lolcow I wrote about in the lolcow forum, Richie (aka Dick) Ryder. It will probably be crap, but that's OK. I don't fancy myself a writer but it would be fun to try to write a novel.
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You don't have to be a writer, you just have to like writing. A full biography of a lolcow sounds pretty interesting.

Also, for your amusement, some of the SA goons went over a NaNo fic written by a Troper, correctly pointing out that the author seemed to be more about just getting the daily wordcount than taking time to wrap up plot lines in a nice, coherent fashion (note: don't do this). Fun to skim through if you're into that sort of thing: Anime is the Tie that Binds Us, aka Mills College Anime Club.
 
I always mean to get through the whole month, but somehow I always get off track. (:_( I wish there was a good way to motivate myself to pull through it.
 
I don't know, I have to think about it. It sounds like a lot of work, but it might be fun. I'll try it for a few days, but I may only do it for a week before I quit.

Edit: I think I'm going to spend the month of November learning about creative writing and maybe trying out my new skills.

I PM'ed an author on YouTube and he recommended the following books, by literary agent Donald Maass:

Writing the Breakout Novel
The Fire in Fiction
Writing 21st Century Fiction
 
I'm working on one, but I'm behind. Day two and I'm only at 925 words.
 
Probably not, I'm not that good when it comes to story telling. Hell, I remember some of my stories from elementary/junior high included a crossover with the Planet of The Apes, a shitty Godzilla clone featuring a mutated cow, and a parody of the Batman mythos with a fat guy who's origin consisted of eating a contaminated burger.

Plus, I don't think I could ever write down 50,000 words in a month.
 
Nah. I love writing, and making a competition out of it - even a friendly competition - takes the fun out of it.
 
bradsternum said:
Nah. I love writing, and making a competition out of it - even a friendly competition - takes the fun out of it.
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I never really saw it as a contest. I always thought it was about writing a whole fucking novel in a month which sounded pretty radical to me.
 
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