Saturday, November 1, 2014

NaNoWriMo

I forgot to mention, I've decided to further overextend myself this month and participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in which crazy people around the world complete a 50,000 word novel in one month. I'm joining Younger Daughter and my dear friend Patty in this endeavor.


It's always a crazy-fun month, though of course some days are downright tedious. But fiction is interesting to dive into, even if I can't seem to get anywhere with it.


I just finished my first day's word count -- 1764, out of a minimum 1667 daily words -- so I suppose I'm off to a good start.


Is anyone else participating?

11 comments:

  1. I am signed up to write. Haven't started yet. Well an outline, but no words. Tried last year and got about half way thourgh

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  2. My daughter is participating, I think this is her ninth year. She is working toward getting published. I've done it three times but not recently because November is my busy month getting ready for the holidays. NaNoWriMo is a fun event. While at DLI in Monterey my daughter went to the NaNoWriMo offices and met the founder (can't remember his name off the top of my head) and had a great time visiting; she said they were awesomely friendly and encouraging.

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  3. You can do it Patrice! Two years ago I conceived and completed a 100,000 word novel (http://www.amazon.com/Poisoned-Soil-T-Young-ebook/dp/B009EAV6VY/) in only five weeks. I had a tight window because the cows were dried off and I had to finish before cheese making season began again!

    Tim Young
    authortimyoung.com

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  4. I'm in...as of right now! Thanks for the invite/challenge. I filled out my synopsis but since I'm brand new at this, what does "Novel Excerpt" mean? I'm guess it means a teaser from a random page but it is asking me for it before I even begin writing?

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    1. Good for you!

      You don't have to fill in anything novel-related (except perhaps a working title) when registering on the NaNoWriMo website, so don't worry about an excerpt. All I do is fill in my word count each day because it's fun to watch the graph grow.

      Happy writing!

      - Patrice

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    2. Oye! It just took me almost two hours to pen 1509 words (which is shy of the 1667 required daily). I'll go back to add a few more to stay on target.

      How long does it generally take you to pen the daily requirement? I'm hoping it gets easier with practice...

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    3. It does get easier with practice. I try to plot each chapter out in advance so at least I know where I'm going (others prefer the seat-of-the-pants method -- either can work).

      Younger Daughter and I will often do what we call "half-hour marathons" where I set the kitchen timer and we pound the keyboard undisturbed for half an hour. It's pretty draining but at least it's short-lived, and we can each get about 1000 words done in that amount of time.

      - Patrice

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  5. I'd like to encourage you and/or younger_daughter to make a previous work available. I've reviewed / commented on a friends book before. It's a large leap of trust to open yourself up to the criticism of a review but I think it can be helpful provided the reviewer tries to stick to constructive criticism.

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  6. I am doing it this year as well. I do not expect a publishable book, but I am writing what I enjoy and getting practice out of writing every day.

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  7. I'm in! I am a hard-core plotter and have an iterative writing process, revising each scene as I go, so I was not sure how to make the NaNo fast-draft process work for me.
    I gutted through a couple of days this weekend, really hating my output. Then realized I can rewrite a scene as many times as I want, I just have to stop using the "delete" key. I can unscramble the multiple versions in an edit round when the month is over. My words-per-hour is actually a lot higher than I thought - I just wasn't keeping them all before!

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  8. Two of my children (ages 8 and 9) are participating as part of their homeschool co-op. They both love to write and are so excited to be writing "real" novels!

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