NaNoWriMo and Novel Prep

[cjhuitt]

I was curious how many people here do NaNoWriMo? Once, sporadically, or regularly? Do you plot and plan ahead of time, or wait until the starting gun (or later) and free-write?

I'm planning on doing it again, and one thing that has been helpful is a local lady runs an email planning session leading up to November, based on Michael Stackpole's 21 Days to a Novel. I tried that last year and it was pretty good, but I like switching things up for NaNo to see if I can find anything that works better. Accordingly, I've been thinking about going through the novel-planning posts on Jim Butcher's liveblog this year.

Is anyone interested in doing this as well? I've found doing it with a group helps keep me doing the parts I might otherwise skip. We could have a thread for it hear (I assume), or set up something elsewhere, such as Google Docs, putting things in Dropbox, or even this IRC thing that Sad Dragon and others have talked about.

November's almost 2 months away, still, but I figure it may take me a month to plan what my novel-planning method will be this year (did that even make sense?), so I thought I'd better start early.

[Mindie]

I am planning my Nano project right now. I'm totally with you on this. The novel planning posts from Jim Butcher sounds great. I love his stuff.

I did nano last year for the first time and my outline saved my trash. I believe that good organization and outlining is key to success. It was so much fun last year and I plan to make it a part of my life every year.

A thread here or on the nano site would be great!

Let me know.

[Mandamon]

I did Nano for the first time last year with my wife. In fact, that's where The Best Kind of Present comes from! My wife wrote her first book as well. I didn't write any text beforehand, but I did create an entire outline and do research on the historical people, knowing I wouldn't have time while writing.

Thoughts from last year: I like the concept, and it really gets you into the habit of writing each day (which I've tried to keep up, even if not 1600 words). However, what comes out of it needs to be seriously edited to come close to something worthwhile, so that makes me sad. This year, I don't think I will do something completely new, but rather, use the contest to make myself re-write my first book, which I've been putting off for a while. It had some major problems, and now I have the whole outline, with changes, in my head, but I'm not sure I'm good enough to do it justice yet. Nano will let me just write without worrying, and then later I can come back and edit.

Doing it with a group really helps. My wife and I would compare notes each day to find out how many words we could finish by the end of the month. I'm certainly up for posting results or something on this forum as well. There's also a friend function on the NaNoWriMo website that lets you track others' progress.

[TheSadDragon]

Not sure I will be participating in NaNo as I'm planning to have the first draft of my book ready before November and maybe even having started revisions by then -- though there is a big NaNo group in Sweden apparently. If it helps though I could always try and get a revision done during the month or help any keeping the spirits up any way I can. Maybe work on a few smaller short stories instead of making one big 40k+ novel during the same time.

-TSD

[Mindie]

I'm having trouble finding the advice on Jim Butchers site. Anyone wanna post a link?

[TheSadDragon]

Not sure if this is the one but its the only one I have found so far http://jimbutcher.livejournal.com/4053.html

And with that it is time for me to sleep. nn all.

-TSD

[Silk]

I've done NaNo once so far, and it was great fun (technically, I've participated every year, but the one year I finished was the only year I really got started). I'd definitely like to do it again this year, but whether I do will depend mostly on where I'm at with my MA thesis. And November is typically a big month for grading assignments, so we'll see. I'm tentatively interested in participating, anyway.

[cjhuitt]

I'm having trouble finding the advice on Jim Butchers site. Anyone wanna post a link?

Not sure if this is the one but its the only one I have found so far http://jimbutcher.livejournal.com/4053.html'>http://jimbutcher.livejournal.com/4053.html

And with that it is time for me to sleep. nn all.

-TSD

That's one of the posts I'm talking about. If you go to http://jimbutcher.livejournal.com and scroll to the bottom, then start reading up, that's basically what I was looking at. It makes things seem to simple, though as everyone knows, simple doesn't necessarily mean easy.

[Mindie]

That's one of the posts I'm talking about. If you go to http://jimbutcher.livejournal.com and scroll to the bottom, then start reading up, that's basically what I was looking at. It makes things seem to simple, though as everyone knows, simple doesn't necessarily mean easy.

I love it. Thank you.

When do we start? Now? Can I start now?

[cjhuitt]

When do we start? Now? Can I start now?

If you're excited to start, don't let me stop you.

However, I think I'll create a thread here later with the first steps, and we'll see how it goes from there.

[Deoradhan]

Rewriting the thing I did for NaNo last year for NaNo this year. Should be interesting/fun

[Mindie]

If you're excited to start, don't let me stop you.

However, I think I'll create a thread here later with the first steps, and we'll see how it goes from there.

I fell asleep that night at the computer. It was late.

Challenge accepted. I will post as soon as i can (most likely next week).

[Aminar]

I'm not sure... The con I help direct is in november, as is Hunting(I'm from Wisconsin. Even if I don't shoot anything going off into the middle of nowhere is required... At least the poker is fun.)

November is such a terrible month for me to do a ton of writing.

[akoebel]

I did it last year, but only because my next book had matured enough in my mind so I could begin writing it at the time.

I wrote like a mad man and managed to get out 100k even with a con in the middle. It nearly destroyed my social life in November, but I got to write my yearly book in one month.

I'm a discovery writer, so I won't plan a book in advance except for a bit of research (last year, I researched Crannogs because I thought they were cool); aside from that, it's all free pantsy write.

What I liked:

* Seems like I work much faster when I'm on a deadline.

* It made me meet other writers and start a regular writers group (can of worms here).

* Words flowed and flowed and flowed.

* Got to actually meet an established writer there.

* Used Scrivener for the first time (they had a NaNoWriMo special rate)

What I didn't like so much:

* The atmosphere in the write-ins : you've got people talking and not writing; then someone decrees "word war" and everyone types like mad for 15 minutes; then nothing gets written in the next half hour. It's not the most efficient way to write : I'd rather write constantly than in bursts, but that's just me.

* I'm not a competitive person, so having other people around didn't help me. In fact, I got the feeling me being there wasn't encouraging to the others. Another writer the first Sunday : "How many words did you write?" Me : "23k" The other writer sighs : "Get out."

* When you validate your wordcount over 50k, the damnation thing says you're a winner and stops recording. Bad!

Would I do it again? Certainly if events aligned well enough for me to have a book ready to write by November 1st. I might go nano-rebel this year and edit last year's book. Editing 100k in one month should be a real challenge for me, given my low editing speed.

[Silk]

* When you validate your wordcount over 50k, the damnation thing says you're a winner and stops recording. Bad!

Unless they've changed it recently, I think that you can continue to update your word count if you re-validate. Which, admittedly, is kind of a pain in the butt.

Edited September 16, 2012 by Silk

[Asmodemon]

Ah, NaNoWriMo So far I've been doing it every year since 2008, managing to reach the finish of 50,000 words every time. Last year I also used Jim Butcher's approach and it worked really well for me in combination with creating a very detailed outline. With the outline it was possible to write 10,000 words on a good day in the weekends (which I needed since I lost one week on vacation in China and a second week lying sick in bed).

I'm entering again this year, though I've also planned my vacation to Japan in the same period, so I will have to do my writing while travelling from place to place. Not ideal, but it'll be an interesting challenge.

Working on planning the story right. I'm going for a sort-of fantasy prison break(-in) this year.

[cjhuitt]

* Seems like I work much faster when I'm on a deadline.

* It made me meet other writers and start a regular writers group (can of worms here).

*Used Scrivener for the first time (they had a NaNoWriMo special rate)

I enjoyed these benefits also (although for me, the Scrivener thing was from two years ago).

* The atmosphere in the write-ins : you've got people talking and not writing; then someone decrees "word war" and everyone types like mad for 15 minutes; then nothing gets written in the next half hour. It's not the most efficient way to write : I'd rather write constantly than in bursts, but that's just me.

* I'm not a competitive person, so having other people around didn't help me. In fact, I got the feeling me being there wasn't encouraging to the others. Another writer the first Sunday : "How many words did you write?" Me : "23k" The other writer sighs : "Get out."

You obviously have a different atmosphere at the write-ins than we do here. Ours are (mostly) structured, with usually 15 minutes of writing followed by 5-10 off, alternating. The lovely lady (and ML) who runs a lot of ours likes to give goals and motivational aspects, and also switches it up with longer sessions, occasional 5-minute sprints, and things like that. There is a fair amount of talking between writing times, but mostly everyone stretches, refills water, and empties bladders.

Also, 23k would be celebrated in amazement, but not stand out too far; a couple years ago we had one writer complete 3 100k-ish novels in november, so obviously he was getting a lot written. (He is also a screenwriter by profession, I believe, so he has a lot of practice at writing as well). Me, I'm happy to get 5k on a Saturday or Sunday, so I'm slightly jealous, but satisfied that I can make it work in the 30 days.

* When you validate your wordcount over 50k, the damnation thing says you're a winner and stops recording. Bad!

I see Silk caught this one also, but I don't remember this happening. I do recall that if you manually changed your word count, it would un-validate and I'd have to validate again, but that wasn't horrible. Myself, I usually wait until the next-to-last day before validating anyway. If I miss it and don't officially win, I'm OK with that as long as I know I made it.