[Davies]

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is an international fun event to get you off your backside and writing a novel... well, a novella, anyway.

The challenge is to write 50,000 words of fiction during the month of November. This is a stiff but do-able challenge, even if you have other commitments. The emphasis is entirely on quantity, not quality -- to write at a fast and furious pace, and to keep on writing. If you want to edit and polish, leave that for December! All the writers form a community for mutual encouragement and to keep everything as much fun as possible.

If you sign up, nobody will ever read your work unless you decide to show it to them, so there's no pressure at all. You can write anything you want, in any language. When you submit text for verification, it passes directly to an automatic counter and is then deleted. You can even use "search and replace" to garble the text before you send it.

There is no competition, except between you and the 50,000-word challenge. If you make it to 50,000 words by midnight on 30 November, you are a winner (and can print out a certificate to prove it). If you don't quite make it that far, never mind. As somebody said, "Even if you only write 10,000 words, that's still 10,000 words more than you would have written otherwise."

I've signed up using the pen name BlockBreaker. I've been struggling with a creative block for a long time, and I think this will help me get through it at last.

The official NaNoWriMo website

My personal site, where you can follow my progress if you want to. I'm also taking the daring step of making my story (such as it is) accessible to anyone who wants to read it.

Is anybody else here a NaNo writer?

[Panthera]

Gah.. Now I'm wriggling in agony trying to decide wether or not I should participate in this.
First of all I'm a very self-concious writer, I edit and edit, and don't know if I'll be able to just accept it as it is and continue writing, and then there is all the other things I really should be doing with my time (if you've been reading the blog, you know some of it..)

At the same time this might give me the kick in the ass I need to actually work with other things too..

:S

[rlpw]

Originally Posted by Panthera

Gah.. Now I'm wriggling in agony trying to decide wether or not I should participate in this.
First of all I'm a very self-concious writer, I edit and edit, and don't know if I'll be able to just accept it as it is and continue writing, and then there is all the other things I really should be doing with my time (if you've been reading the blog, you know some of it..)

At the same time this might give me the kick in the ass I need to actually work with other things too..

:S

Woohoo You go kiddo!! Just remember to outline and fill in your story after you know where your going with it!!

[Spiwak]

I think this could be a lot of fun and coule produce some interesting experimental writing. I'll probably write some but I more than likely will never be able to get to 50,000 words in a month considering everything else I have to do. The problem is that November is a big month as far as my classes go...stuff due and tests the first week of december.

[Huz]

I've been tempted to try my hand at this for the past few years, and I would make the results public on a daily basis, too - but ultimately I haven't had the motivation and, this year, not the time either.

Having some kind of plot outline in mind towards the end of October that doesn't sound absolutely terrible - think Chris and Carmine's atrocious mafia/supernatural slasher movie idea from The Sopranos for an idea of the quality of my ideas - has always eluded me, too...

[Spiwak]

The point isn't having a good idea or a structure, from what I can tell. If I do it you can bet I'm just gonna be writing stream-of-conscious episodes and random ideas.

[Huz]

I don't see the point of writing stream of consciousness garbage. I use IRC, forums and MSN; I do it every day.

Sure, the point isn't to come up with an immaculately edited, perfectly structured bestselling novel over the course of a month. The idea is to be free from agonising over your grammar, or spending hours rewriting a tiny passage of inconsequential text, but I don't think it should stretch as far as writing nonsense.

Obviously that's just my view though - the beauty of this thing is that nobody will read what you write unless you thrust it upon them (and probably even if you do!), but I think you need to set out with some ideals of structure and plot otherwise it's a complete waste of time.

[Spiwak]

I disagree, first in that stream-of-consciousness or experimental writing is "nonsense." Ever read Burroughs?

And second in that it'd be a complete waste of time if you don't approach it like writing a novel. The approach I was referring to would be perfect for quickly exploring scenarios, themes, ideas, techniques and dropping them when a new idea comes up, and furthermore simply just practising your writing without constraint. You could revisit parts of your long unconnected crap and build on passages you randomly thought up while brainstorm-writing and then turn it into something real, explore further with a little more care, or simply keep the whole thing and look at it as an interesting experiment in the progression of your writing. My point is that for me it wouldn't be about finding the motivation to write a novel but finding the motivation to get some ideas on paper and simply write.

[lostwolfe]

well, i'm on board.

i've had an idea brewing in the back of my head since about august of this year, and most of my commitments to school end with a sudden abrupt stop on the fifteenth of november, but the last three weeks or so are all study weeks. i can get in a couple of hours of writing, which will be relaxing, between me actually studying. which will be less relaxing.

good luck to everyone taking part.

i'll certainly post a pointer to what's coming up, assuming it's worth reading.

[Squinky]

I've heard of NaNoWriMo, and always wanted to do something like it, seeing as I always take too long to finish pet projects unless I set a deadline for myself. I have, however, decided I'd rather write a game than a novel, though.

[Davies]

Originally Posted by Squinky

I've heard of NaNoWriMo, and always wanted to do something like it, seeing as I always take too long to finish pet projects unless I set a deadline for myself. I have, however, decided I'd rather write a game than a novel, though.

Well, you could write the storyline for your game! That counts as fiction. There seems to be one participant planning to write one of those "follow your own adventure" type books.

Most participants seem to have some sort of outline, but there are a lot who are just going to jump in and see where the writing takes them. There are a lot of silly dares flying around (like "include a squad of exploding ninja penguins"), and some people claim they just intend to string a whole load of dares together.

Some of the more serious long-running participants are on record as saying they use NaNoWriMo specifically to explore ideas, experiment with uncharacteristic themes or genres, etc. They hope to take some sort of seed away with them. Others are just in it for the fun. There are a lot of people who say they've always wanted to try to write but never had the nerve, and a lot of teenagers and even whole school classes.

The only point is to write and keep writing, which is why I think it will be good for my long-standing block. Anything counts, as long as it is basically fictional.

[lostwolfe]

squinky:

i think the idea of writing your game concept down might be a good one, actually. it might help you to figure out structure and create plots and so on. in fact, it's probably how abstract concepts came up with much of the core of the game that became "mindfighter."

in a way, it might even make it easier for you to see things like "division" in the game - how to break it down, where you can insert puzzles - why the puzzles might make sense in context. there's /lots/ of good reasons for you to try writing your game as a novel - or a long piece of text.

i think there's plenty of good reasons for you to try it that way.

as for myself, well...i'm probably going to take up my quill again as a kind of pressure release valve. all i've been doing this last year is studying and writing academic essays - and while they're furthering my academic career, they're completely bland and uninteresting.

the other reason i'm planning on doing this is because i haven't written anything in about a year now [since my last large writing project got finished] and i feel it's about time. that and i have a number of small ideas that have been sliding together like a jigsaw puzzle to make for something i could probably write.

again - good luck to everyone taking part.

[Squinky]

Here's what I'm ending up doing. Similar in principle, but without a minimum word restriction. Oh, and it goes from Oct. 23 - Nov. 23, seeing as I already started yesterday.

[lostwolfe]

squinky:

that looks good - nice plan there, good luck.