During the month of November, writers everywhere shelter themselves inside their houses (or Starbucks) and do not come up for air until 50,000 words have been written for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). They must do everything they can, even if that means shutting off the "real word" in order to focus on their imaginary one so that their goal can be met by the end of the month.
Since I have yet to participate in NaNoWriMo, I am not able to give an opinion of this based on personal experience. It does seem exciting, though - having an excuse to drink coffee and write until your fingers bleed. This is also a pretty tough challenge, because it forces writers not to procrastinate and gives them a deadline to meet. However, I am still not sure if it would be worth risking the essence of my novel by participating in the NaNoWriMo race.
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What is your opinion of NaNoWriMo?
Did you participate in it this year, or any other year?
If you did, do you think that you would have been able to write better if you had spent more time with it?
This was my first year doing NaNo...and I won! :D I was a little hesitant at first, but after I dove in, it was easy.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed it very much, because I wrote a 50k novel in 30 days. I have written several novels previously, but not one of them is over 35k, and they ALL took me MONTHS to write. I was able to write a whole book in very little time--because I wasn't focused at that point on rewriting or editing. Just plain old writing the 1st draft.
It helped me because I had a deadline. And since I had a deadline, I was able to write freely and without any reservations. All first drafts are garbage. Mine is no exception. Now all I have to do, since the story is down, is refine this garbage into something beautiful.
I am definitely doing NaNoWriMo next year!
I love doing NaNoWriMo- I have done it the past two years, however only finishing this year. It is a lot of fun, and really helps to get your ideas onto paper, and then you can edit out all the horrible things that are there just for the word count later. My creativity and descriptive writing have really increased in proficiency, with having to have more words in order to finish.
ReplyDeleteHowever, a word to those wanting to try it next year, or some other time in the future- make an account on the website if at all possible. It helps a lot, and there are so many other people supporting you in your quest. As well as having a page devoted to helping you get your daily word count, you also get cool handouts that are really encouraging, as well as fun "tricks of the trade" for getting your word count in. Let me know if you're planning to do it sometime- it's a lot of fun. ;-)
Since I write children's books I don't participate but people say its great. I guess it's good for discipline. :O)
ReplyDeleteI've never participated in Nanowrimo before... although, I've often thought about it. Maybe one year I could try... I'm just afraid of failure, probably.
ReplyDeleteI made my own goals for November 2010--this was the first time I've ever made a certain month like this into one dedicated to writing. I ended up with less than 15k. So yeah... not very good if I ever aspire to do Nanowrimo. But I'm proud of my progress nonetheless... because that number is higher than anything else I've done this year.
It forces normal people not to procrastinate. It forces me to write 13,800 words on the last day :)
ReplyDeleteI don't outline. I think of my nano novel as my outline. Works for me.