Hatrack River Writers Workshop: NaNoWriMo

This is topic NaNoWriMo in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by Denem (Member # 8434) on :

I am seriously considering registering for NaNoWriMo this year and I'd like to hear from anyone that has participated in past years or is also considering doing it this year.

What can I expect?
Is it worth it?

Posted by Sunshine (Member # 3701) on :

I've done NaNoWriMo. How fun it is basically depends on your effort. If you live in a region with MLs who like to organize group gatherings, "write-ins" etc., that can be a lot of fun but I notice that only a few people who attend write-ins actually write. The pep emails from authors and organizers of NaNo are pretty fun to read.

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

Some of the topics for past years of NaNoWriMo:

http://www.hatrack.com/forums/writers/forum/Forum1/HTML/005190.html

http://www.hatrack.com/forums/writers/forum/Forum1/HTML/004289.html

http://www.hatrack.com/forums/writers/forum/Forum1/HTML/003421.html

http://www.hatrack.com/forums/writers/forum/Forum1/HTML/003378.html

http://www.hatrack.com/forums/writers/forum/Forum1/HTML/003100.html

http://www.hatrack.com/forums/writers/forum/Forum1/HTML/002609.html

http://www.hatrack.com/forums/writers/forum/Forum1/HTML/002586.html

http://www.hatrack.com/forums/writers/forum/Forum1/HTML/002565.html

http://www.hatrack.com/forums/writers/forum/Forum1/HTML/002454.html

http://www.hatrack.com/forums/writers/forum/Forum1/HTML/001482.html

http://www.hatrack.com/forums/writers/forum/Forum1/HTML/001409.html

http://www.hatrack.com/forums/writers/forum/Forum1/HTML/000794.html

http://www.hatrack.com/forums/writers/forum/Forum1/HTML/000464.html

Enjoy!

Posted by KayTi (Member # 5137) on :

I've done it for two years and enjoyed it immensely. It's a crazy run, but worth it. There are online activities if your local area doesn't have a lot of wrimos, but truthfully, just creating a goal (that you know a lot of other people are out there working towards as well) and writing like your pants are on fire is a really great exercise. It's particularly good for turning off your inner editor (no way the editor can keep up with the mayhem!) but also good for just establishing a daily writing discipline, word goal counts, etc. I've learned that I work really well under that kind of time pressure/crunch and that I actually do figure out plot problems that otherwise seem to paralyze me when I am not running into a deadline. A big relief to discover that.

You should definitely do it! Good luck.

Posted by Unwritten (Member # 7960) on :

I love it. I've done it for 2 years, and it always seems like it's going to be impossible given everything else I have going on, but the sheer impossibility of it is what makes me buckle down and do it. Last year was so hard I wasn't sure I was having fun til it was all over. But it's the single most important thing I've ever done to turn myself into a writer.
Melanie

Posted by Unwritten (Member # 7960) on :

...and joining Hatrack comes in second place, by the way...

Posted by KayTi (Member # 5137) on :

Ditto on those two points, Unwritten.

Posted by BenM (Member # 8329) on :

Ah, NaNoWriMo. We had the best of times, we had the worst of times.

I don't know if I'll do it again this year, but I found it immensely useful when trying it for the first time last year. For years I had allowed life's distractions to keep me from achieving anything remotely novel-length, being quite satisfied with short stories.

As artificial and arbitrary as it was, the notion of a deadline, and of setting a hard wordcount goal, made all the difference. A graph on the fridge that I updated each night with my progress, the act of posting my wordcount in a public place, these were sufficient to motivate the competitor in me to buckle down and see the job done.

Emerging with a 75K rough draft in mid December I had learned a lot about writing, my abilities, and the realities of working in a longer story structure. I also had a new favourite writing form.

I'll be disappointed though if I don't manage to repeat the process again this year without the crutch of NaNo. Currently I've scheduled May-June for my next writing project. I know it's possible, but will I see it through?

As for the 'social' aspects of NaNo, I found them a mixed bunch. The forums were often a waste of time, but useful for making my wordcount visible so as to keep myself motivated. I attended one write-in, but found the allegedly social aspect somewhat overrated and/or distracting - it wasn't like we sat around and talked about writing (which might have been helpful), though one of us was a published novelist. I'm a solitary writer, preferring and being more productive in my own quiet writing time at home. The concept of word wars and vomiting wordcount onto a page I generally find abhorrent, so I think (as with anything), you make of NaNoWriMo what you will.

It costs nothing; so if you go into it knowing what you want to get out of it, I can't see how you can go wrong.