Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Your thoughts on NaNoWriMo?

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

To visit this topic, use this URL:
http://www.hatrack.com/ubb/writers/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=005752

Posted by genevive42 (Member # 8714) on :

Has anyone ever done NaNoWriMo? Was it worth it? Or did it just eat up valuable time you could have been spending on your main writing projects?

I am wondering if such a project will help me loosen up and worry less about the exact words I put on the page. Or, if it will be a less than worthy distraction.

If I decide to do it I am debating on whether I should tackle it with the serious intent that what I write may become a novel one day or whether I should start with an outrageous premise so that I may work as loosely as possible.

Your thoughts?

Posted by Unwritten (Member # 7960) on :

LOVED IT!
I already have an idea of what I'm going to do this November. It's such a liberating, wonderful experience. Plus, I can tell all sorts of people that I'm just not available for their crazy projects in November. It's mine. All mine!
Melanie

Posted by Unwritten (Member # 7960) on :

I think a Nanowrimo novel has every bit as much chance of being published as a novel written for any other reason. It takes a certain level of planning, but you should keep it flexible. A nice, beginning, middle and end and a few well developed characters is enough for me.

Posted by Kitti (Member # 7277) on :

I've debated doing it each time it rolled around, for the past few years, but never took the plunge because I never felt that I had a novel idea that was developed enough for me to just write it. OSC made a comment about world-building that I think makes a lot of sense when taken in the context of NaNoWriMo:

quote:
Keep inventing until you get so excited you have to write your idea.

So if NaNoWriMo ever coincides with that moment when I've got the story all built up in my head and I'm ready for it to just spill out on the page, then great! But if not, then I'm not going to force myself to write just for the sake of writing. IMO that's okay at short story length, or to generate story ideas, but at novel length that can be deadly. After all, if I come up with some cool idea halfway into my story (because I hadn't thought everything through enough beforehand) but it contradicts everything I've already written, I'll just have to throw everything I've written out and start over again. At 6K, okay fine whatever. But at 60K??? Eeps!

Posted by babooher (Member # 8617) on :

I've tried it and only managed to get to about 30,000 words. It is hard and fun and torture and bliss.

Posted by genevive42 (Member # 8714) on :

I've considered doing something like an intergalactic road trip. Of course I'd have some overall purpose for the trip to make it a cohesive novel but if it ultimately ended up producing a few short story gems I wouldn't complain.

I could use a few more short stories to circulate in my quest to get published.

Posted by Owasm (Member # 8501) on :

It helps if you do some preplanning. As I understand NaNoWriMo preplanning is OK as long as you don't use any of the text you've generated in getting ready.

If you take a look at the Midsummer Madness section at Writing Challenges from 60 days ago, there is some structure in that program to get an outline, if that would be useful.

After completing Midsummer Madness, I was able to write the first draft of a novel in two weeks (about 55,000 words.) I spent a lot of long nights at it, but having the outline in hand gave me the kind of direction that let me zoom through.

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

It seems a worthwhile effort if you can keep up the pace...these days, I haven't got the time.

Back in the bad old days of typewriters, I did write a fifty-thousand-word Harlequin Romance...of course it wasn't any damned good...and, also of course, I've never been able to replicate the pace of the writing with an SF novel...

Posted by KayTi (Member # 5137) on :

Yes, have done it the last two years and I highly recommend it! It's a crazy ride, but it's really good for a variety of reasons:

1) It creates a daily writing habit
2) It's a tangible goal - 50k words, 30 days
3) The goal is attainable. 1667 words/day ...I type fast, this is nothing to me. LOL
4) Because it's goal-directed and limited in time, it's kind of easy to prioritize writing for once in my life.
5) There are a lot of other people doing the same thing at the same time so you can commiserate/they can harass you about your progress.
6) There are some really awesome "pep talks" by well-known authors throughout the weeks that give great insights into the hows and whys of writing.
7) You MUST turn off your inner editor if you want to finish, and turning it off is so incredibly liberating you might find that you can just periodically lose that editor and write more freely at other times.
8) When you are done you have a book. Even if it's a messy and awful pile of cliches and paper-thin characters, it's still a book. How many other people you know (this group notwithstanding) can say they've written a book in their lives? Much less several?? LOL

Even if you don't have time to do a lot of prep work, use your "thinking out loud" about characters, plot, setting as part of your novel work. One of my projects was more well-planned than the other. For the less-well-planned project, I would at the end of each writing session try to come up with 3-4 scenes I wanted to focus on for the next time. Then when I started up I had something to start from and wasn't just staring into space (I'm an at-home mom and work part-time, so I don't have any time to be staring into space!) Even though that novel is much messier than the other one, it's still a novel, and it's something I did. It's an accomplishment even if it never sees the light of day, know what I mean?

So - hop on the bandwagon and have a screaming good time doing it! Check out what Nano events are going on in your area, might be a good way to meet local writers.

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

Left out a key phrase in my last post: I wrote a fifty-thousand word Harlequin Romance in a week.

Posted by BenM (Member # 8329) on :

Yep, did it last year and enjoyed it. I think that within the confines of its own stated goals it's well worth it; depending on the time available some of us will produce better work at a different pace, however, so I won't be doing it this year - I'll be working through this year's novel already.

There was a summary of Hatrackers' impressions of Nano last year here.

Posted by ScardeyDog (Member # 8707) on :

I signed up for NaNo this year for the first time too. I've never written anything longer than 2K words, so it should be an adventure.

I'll be sure to harrass you about your progress throughout the month. If I have time to be online that is!

Posted by dee_boncci (Member # 2733) on :

I'm right on the fence for signing up this year. Even went so far as to buy the book.

Never done NaNoWriMo before, although I have slogged through drafts of a couple novel-length creations.

We'll see, I guess

Posted by genevive42 (Member # 8714) on :

Okay, all right, I'm going to do it. I signed up.

I've started creating some characters and an outline. It's a great thing to do while I'm at work.

I'd love to think I could do all mt NaNo writing at work but October is when we start to get really busy.

I'm sure it's going to be a wild ride.