Sunday, October 27, 2013

NaNoWriMo

So, are any of you doing NaNoWriMo this year? I already explained it in class, but I'll explain it again just in case: NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. Basically you write 50,000 words in one month, starting on November 1st, which is coming up pretty soon.The website is here, if you want to check it out: NaNoWriMo.

To win, you write 50,000 words before November ends. I've never won, but I've always thought it was a good experience, and of course it's really about doing it for yourself. If you manage to write more than you normally do and get some good ideas or stories out of the process, then I consider it a success! :)

So are any of you doing it? Have any of you done it before? What did you think, and did you win (or have any other kinds of wins)?

If you haven't done it before, would you be interested in doing it? What do you think? It requires writing about 2,000 words a day. How much do you write a day normally? Do you think you can do it?

By the way, there are other national novel writing months. I've won JulNoWriMo before. It can be easier to do it at different times of the year, but it seems like the most people get worked up about NaNoWriMo. It's the most popular writing month, it seems.

5 comments:

  1. I actually learned about NaNoWriMo from Katherine in a class we both took from Dr. Thomas a couple years back. Since then, I have wanted to attempt it both years, but have not had the time. This year, once again, I would really love to do this, but I don't think it is possible while I am in classes. I have a lot of reading and writing to do for my classes, but I don't think I could add in the amount of writing required for this. It would only take me about 1-2 hours a day to write 2000 words, but I don't really have an hour to an hour and a half. Maybe I will try the JuNoWriMo, or NaNoWriMo next year.

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    1. Oh yeah, I was in that class! It was the legacy of storytelling or something like that, wasn't it? I didn't learn about NaNo then, but I hadn't participated in it by that point. I've known about it since high school, but I was always way too busy in high school to do it. It sounds ridiculous, and some people don't believe me, but I was much busier in high school than I am now. In high school, I was on campus from 6:30 to 5 every day (sometimes until later, on certain days until 8, no joke), and that's not counting commute. And during the free time I did have, I was exhausted. And I didn't have free time most Saturdays.

      Of course, I'm still pretty busy now, which is why July has always been a better time to write a novel for me (and probably for a lot of other students). JulNoWriMo was great, but I do want to highlight the fact that NaNoWriMo has more of a fun atmosphere to it. It's more exciting, and you can tell this difference just by looking at their different websites. The people hosting the NaNoWriMo website obviously put a lot more effort into their website and put more effort into making this a successful event.

      But still, I believe participating in any WriMo is good, especially if it gets you used to writing a lot every day. There are different events during different months, too. During October there's an event to write a Gothic novel. I think there's a WriMo in January (not sure about this), and there other kinds of writing events, too--writing scripts or poetry, for example.

      Best of luck in whatever you choose to participate in! :)

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  2. The first time I heard about NaNoWriMo was from my friend. I think it was last year and I thought it was a cool idea and a great challenge. I never did it though, because like everybody said it is a busy time for students in November. The semester is coming to an end and finals are next month. I really want to try this month, but I’m starting a day late and I already feel behind. What do you guys think of what Daniel Abraham said about NaNoWriMo? I think he said something like it does neither bad nor good, but possibly is not good, because it doesn’t get writers to really write. Or something like that. I asked my friend about it and she thought the same thing that everybody else did. She thought it is a fun and a great way to just write and some people will get new ideas or just kind of force yourself to write and find time.

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    1. Sorry for noticing this so late, Brittany! I understood where Daniel Abraham was coming from when he said that it's just another month for him. I think he said that it's OK if it gets "your crank turning." But I still feel like NaNoWriMo is a good thing, because it does help people get in the habit of writing daily if they aren't already in the habit. And if they are, then NaNoWriMo also provides a nice support group. It's a good event for getting writers together. Admittedly, you could find a group of writers any time of the year, but people tend to do a better job of making connections at actual events, and NaNo makes that easy.

      I suppose one of the downsides to NaNo that I can understand is that it can turn into the only time when people really write prolifically, and that's actually not supposed to be the case. It should help people so that writing the rest of the year feels easier. Yes, it's supposed to be a fun challenge, but that doesn't mean you can't challenge yourself at other times of the year, even when there's no event going on that you want to participate in.

      I can understand people who do participate in NaNo, and I can understand people who don't.

      I doubt that I will win NaNoWriMo this year. I have been very busy, and although I think things will let up for me after the beginning of next week, I am also going out of town for Thanksgiving. But I have enjoyed participating and I will finish what I have been writing.

      And I wanted to tell you that it's not too late if you want to participate, Brittany! Some people have managed to write their entire novels in just a couple of days (not that I recommend it). You could still catch up, and even if you don't, it's still nice to participate at all. It's about setting your own goals, so if you decide to challenge yourself to at least write as much as you can, then it can be a success for you. I've never thought that winning NaNo was that important since it's something you do for yourself. I'm not just saying that because I haven't won it. (I have won other wrimos like JulNoWriMo in July, so it's not like I don't know what it's like to win. And each WriMo is different. Each novel is different.)

      I'll stop now because I think I've been going on for too long. I just get excited talking about this stuff.

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    2. Thanks Anna! Sorry I saw your message so late. That is a good point I never thought of just trying even if I might not make it. The point is too just to write.

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