NaNoWriMo 2010

Margaret · Post by **Margaret** » Fri October 8th, 2010, 10:57 pm

Who's doing NaNoWriMo this year? I just signed up, and it would be great to have some buddies!

MLE (Emily Cotton) · Post by **MLE (Emily Cotton)** » Fri October 8th, 2010, 11:46 pm

I have never participated in this, on the theory that anything churned out just for the word count is likely to be lousy (at least if I write it). But I have gotten so bogged down with my current WIP, it feels like it will never be finished.

Before the granddaughter, I did over 90K in 3 months flat--twice! Now, even after she goes home at the end of the day, it seems like my motivation isn't there. I struggle to finish 2K in a week, and it's stiff as a board. So it couldn't get worse.

Maybe nanwrimo will give me the kick in the pants I need to get my word count back up.

I'm in.

How do you sign up?

LoveHistory · Post by **LoveHistory** » Sat October 9th, 2010, 12:43 am

Just go to http://www.nanowrimo.org and click on "sign up now!" right above the heading on the home page.

I'm in. Won't be shooting for 50,000 this time though. There's no way I could make it. If I get as much as 5,000 words done it will be a victory for me I think. Anyway I'll be running the Nan-Orphans Guild in the Newbies forum.

Margaret · Post by **Margaret** » Sat October 9th, 2010, 4:19 am

on the theory that anything churned out just for the word count is likely to be lousy

It'll be a first draft - no one expects the work that results from NaNoWriMo to be polished. The idea is to get that first draft done, which is the biggest hurdle and a huge milestone.

I'm working on a detailed outline, something I've never done before. But this story is complex, and I have a lot of research material to organize.

Does anyone who's done NaNo before know whether it's considered improper to have a few chapters already written before November 1? I have several drafted already. Now that I'm signed up for NaNo, I'm going to focus on making my outline as good as possible, but I do have a beginning written, and if I get the outline finished or have a brainstorm about a particular chapter before Nov. 1, it seems like it would be nuts to hold off on writing just because of NaNo.

LoveHistory · Post by **LoveHistory** » Sat October 9th, 2010, 4:52 pm

The ideal NaNo is written from scratch starting November 1 (not including outlines and research and all of that, which of course can be done beforehand). However, you are allowed to continue a work in progress provided you do not include any of the already written words in your NaNo wordcount.

The whole point of NaNo is to let the ideas flow and not give in to that nagging internal editor that slows you down. It can be very freeing. Some people have dubbed December NaNoEdMo, and every year there are discussions on editing as well as writing in the NaNo forums.

SarahWoodbury · Post by **SarahWoodbury** » Sat October 9th, 2010, 7:45 pm

I love NaNoWriMo (okay--a bit of a love/hate relationship). I'm waiting with bated breath because that crazy, insane, fingers-typing madly feeling is one I really only get during the month of November. The rest of the year, I get bogged down in making what I'm writing actually good. I know what I'm writing isn't good--it's not about good--it's about volume and getting ideas on the page so that you have something to actually edit later.

I have two NaNo novels now. I'm giving the first one away for free on Smashwords.com if anyone wants to take a look (it's called The Last Pendragon). I opted to do that rather than have it moulder on my desktop, because my agent and I have decided that we need to move on to my NaNo 2010 novel, which is in the final stages of polishing before he's going to start sending it out to publishers.

So give it a whirl. Anyone who wants to be my buddy, I'm signed up as 'DrSarah'.

Margaret · Post by **Margaret** » Sat October 9th, 2010, 11:02 pm

I'm your bud, DrSarah. For anyone else here who wants to be my buddy, I'm signed up at NaNo as WorldSoWide.

Thanks for the info, LoveHistory. From my outline, it's obvious this novel is going to run way more than 50,000 words (that would be only 200 or so manuscript pages!), so leaving out the few chapters I've already drafted will not make a dent. When I get to the revising stage (and really, already at the outline stage), the big challenge will be keeping the length within bounds.

MLE (Emily Cotton) · Post by **MLE (Emily Cotton)** » Sun October 10th, 2010, 12:17 am

I just signed up, but I can't figure out how to add writing buddies. Where is the link?

Miss Moppet · Post by **Miss Moppet** » Sun October 10th, 2010, 12:50 am

[quote=""Margaret""]It'll be a first draft - no one expects the work that results from NaNoWriMo to be polished. The idea is to get that first draft done, which is the biggest hurdle and a huge milestone. [/quote]

I wish it were my biggest hurdle. I find it all too easy producing first drafts - the problem is rewriting them into publishable fiction. As a result I put off writing the first draft, because the whole exercise feels pointless.

That said, if you all are going to participate I might sign up for the first time this year. I am outlining at present, but there's no real reason why I shouldn't be done by the end of October. I have about 20,000 words of scraps and sketches but I really have to start at the beginning (or rather not quite at the beginning because I suck at opening pages and I want to do that last) and try for a workable first draft at some point, and November is as good a time as any.

LoveHistory · Post by **LoveHistory** » Sun October 10th, 2010, 1:36 am

On each user's profile is a button or link to add them as your buddy.

I just tried going to the site and it seems to be down. Either that or my computer is being difficult again. I keep getting this message:
Can't connect to MySQL server on 'master-db' (113)