NaNoWriMo Discussion Thread

[Mario The World Champion]

Every November, writers from all kinds of places who write all kinds of genres from fanfiction to thrillers and everything in between, start a unique writing challenge that lasts for the entire month.

The Challenge: Write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.

And that's what National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo is all about.

So, this thread was created to discuss all things revolving around NaNoWriMo. From plot ideas, plans of attack, progress, support other writers and to get anyone interested in joining the madness.

Everyone is welcome to come on by, discuss their plans, potential ideas and joining in on the fun to boot.

 

[Yuoaman]

I cannot wait until NaNoWriMo! Last year I tried to write a novel, but only got 12,000 words... But I hope it will go much better this time around!

 

[Gummy]

I was thinking about doing this last year but November was a busy month. This year is different however, and I'm determined to at least try.

 

[Fallen Angel_Messiah Of Black Roses]

I might take this challenge, it would be totally sweet to actually do it.

 

[Mario The World Champion]

This is my first time going for it. I wanted to do it back in '06 and '07, but I didn't push myself to join.

Honestly, I haven't written anything related to writing in over 3 years. So, I think this is a good challenge for myself to get back at it.

 

[Klippy]

Well, I think a joint-member competition would be fun. :D (Not sure about those sorts of rules though, I'll do a bit more reading)

But, maybe we could have a sign-up sheet for..ohh..say 20 members. That gives each of the twenty people 2,500 words to write, then after they finish their 2,500 words, they post their part of the story and then the next member will continue on from there, changing the story how they please, etc. Obviously that wouldn't benefit us if the judges of this (if there are any) want a story that doesn't have plots dropping/twisting around like crazy. XD

But that's just an idea. I need to read more into it to fully understand.

I know I'll be trying to do this though. I need some motivation to write. XD

 

[Glitter Stain]

I know I'll be trying to do this though. I need some motivation to write. XD

Woww. That's exactly how I feel. XD

I'll try to write a novel. In fact, someone can rub it in my face if I haven't posted a quality 50,000 word novel by 11:59 PM on November 31st, 2008. o.o;; actually, forget I said that. But I'm going to try to write a novel.

 

[Astinus]

NaNoWriMo really isn't judged. It's just a way to motivate people to push themselves to write as quickly as they can in a month. There's no time to edit (since to meet the deadline, one has to write 1667 words a day), so there's no goal for perfection with the writing. You just work on writing a novel as fast as you can to see what comes out without any planning.

So no judging, no actual "one winner". There are some competitions that people do on the website or on their own. (Previous years, my friends and I would see who could make each milestone the fastest.) Once a person reaches 50,000 words, they say so on their profile on the site, get an image that says they reached the goal, and then have to tackle the whole editing process of the whole messy novel.

So, yeah. There's no judging of plot holes. No judging of grammar. It's just write, write, write for an entire month to see how many words you can pound out in as short of a time.

I participated in this last year and the year before, but I won't have the time this year to do so. I'm working more hours, and reading a book that comes out on November 11, so that's going to eat up my time. But I am going to cheer on my friends to see what they come up with. Because it's always fun to read what people pull out of their mind to reach writing deadlines.

 

[Mario The World Champion]

Trying not to make myself edit during it will be one of my biggest challenges. I mean, if I see something wrong with a word, I have to correct it.

I've already got a plot set up for my NaNo challenge.

 

[Klippy]

Trying not to make myself edit during it will be one of my biggest challenges. I mean, if I see something wrong with a word, I have to correct it.

I've already got a plot set up for my NaNo challenge.

Same! My plot is all ready to go, now it's just setting up details and stuff in a quick manner so I don't run out of time. XD

 

[Mario The World Champion]

Speaking about plot ideas, why don't we throw out ours for fun. And see what our somewhat twisted minds came up with.

 

[Klippy]

XD Sounds good to me. I was basically thinking about some sort of accident happening and creatures from all types of mythology entering Earth. Like dragons and goblins, witches, centaurs, all those things. And basically, there's a war between the evil creatures and the good creatures (elves and such) and the main character leads a small group of surviving humans into the wilderness to meet with the king of elves where a battle plan and army is being set up. It's something I want to do past NaNoWriMo though, so I don't think I'll finish when it ends. XD; But that's basically one of my ideas. :3

How about everyone else?

 

[Mario The World Champion]

Well, here's my plot for NaNo.

When you're only 17 years old, a Junior at high school and one of the premier street racers around, life should be great. But, as the biggest 100% legal street racing tournament is about to take place, his personal, school and racing life will turn upside down where you'd never wish this on your most hated enemy. Adding to his pain is the fact a girl that he was best friends with 10 years ago and has a long crush on, is the most popular girl in school, makes his life a living hell, she hates what he does and it tears him up inside because he secretly loves her.

Unknown to him, she has very strong feelings towards him, but his dedication to the racing scene, loner attitude, her popularity, her shallow, mean spirited, selfish and naive nature puts a major wedge in the works. And when the big race tournament arrives, a lot of Anime characters show up to compete and they have very powerful sports cars from around the world with them, ready to take the title. With their arrival, it only makes his life more like hell as he tries to race with a now suddenly inferior car, deal with her and with the Anime characters that arrive to race.

 

[Sammi]

I'm totally doing NaNo. 8D I have somewhat of a plot. I have a proper outline for the first section of it, but after that... I'm just going to have fun. I'm hoping to produce something a lot more light-hearted than usual. Last NaNo, I started all light and fluffy, but as soon as I knew where I was going... well, it turned into my usual ANGST ANGST ANGST. I hated that. :/ But at least I got it done. I needed it for one of my major projects.

As for what I'm actually doing this year? I wanted to challenge myself and do something not directly tied to my three projects. I'm taking the concepts and locations from one of them, but using pretty much all new characters (except for one at the beginning, but she's a minor character in what I have written), and writing locations and races that I haven't before. It's something different, but it's still a bit in my comfort zone, so I should still get to 50k.

What it it? Without going into the difficult, complicated stuff, it's going to be a magical alien (yes, magical is important!) traveling around a group of planets that form an alliance. Basically, she's just going to experience each planet, see what the others are like, ect. Like I said, I only have one part actually plotted out well. I don't think there's really going to be one giant, overreaching plot, other than she wants to visit all of these planets to learn more about the alliance she lives in. Each planet will be its own section with some sort of (hopefully) interesting, unconnected plot.

Who knows if I'll actually finish it in November... we'll see. I didn't finish my NaNo in November last year. I finished it either in December or January, I forgot. XD;; Like I said, I think I'll hit the 50k, though, if I work and get some ideas.

 

[JX Valentine]

Hey! Now I have a reason to post in Other Writing, rather than just lurk creepily!

Yes, I'm joining in on NaNo, even though, like countless other people, I really shouldn't because of that thing called a "life."

However, this gives me hope:

So, yeah. There's no judging of plot holes. No judging of grammar.

Because ten bucks says I can't write a 50k-long novel that actually maintains any semblance of continuity anyway.

I do have a plot, though. Superhero parody in which a bumbling thief with kung fu skillz ends up, after a series of accidents that paints her as a hero (instead of, you know, the master pickpocket she wants to be), recruited by an organization to help defend the world from heavily stereotypical villains. There's a lot more to it than that (including who the crap the villain is and what their specific goal happens to be -- neither of which I've solidly figured out yet), but at least I've got a start.

Anyway, good luck to everyone else. I hope you don't mind if I drop in now and then for awhile. I usually write Pokemon fanfiction (though I sometimes branch out into crappy original fic and short fanfics of other fandoms), so I don't frequent this particular forum as often as I probably should.

 

[Mario The World Champion]

Well, it's nice to see a few more people are joining in this mass mayhem of writing goodness.

Right now, I honestly hope I can get that new computer I have in my room before November comes around. I don't want to start NaNoWriMo off on the wrong foot.

 

[Chuchino]

Aww, it's nice to see a lot of other people who'll be participating. :D I'm not really going to have much time this year, but I've participated (and won!) for the past two years and it's a glorious, glorious thing, I think.

It's not far away! I wish all of you the best of luck with your stories and word-padding and cramming and plot bunnies. :D

 

[Fallen Angel_Messiah Of Black Roses]

Yay! I have a plot! And even though I'll have to put Dark Caliber on Haitus... I look forward to this!

 

[Mario The World Champion]

Well, I'm still having a few issues with my plans for my new computer. It seems like me and my friend have a lot of bad luck when it comes to plans.

However, my plans for NaNoWriMo are still in place. it's now a week before we all get down to it and just write like crazy.

I still have some time to finish out my plot for the story. I'm thinking about my main character in a major love triangle, which nearly kills him over it.

 

[Blue Screen of Death]

I want to do it, but it will be hard for me. I have trouble sustaining any story, so I may not be able to do it. Oh well. I don't have a plot idea either, so I may be a late starter. Also, should we post here when we reach certain amounts of words?