nanowrimo 2011 - word up!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZjAantupsA&ob=av2e

50k to be precise!

anyone else joining in.

I am notionally joining in, but have not started yet.

My girlfriend is doing this - I'm going to let her know there's a thread for encouragement ...

Perhaps if I wear a red codpiece and play key-tar it will help her out ...

I definitely think that will help her.

My story is 600 words long so far, already has a crackhead and aids ridding whores. It is a road trip comedy, obviously.

I get the idea that all Nanowrimo novels are road trip comedies.

You almost say that like it's A Bad Thing!

no, not at all. It's more that some kinds of fiction are more suited to being made up as you go along, with picaresques being ideal for the "and then they left that town and went somewhere else to meet a whole load of crazy new characters". Also, trying to be funny in Nanowrimo is probably way easier than trying to be serious or to have decent levels of thrill power.

I speak as someone whose only completed Nanowrimo novel was about a private detective being drawn into the dark and sinister world of Dublin's furry community.

that sentence ended somewhere i didn't expect.

anyway, have hit my 1666 for today. will watch football and then maybe continue.

Really wish I could do this, but there are a lot of things getting in the way already. Not writing it off just yet (boom boom), but it isn't boding well, once again.

somewhat annoyingly, I am still trying to get some other writing out of the way first, so still stuck at zero.

it is nanowrimo, add that to yr total like a real man

nanoreamo

I like your style, a hoy hoy. There is surely nothing a character in a spy caper novel would be more likely to do than suddenly pick up and read all of a review of an avant garde musical festival.

he could blow the case wide open!

Obviously an avant garde music festival must be some kind of front for subversive activity. mmm. A plot is developing.

So now I have a novel with 502 words. Nothing can stop me now.

YESSSSSSSSS.

I know people type these out that much is clear but does anyone ever read them

afair, there had been about 12 published novels that og started as nanowrimo experiments but in the most part, of course not, its just a bit of fun

ok

Started this year during a lull at work and was duly impressed by how terrible my writing is. Maybe it will improve as the month goes along.

My husband is hand-writing his attempt this year, for extra insanity points.

But the words! How will he COUNT THEM?

By word-per-page estimation, probably.

But then you have to write a whole age before you can update your word count. Am I the only one pathetic enough to have to update it every ten minutes?

Not that I'm doing it this year. Unless I have a mad day tomorrow and write 10,000 words, anyhow. (This has never happened.)

is there a books-one-could-read-in-the-time-it-takes-to-do-this estimation

Honestly, I think he counts them by hand and adds them up on each page or something. He tried to explain this method to me and I was more than a little baffled. But that's what he wants to do, so...

But Sara - if your husband handwrites the novel he will not be able to verify with the website that he has reached 50,000, and so he will NOT officially be a winner!

Is there a quality measure so that word counts could be accompanied by a percentage score of how good the writing is, on average

alternatively people could instead of posting word counts post sentences that they have written that they think are good

then some of their work would get read

I do not understand this "quality" of which you speak.

isn't there some in your new novel?

I hear what you are saying, but if NaNoWriMo has anything going for it* then it is about churning out the words now and only thinking about the quality afterwards.

In general I also do not think it is for creative types to say that particular bits of their oeuvre are of high quality. That is for artistic consumers and critics.

*and I'm open to the idea that it does not

would be good if creative types could recognise quality as that would suggest they could also be able to recognise rubbish and the idea that churning out a large volume of whatever kind of words would result in any level of quality relies upon something beyond serendipity and when all the words are rubbish the likelihood of someone bothering to go through and replace them with good ones is almost less than another person reading it

nice sentence structure.

apparently 76 words

just nice to have someone read my work and count the words it's been a productive morning

I know people type these out that much is clear but does anyone ever read them

for what it's worth, some of my friends claim to have read my last completed attempt at this, thought obviously they may i) be lying or ii) only have read it to marvel at just how bad fiction can go.

what was it about?

It was about a private detective who has to try and find the missing wife of a man who likes to dress up as a Panda. Said missing wife also likes to dress up as a Panda.

The amount of typing required to finish Nanowrimo isn't very high, frankly - we're talking about 50,000 word short novels here, not Under the Dome - and certainly not high enough to warrant the same old tiresome complaints that nothing good can be done at that speed.

sorry my complaints are tiresome but this is just what comes out when I begin typing

I didn't know anyone was complaining that nothing good can be done at that speed.

Personally, I think that speed can help writing. Or more exactly - for me, MOMENTUM is good for good writing.

Will people writing these short novels produce good writing? I don't know. I suggested that they could post (wherever) samples of writing that they have done that is good.

Then again, when I see various people (eg on fbk) say 'I wrote 1400 words' - 'awesome!' - it doesn't seem like producing 'something good' is at the forefront of their minds. It seems like, in the Vicar's words above, 'churning out the words' is their objective.

But Sara - if your husband handwrites the novel he will not be able to verify with the website that he has reached 50,000, and so he will NOT officially be a winner!

Believe it or not, the website has some way of dealing with the nuts who write by hand - or at least that's what he claimed last year. He came really close to finishing last year, too, but got stomach flu at the end of November and fell short. I think he mostly just wants to finish for himself, though, not so that some website will verify it.

Meanwhile, I continue to not write...

oh noes. but you will not be able to post something you think is good for the Pinefox to say "but that is not good, therefore NaNoWriMo is stupid".

scan something maybe he has good handwriting

There is a thread, on ILB, for people to post things they have written

I have used it myself

and have praised others or at least one person, namely the poet Bernard Snowy

the idea that churning out a large volume of whatever kind of words would result in any level of quality

^^ I don't think you "get" nanowrimo. It has never made any claims to promote quality output. Or artistry. Or literature.

It is much more on a level of a string of people all holding hands, jumping into the pool and doing a simultaneous belly-flop. It is designed to be fun and to get you wet (especially if you have a slight fear of the water).

yes you're right

xpost I have no idea if he'll even let *me* read what he's writing!

But yeah, also - the point is quantity, not quality. And trust me, my previous efforts have been dire. This year's is even worse. Especially since I can't get myself to do much with it.

I am already thinking that my 2009 effort was better than this year's. Oh well.

oh dear, falling behind! let's hope I can do better over weekend.

Give you main character a new hobby.

I often wonder if people who believe Nanowrimo to be pointless because the novels aren't very good also think there's no point in amateurs running marathons because they can't possibly win them.

I've done NaNo a bunch, tho I've only "won" four times. I agree that the goal isn't to finish with a publishable complete book by the end; it's to experience the feeling of writing impulsively and without hinderance (internal or external). A lot of people have an interest in writing but can't justify devoting the necessary amount of time to it, and others are paralyzed by anxiety or perfectionism and can't produce work in any great quantity as a result. NaNo is a great way to address both those issues.

And if your city is anything like mine, you can go to IRL meetings of other NaNo writers and they'll give you toys and stickers for free.

lol i've done it like 4 times and never 'won'. and if a week of illness, travel and laptop problems have taught me anything, i won't this november either.

I've done it four times and completed it three times. I agree with all the points made by reddening above, especially: others are paralyzed by anxiety or perfectionism and can't produce work in any great quantity as a result.

If you're the kind of person who gets bogged down in endless edits and revisions, nanowrimo is a great way to just plough through all the way to the end of a story at least once, then you can look back over it and survey the wreckage in January.

if a week of illness, travel and laptop problems have taught me anything

Yeah, it's easy to keep the 1667 going if you do it every day but once you fall behind...

think marathon is a bad analogy

but don't let that stop you - plough on

Not bad analogies, nor weak metaphors, nor crapulent dialogue shall stay this author from the swift completion of his (or her) appointed word-count.

was wondering just today about the marathon analogy
people have used it so it must have some validity
it makes a point, I suppose, about it being a good thing to do, for yourself?
maybe some people do this thing and benefit from it

however, seeing as the analogy was in the air, I thought -
in that analogy, is the 26-mile marathon itself equivalent to the November spent writing?

if so, then the two are different in quite a big way

most people cannot run a marathon, and need to practise painfully for a year or two or several to be able to do it
you build up to it, it's a huge life commitment

whereas, I don't get the impression that people writing the novels have been practising by systematically writing short stories, then novellas, then practice novels, for the last couple of years

so there is one difference, namely that the runners have painfully acquired an ability
whereas I'm not sure that the novelists have

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4939384.stm

whereas, I don't get the impression that people writing the novels have been practising by systematically writing short stories, then novellas, then practice novels, for the last couple of years

then again I have gotten really into the aspect of writing as "craft", something which you must continuously practice and develop. and in that spirit, I am of course 100%-pro-nano

running out of plot! I fear an attack by giant robots may be imminent.

introduce a marathon should be good for 2621.8 words

i like the pinefox's point about marathon running

otoh the year i stopped entering these i started entering races so yeah

running out of plot!

digressions to the rescue!

go back and flesh out character, settings, pecularities etc.