NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month

[rdanhenry]

I have microsoft office 365 on my laptop... I got it specifically for my writing.

Do we just have to write 50,000 words? or do we have to complete the story? And would it be wrong, unfair, cheating to post something I've already started? This would give me an incentive to get back to a storyline that I started AGES ago, and sidelined when life got too busy and complicated. It's the prequel to another novel idea I already had, but haven't started yet...

I doubt I would be able to finish the whole novel in the month... but it would get me back into it, to the point that I MIGHT actually get it finished, so that I can start on the idea I originally planned!

Planning, with outlines, character backgrounds, and the like, is encouraged. And I fail to see any significant difference between coming in with a chapter-by-chapter outline and a coming in with a couple of chapters under your belt. The thing would be that you'd have to only count the words written in November to play fair. That's confirmed by looking at the rules statements in the forum by the administrator handling those topics. Some do a complete rewrite of a novel previously written for NaNoWriMo. Again, as long as it is a fresh text and not just editing the old, that's fine.

In any case, things are very flexible. Some folks don't even write a novel (instead writing non-fiction or such), they're the NaNoWriMo "rebels". I've thought about writing a role-playing game for NaNo, but given the amount of numbers and tables I'd end up throwing around, I don't know how to handle the word-count issue fairly, so I haven't gone for it yet. Honestly, there are no cash awards or anything, so it's basically honor system and either use your judgment or ask in the designated subforum if you seem to be coming up against an edge case to the rules.

There's some guidelines to take into account for actually validly claiming the NaNoWriMo winner badge, but participation is pretty flexible. On the issue of "can I finish what I already started", the answer is a clear "yes, but only words written in November count for completing your 50,000 words".

[Straf]

That does include ALL the words you write. If you end up deleting a whole chapter that you wrote in November, or decide it won't make the final cut, those words still count as you wrote them for your novel in November. You should not make any edits at all really - if something really needs to be rewritten there and then, mark it, annotate it, whatever you do for editing, and leave it in. It all counts. Scribbling down ideas on the train also counts as 'words' as you've written them for your novel.

Notes to the milkman don't count.
Shopping lists for chocolate and stuff stuck on the fridge don't count.
Typing words into a search engine for research don't count.

Research is procrastination: "Oh, before I write this lengthy passage about crossing the plains on horseback I'd better check my facts on how much food and drink a laden horse requires per day. I'll just open up Google for a ... WOW! Would ya just look at these cat pictures?"

3 days later you've learnt new techniques for getting dried up pasta from a pan, a new recipe for baked leeks and you can hum the national anthem for Botswana, but none of those things count towards your NanoWriMo goal I'm afraid. And you still don't know how much horse a water needs to cross the food on plainsback do you?

If you don't know the answer to something, TK it. 'TK' is suggested as a place marker for something that needs to be checked out. At editing time. NaNoWRIMo is about WRIting. NaNoEDMo is for EDiting and that's in March. There's a whole month of parties to get through before then! So if you need to fact check then do it later, just write. Why TK? It's suggested because there are very few words in English that contain these two letters together so when it comes to editing time (in March, NOT November) searching for 'TK' should be a cinch. So long as your main character isn't called Altkin or something. Also if you're writing in a non-English language YMMV. Maybe use *TK if need be.

So "... He rode his horse for 2 days and nights across the plains. *TK [how much water does a horse need?] ..."

[ladiestorm]

Got it... so, for example, if I decided to look at what I've previously written... I actually got a little stuck at where I stopped... it's kind of one of the reasons it got sidelined... and continue it, from that point... then I count what I wrote afterwards, I just can't count what I have so far. That's cool. And it sounds like I don't actually have to finish it to compete, I just have to have written 50k words by the end of it. Will anyone get to read what I've written? I mean, one of the things I would really like, is for someone to take a look at what I have and tell me whether it's something they would enjoy reading...

[rdanhenry]

Got it... so, for example, if I decided to look at what I've previously written... I actually got a little stuck at where I stopped... it's kind of one of the reasons it got sidelined... and continue it, from that point... then I count what I wrote afterwards, I just can't count what I have so far. That's cool. And it sounds like I don't actually have to finish it to compete, I just have to have written 50k words by the end of it. Will anyone get to read what I've written? I mean, one of the things I would really like, is for someone to take a look at what I have and tell me whether it's something they would enjoy reading...

That's really part of the editing process. It's probably best to do an edit yourself (because your first draft likely is a mess, at least in a few spots) before showing it to anyone else. That way you don't get a slew of comments to which you think "Oh, yeah, I was going to fix that".

Nobody will see it as part of NaNoWriMo, but you might make a buddy there who would make a good reader for you.

As for being stuck where you stopped, if you still are, you can look for help on the forum. Depending on the problem, you might want the Plot Doctoring, Character Cafe, or genre subforum.

[Straf]

That's entirely up to you who you share it with. It's entirely your choice. You don't have to upload anything to the site if you don't want to. You can get badges for doing daily updates and for reaching certain landmarks but the whole idea behind it, I think, is to be part of a community all encouraging each other. The forums are there for inspiration and there are also writing groups. If you join your local group there might be, say, a coffee shop where people descend with their devices and spend an afternoon writing.

You can cheat if you like - but the only person you're going to cheat is yourself. "Oh look, I've won every NaNoWriMo I've ever entered. But I've nothing to show for it!" is a bit lame when it's compared with saying at a book launch party "I did the bulk of this in just 30 days. It took another 14 months to edit it, but hey, the writing took a month!" which will get a few laughs from your adoring invitees

[tilt]

That's how they trap you into paying it - a free ride to get you so used to using it that you would pay anything to carry on.

Have you tried Scrivener? There are absolutely loads and loads of writing apps out there for about £50 one payment. I have collected, um, 4 in the last 10 years, but there were lots more I looked at.

Try Googling "Writing software" before you get started on that thing, as you know that the more words you put into it the harder it will be to swap over to something else instead.

I bought Scrivener for my Mac some years ago.. it wasn't on PC then, but I can see it is now. And I'm only on PC these days. But yes.. I don't mind subscribing when it makes sense - but a writing program (even with backup in the cloud) doesn't really seem to mandate monthly payments. And funny enough I was just thinking on "can I get my words out of the program" on my way home from work today lol - I do like the plotting tool they have though.. I guess I can make it myself in.. some program though.

[tilt]

Notes to the milkman don't count.
Shopping lists for chocolate and stuff stuck on the fridge don't count.
Typing words into a search engine for research don't count.

Research is procrastination: "Oh, before I write this lengthy passage about crossing the plains on horseback I'd better check my facts on how much food and drink a laden horse requires per day. I'll just open up Google for a ... WOW! Would ya just look at these cat pictures?"

3 days later you've learnt new techniques for getting dried up pasta from a pan, a new recipe for baked leeks and you can hum the national anthem for Botswana, but none of those things count towards your NanoWriMo goal I'm afraid. And you still don't know how much horse a water needs to cross the food on plainsback do you?

If you don't know the answer to something, TK it. 'TK' is suggested as a place marker for something that needs to be checked out. At editing time. NaNoWRIMo is about WRIting. NaNoEDMo is for EDiting and that's in March. There's a whole month of parties to get through before then! So if you need to fact check then do it later, just write. Why TK? It's suggested because there are very few words in English that contain these two letters together so when it comes to editing time (in March, NOT November) searching for 'TK' should be a cinch. So long as your main character isn't called Altkin or something. Also if you're writing in a non-English language YMMV. Maybe use *TK if need be.

So "... He rode his horse for 2 days and nights across the plains. *TK [how much water does a horse need?] ..."

Hehe... you're writing a comedy I guess? ... good suggestion with the TK.

[Mouse]

I write all the conversations first, then go back and read them aloud to myself - in character as much as possible, so I can... feel where to put the description and dash over to the keyboard and put it in - then read it again, and so on till it literally plays out right.

Oh, and on hot summer days when the doors and windows are all open, you have to not mind everyone in the village where you live believing you have a serious problem of some kind and moving on shaking their heads in sympathy

[tilt]

I write all the conversations first, then go back and read them aloud to myself - in character as much as possible, so I can... feel where to put the description and dash over to the keyboard and put it in - then read it again, and so on till it literally plays out right.
Oh, and on hot summer days when the doors and windows are all open, you have to not mind everyone in the village where you live believing you have a serious problem of some kind and moving on shaking their heads in sympathy

LOL... maybe they're thinking.. "she always have a lot of visitors"

I usually just start from the beginning and write along, letting the characters help me form the story (after some general plotting) and sometimes skipping a bit if I'm more in the mood for writing something else ... this time however I'll try to plot out more beforehand.

[tilt]

I've signed up, my account name is my penn name, S D McDaniel. After reading over everything... it says that we can enter an excerpt from the novel before Nov, so apparently, it doesn't matter if it's something we've already started.

Added you