National Novel Writing Month

[rdanhenry]

Anyone else doing NaNoWriMo this year?

I'm going in totally blind. No title. No characters. No plot. Not even a genre in mind as yet.

Would it be insane to just see how many random generators on the web I can use and blend it all into one novel?

[Larb]

I usually make an attempt and fail -generallly I run out of steam after the first week or so. I'm not sure if I will this year.

The main aim is to just write 50,000 words. You can edit in december. So whatever it takes I guess. =P

[Falconius]

The main aim is to just write 50,000 words.

It's doable, it's only a bit more than 1500 words a day. What's that, two or three pages?

[Larb]

It's doable and it doesn't sound like much, yeah. But when you get stuck, or you're not sure where to go with a story next, it can start to feel like you're just writing filler to meet the daily word count. Plus I'm just terrible at finishing things.

[Tiana]

I've done Nanowrimo successfully 15 times. Since then, I've done runs ranging from blind pantsing as you are describing, to outlined and well thought out stories.

I still haven't decided if I'm going to do it this year. I was going to. But I hadn't braved reading the half a novel I wrote last year until just recently and I'd like to continue it, but not do it badly. Honestly I wonder if I've outgrown the lessons Nanowrimo has for the writer. I've wrote tons this year without needing its help, though not for me alone, but with my co-writer. She took a break year but I never have. And I had an idea I was vaguely planning but it never grew bigger than a worldbuilding concept with a couple of places where characters are that might experience certain hardships. I guess that might be enough to go on. I know it's the spirit of Nano to say 'and I'm gonna write that half-formed idea' but thing is, I have now done this SO MANY TIMES and I have SO MANY halfway decent drafts or unfinished stories... and I'm making such great creative progress on map work and working out an agreement to get my work into some virtual tabletops and aahhhh...

I love Nano, though I hate their new site (especially how it destroyed 15 years of friendship connections I had saved to my friends list!) and I think I finally understand what would have possessed Chris Baty to retire and pursue novel writing without the fire of Nanowrimo to propel it. I sometimes wonder though, if those halfway decent novels wouldn't exist if I hadn't done them in the Nanowrimo frenzy. I wish everyone the best at it, and every aspiring writer who hasn't managed to actually write that novel should give it a go, it's very inspiring.

I'm running out of time to decide, though knowing me, all I really need is a good weekend even if I didn't start straight away. Hahahahaha (falls over)

You can give'r your best shot. While not everyone will succeed at blind pantsing madness, I must say, it's a skill I do not regret learning, to improv novel onto a page. And if you roleplay at all your mind is already primed for it.

It's doable and it doesn't sound like much, yeah. But when you get stuck, or you're not sure where to go with a story next, it can start to feel like you're just writing filler to meet the daily word count. Plus I'm just terrible at finishing things.

And you'll stay terrible at finishing things if you keep that as your attitude! it sure can feel like filler if you take some of the advice I've received in my many years of it, which is why it's important to know one thing above all other things when you decide to write a Nanowrimo novel.

Character motivation.

If there isn't a driving "they want this because of that" with which you can play DM and interfere with when the going gets too good and you're just describing a menu of wine, then yeah, you'll flounder.

Never mind 'theme', a good 'this is what they want' for the protagonist and antagonist is all you need to finish Nanowrimo. My Nanowrimo novels tightened up incredibly over the years, to a point where I favored first person for several years to tightly focus on a single plot thread.

Anyway, there's often a lot of gems amidst the filler, and while it's not the best way for everyone to tell a story, I think it can work well to get a first draft down. The reward is whatever you write, never mind the 1667 a day.

[Falconius]

Plus I'm just terrible at finishing things.

Yup so am I. :0

That said I don't think just writing filler is a bad thing. First drafts are just a block in. I don't think when writing it one can really reliably determine what is filler and what is not because most of it is just going to be hot garbage until they start editing and refining it. Although it occurs to me that this could quite likely be just me.

In any case you convinced me to convince myself, I should give this a shot. There's no harm in starting things, and the harm in not finishing them is a separate entity.

[Tiana]

There's no harm in starting things, and the harm in not finishing them is a separate entity.

Amen! You can never finish what you don't start; a garden unplanted will simply never produce. Though many other plagues may come and rains may stay away, they'll cause no harm to the garden left unsowed.

I'm probably gonna write the stupid novel that I've been vaguely planting the seeds of in my brain all year, even if it's not the continuation of the novel I think I need to finish.

Even if I only participate on this forum's community instead of the central community, I should still plant my novel.

I don't think when writing it one can really reliably determine what is filler and what is not because most of it is just going to be hot garbage until they start editing and refining it. Although it occurs to me that this could quite likely be just me.

Pretty much every writer ever is a terrible judge of the quality of their own work while writing it. I'm willing to bet there's more gems in there than you realize, you're just blinded to the ability to step outside of your own work and enjoy it as an outsider. My feelings about what I've written are generally a reflection of how I feel at the time of writing and not about the actual writing. Anyway, you need to have something to edit to be able to sculpt it into something good, even if it's hot garbage.

Do it! Write a thing!

[Tiana]

So you guys doing it? You writing a novel? How's it going?

[Falconius]

Lol, nope. I wrote three pages then forgot about it, in a rush of other happenings and other projects that were more interesting ATM.

[Tiana]

Well hope those projects turn out well for you.

I'm at 37k and very frustrated that my map of the world was never finished, LOL, I could use that now.