Are you a Nanowrimo newbie or have you participated before?

I found about Nanowrimo last year because a friend of mine was doing it for the first time as well. We had somewhat of a contest to see who could write the most, I only got to around 10,084 out of the 50,000 that is needed to complete the challenge but enjoyed doing it. My friend beat me by about 200 words, but it was still fun.

I finished last year (although the results were pretty darn crappy), but I didn't participate in any of the activities or indeed speak to any other Nanowrimo folk or use the forums. I occasionally felt bad about that.

I only found the website last week but I'd really like to give it a go, it's just I'm not sure if I can find the time. It might be a case of "write as much as I can", rather than "write 50,000 words"....

Haha, I have participated twice, and failed miserably both times.

I'm a newbie, but I've wanted to try it for a couple of years. LT Nanowrimo participants are rather more heartening (for me) than 'local' ones would be. Thanks for starting the group, selkie_girl!

Facing November, for once in my life I can say: I have high hopes of writing a shoddy book!!!

I'm an old hand at Nano. :) I've completed it successfully three times, participated in the forums and some of the local activities.

My 2005 effort was a steaming pile of crap, the 2002 effort was had potential and I'm quite proud of the 50,000+ words I churned out in 2004 (I missed Nano in 2003).

Looking forward to having another crack at it this year.

I'm impressed, ladymisstree - and encouraged.

Has anyone read No Plot, No Problem? If so, thoughts?

I haven't read it, but I ordered a copy which I'm waiting on. When I have done, I'll be happy to supplement others' answers.

Wow! I started the thread on about NaNo on the Writer-Reader forum

For me, 2006 will be my second run at this event. Last year, I reached the goal of 50, 000 words, but the novel is still incomplete. I've already been plotting and planning and preparing for the coming attempt.
(btw, anyone recommend any good train songs for writing to?)

Not read Chris Baty's book yet. It is on a birthday/Christmas wish list somewhere.

(Okay, the tried this three times with a touchstone. Let's see if no touchstone allows me to post it.)

Congratulations on completing that much, gilroy, whatever is left; and thanks for starting the thread. I do really appreciate it. If you hadn't, I probably wouldn't be doing NaNo this year, much as I've wanted to.

I grant it isn't best for a living author, as we are now being reminded, but I ordered a remaindered copy (for $1.99). Probably there are more.

Frankly, I couldn't buy it new just now - and if I were a (published) author, I'd rather my books were read or used by people who had little choice, than not. There's also a kit of some kind, though I didn't fully understand it, and it seemed of less essential use. That I did not order. Anyone familiar with it?

I have No Plot, No Problem and while it is an entertaining read and has some fun stories about how people have managed to achieve their 50,000 words, it's not too different to the stuff they send out in the emails and post to the blog during November.

If you've not done Nano before, I think it would be helpful. If you've tried it before and read the encouraging emails and the posts to the blog, it's more of a fun read.

Thanks, ladymisstree; good to know. Being a newbie, I expect it will be reassuring. :)

Here's my newbie (ish) question, since I just wrote the crappy manuscript without doing any of the trappings -- how worthwhile have people found the local events in their areas?

I just kept looking at the scheduled events and weighing them against working full-time and writing this novel in 30 days and my innate tendency to avoid unnecessary socializing...

Kukkurovaca,

I've done NaNo in two cities (in two countries!) and found the events in one to be completely useless and the events in the other to be amazing. I suggest going to at least one get-together -- there might be one or two before November starts, which would be ideal -- and seeing how you click with the other people in the area. That's really the important question -- the people there determine how it goes, so even between weeks it can vary.

And to answer the general question of the group, this is going to be year 5 for me. Hard to believe.

Hmm. I may have some difficulties related to the fact that I have a significant new time-draining hobby in knitting. I may have to go cold-turkey on knitting for November, or at least seriously budget my time. Of course, I just received 1,600 yards of yarn for my first sweater. So I either need to get started on that very soon, or wait quite a while. :)

Easy, kukkurovaca -- for every thousand words, you can knit for ten minutes! (Adjust numbers to fit your preferences, of course.) Everything becomes a writing reward in November.

I particpated two years ago - only got to 6755. I just couldn't "let go" and *write*. When it started getting "craptastic", I'd give up. /sigh

I hope to give it another go this year; it was a lot of fun and would be moreso if I could just relax. ;P

I think I attended two local events last year when I tried it. Ours were rather quiet as most of us just sat and wrote. No real conversation, just writing. I found it less helpful, but that may have just been those events. Consider what you are looking for from the event and go from there. Check with the gathering's organizer before you commit though.

Local events are largely shaped in character by the local municipal liaison. An active, passionate municipal liaison makes for more dynamic events. My city, Austin, Texas, posted the third-highest word count in the world for the 2005 event, and a lot of that was due to the nature of our ML...she's a wonderful motivator, a superb cat-herder, and an all-around lovely person.

Find and meet the local ML before launch day, and see if the two of you are on the same wavelength. Might save you some time if you see you're not in sync.

No Plot? No Problem! is a fun read. I found it useful as a manual in some places, not quite so much in others. Like any book about writing, what any one person takes away from reading it is unique. I'm a pusher of "read it, then decide" because goodness knows what idea will land in one's head at exactly the right time.

I'm getting super excited about NaNo! I tried and failed horribly in 2003 & 2004, won in 2005 and I'm looking to win again in 2006. :-D

I bought No Plot? No Problem! early this year and read it all the way through. It was really cute and I plan on reading it again during NaNo to keep my spirits up. I find that's the worst part of NaNo - I wonder what the crap I'm doing writing a novel when I have all this other life stuff going on. I've been preparing my family for a year to not see me in preparation for it. ;)

The biggest things that helped last year were the 15 and 30 minute word wars. I could knock out my entire day's quota in a couple of word wars and flaunt my greatness all at the same time. Fun stuff for a type-A personality. :)

This year is my second try. I'm basically a non-fiction writer, but keep having the fiction urge. I made it to 10,000 words in 2004 and skipped last year. I really wasn't going to do it again, but couldn't resist. Right now, it's "no plot, big problem," but I have three weeks to invent something that might carry me a bit further than 10,000.

For anyone new to NaNo, the forums on the site are really helpful, and everyone is friendly.

This is my first time doing NaNoWriMo. I've got first drafts of three wips in various stages of uncompletedness (is that a word?) because I can't seem to stop myself from revising every darn sentence ~ no, make that every darn WORD ~ even as I'm writing it. And when I fire up the computer to start a new writing session, and go back to what I wrote last to get a feel for where I am in the story, I can't stop myself from revising it. Needless to say, I don't get much real writing done. So, this is to try and get a handle on my Inner Editor so I can finish a first draft before going back to revise it.

Storeetllr, have you read any of Natalie Goldberg's writing books? She can be bit on the hippie side for me, sometimes, but she really addresses the need to get past editing until you're finished actually writing.

Also, have you tried writing with pen and paper, or with a typewriter sans correcting ribbon? (There's also the software concept blockwriter, but unfortunately that doesn't actually exist yet, and so is not going to be very useful. Yet.)

>24 Storeetllr:, 25

The best way I've discovered to turn off my Inner Editor when using a computer is to type in text that's either white or so small I can't read it. If you can't see it, you can't edit it.

I feel like I've said this recently; I hope it was on the NaNo boards and not here.

I don't think it was here, ellen.w, but it's an excellent idea. I suppose you could also use a non-roman font. This probably assumes you're a fairly accurate typist, though. (Yay for Mavis Beacon!)

I'm going for a streak of five years in a row of losing spectacularly! Hooray!

Kukku and Ellen ~ Great ideas for getting past my need to edit the first draft while it's still being written. I don't know if I can actually write without looking at what I'm typing (yet) ~ just thinking about it makes me feel uneasy ~ but I'm going to try anyway. I did start one of the wips with a typewriter (just shows how long it's been in the works ~ lol!) but haven't done anything with pen and paper except for outlines and brief notes and rough character sketches. I get lost when trying to write that way; besides, I'm so used to using a computer, my fingers are typing it almost before I'm thinking it! I think the best idea is the one mentioned by Ellen ~ make the font impossible to see and try not to have a panic attack. ;D

> 27

Pah, editing's for December! Just make sure you get all the spaces in there so that your words are all counted.

I've never used Mavis Beacon, but I did have PopCap's Typer Shark. Nothing inspires accurate typing like the fear of being eaten by a 10x10px animated shark.

>27 kukkurovaca:,30 Typing programs

Second year to try to win. Made it last year.

As for typing, never took a class, never used a program. Funny, my girlfriend swears I have an unorthodox style using only six fingers and one thumb.

What can I say. I learned to type by playing on line text games, where you had to type fast to get in to the scene. (Yes, I am a former MU* addict for those who know what they are.)

haha I was actually doing typing shark today during work (shhh don't tell) that's a fun game. Beware of the 10x10px animated sharks!

Storeetllr - try the topic Nano's Secret Survival Tools: Sporks, Tissues and Hugs. It is found in the Nanowrimo Ate My Soul Forum. (On the official Nano site) Great fun and lots of support for overcoming the Inner Editor, Inner Procrastinator and anything else that gets in the way of writing.
Becky

I'm so glad that there's a NaNo forum here!

This is my second year, last year I finished with 50,005 words so I just made it. I've heard that year two is the toughest so I'm not very encouraged by that, though I did finally come up with a plot idea yesterday. (Nothing like waiting 'til the last minute!)

Hah! You think YOU'RE last minute, Trico. I only decided on my plot on the way home from work tonight. Now all I have to do is the research on my period and figure out my characters' names (not to mention all the secondary and minor characters) and do a timeline and an outline ~ all in the two nights and one day before NaNo starts. Right. Talk about last minute...well, I work in a law office. I thrive on last-minute rushes.

Thanks, Cole ~ Sounds like the place I need to be. I'll definitely check it out. I'm going to use an Alphasmart Neo to write the novel; it only has enough space in the window to see four short lines of text, so I won't be able to easily go back and edit. Take THAT, Inner Critic.

I signed up for it in 2005, but by the time November came around, I had lost the link back and couldn't remember the name of the site, so I never actually did it my first year... I was right there for it in 2006 though, and won with flying colors! my profile says 83,000 but I didn't update at the end so it should be 130,000 oh well, either way I beat the 50,000 mark... I came out as the #1 writer in Maine

~~EK

I did it last year for the first time. I ended up with 62K words for a first attempt. So I'm going for it again. I definitely agree that you should all check out the sporker's thread. It's the best place to hang out during Nanowrimo. Just a warning though, they're revamping the boards here and there and the site is a little slow now . . . but that always happens the first week or so of October, so it's really nothing to worry about. :) http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/1000012

Hi, lastcrazyhorn ~ I did it first time last year too, and just squeezed by with 50K plus ten or so. It was pretty exhilarating, wasn't it!?!

*waves* Hi, lastcrazyhorn!

This will be my 5th year (can that be right? Wow), but I only actually won once, in 2004. I'm hoping, realllllly hoping, to make this my second win.

Heather

I've done two years, 2005 and 2006, and am very proud to say I won both times. It's an emotional roller coaster ride.

Wow. You guys are awesome. I tried last year but never got off the ground. Maybe this year I'll dive in and really take on the challenge...

Maybe....

Anyone else totally and completely intimidated by the process????

This is my fourth year and I'm all set this year - I have all of the background material done, finally, along with my outline, charts, info, etc. The appendices have been written. My favorite writing program has been all set up and customised. I have all my pre-writing tools & sheets filled in and ready to go.

I can't WAIT for nanowrimo this year!

For the new people this year saying to themselves, OMG, I don't have ANY of that stuff, I barely have a plot/character/idea/etc. that's the beauty of nanowrimo - you *can* just jump in without pre-thought and write! It can be a lot of fun to write and not know where everything is going.

My friend put it best, "I started out with a story for a children's novel, and it went ok for the first week, but then it just turned into a romance novel and well, at least I made 50,000 words!"

#41 Heck yeah I'm intimidated! Last year was my first NaNo challenge and I made it to 50K (just barely, but still...) and felt utterly spent by the end of the month. But it was so exhilarating and amazing that I'm panting to start again. And only partly because I'm hyperventilating from a panic attack. lolol

I was totally intimidated my first year, and even tho I had a great story idea I ended up backing out on the 3rd (didn't even give myself a chance!) because I was so intimidated by the large wordgoal.... But I've since grown to look forward to it and get excited instead of intimidated, and it's soooo fun!

Heather

As I look at and prepare for year 3, I realize just how scared I was my first year. I had an inkling of a plot, no real character development, nothing planned at all. (Funny, that novel is 51K words right now but gathering dust.) I skipped 03 and 04, though probably should have joined and run with it back then too. The word count is intimidating to look at 50,000 words. Break the intimidation by breaking the number down. It helps. (See my post on the tips and tricks thread.)

The other thing I discovered during my first year, you have a cheering section behind you. I don't mean just a few family members. I mean you have every other novelist out there who is also attempting this feat. We are not group think, but we are group win... I think of it as a relay race and we are all on the same team. We reach back and pull our fellow writers along. If you are up by a day worth of writing, encourage those around you who are perhaps a few days behind. Offer them caffeine and chocolate. Let them know, you support them and they will support in kind when you hit your wall.

In fact, I want to point to the old threads from last year. Those of us here that ran with this challenge, we succeeded in getting I believe it was 8 of our 12 across that finish line. I have EVERY confidence, LT NaNoers will succeeed again. (That and I want that pep talk email from Neil Gaiman!)

At some point between this time last year and this time, er, this year, I completely dropped off of Librarything. I don't recall why -- I'm sure it involves me sucking. And possibly having too many hobbies.

::shrug::

In any case, re-howdy. I find myself for the first time wanting NaNo to start earlier. I've got a pot, an outline, all kinds of readiness. I have an alphasmart, a nice Scrivener template. Everything except for my NaNo-specific notebooks.

Of course, I'm sure I'll regret this a couple weeks into November... :)

Hi and welcome back, kukkuovaca! I'm really excited about NaNo this year too, though I still don't have a plot or a character or even a time period or genre. *shrugs & grins*

One question, which I'm sure you've answered before, but my fact-retention capability has gotten worse in the intervening year. Anyway, what is a Scrivener template and where can I get one?

There's a whole templating system that's been developed since then. I don't actually go that deep with it, although here's some of the info:

http://literatureandlatte.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2227

I just have a very simple layout with the obvious folders and my preferred labels and statuses, some of which are rather idiosyncratic.

Hey, all. I'm wavering. In the last couple of weeks, I've been totally unenchanted with the idea of doing NaNo this time - and I'm still overwhelmed. But the urge is there. It's just that I was so drained last year... and I haven't done anything with my novel. With my health poor and my father begging a visit, it seems dubious timing. But (as I keep saying to myself) MAYBE...........!

Somehow, I'm a lot less prepared, even in thought, than last time. But, of course, that could be fun. :)

In any case: kukkurovaca, nice to see you! I'm again reaping the benefits of your long-ago recommendation of Upton for tea.

Hey, there, Eurydice! It would be nice to have you around for NaNo, but there are, in fact, things that are more important; health being an obvious one. :)

#48 Thanks for the info. I'll check it out. I need all the help I can get. :)

Nick, thank you for possessing a modicum more sanity than I do. (It would be unfair to credit you with more - so boring!) I will keep considering it, and at the very least come be part of the cheering section, now and then. :)

I'm a returning participant. This will be my seventh year, which just goes to show that some people are gluttons for punishment.

Or adrenaline junkies. ;)

I've made failed attempts twice -- in 2005 and, erm, 2002? Hoping that the third time will be the charm.

This is my seventh NaNo. I've won each year, sometimes with very high word counts, and I've enjoyed every single year.

I tried last year, and failed fairly miserably. As I now have family commitments, I'm going to fail even more miserably, but I might give it a go anyhow.

I tried and failed last year too - with a frankly pathetic wordcount. Hopefully I'll manage better this year.

I don't know that I've ever really shot for the 50,000-word goal, but I do tend to write 8,000-15,000 more words in November than I would, otherwise. Who knows what this year may bring, goal-wise... :)

2007 was the first time I participated... I found out about it some time ago but never tried it until last year and although I quite like the experience, I'm not sure if I'll try it again this year because of university... we shall see how it goes...

I'm a newbie, both at Librarything and NaNoWriMo, but plan to attempt it this year in November. I picked up the No Plot book, and following it's principles, managed my first draft of a novel last month (April) with 150,000 words! So I'm not that scared of the NaNoWriMo month coming up, it will be more towards editing out all the drabble later, lol.

PacificBlue, doesn't it make the whole world look different now that you know you can do it?

Yes, TallyDi.

It does. I'm not cocky about it, as I'm suffering from lack of inspiration for what November's novel will be - but I've noticed that I'm no longer scared about the experience of just getting in and writing - and in a way that I've learnt how I need to do things now. That first one is the biggest learning experience of my life (still ongoing).

I am reading other fiction works now, in the interim, and boy have I got quite critical of things like grammar etc, lol. I hope I can take that into my own editing shortly also.

I also noticed that I read books differently after I started writing more regularly... it's weird...

NaNo '08 will be my second time doing NaNoWriMo. In '07, I just barely got 10,000 words. In fact, a good friend of mine (the one who invited me to do it with her), actually got less words than me.
I'm pretty excited about trying this thing again! :)

This year will be my third time. I managed to scrape a few thousand last year (hey, I was busy...), but I'm really going to go out of my way to finish it this year.

Good luck to the rest of you guys!

This is my first year doing NaNoWriMo. I've been wanting to do it the last couple of years, but never had the guts. I have barely an inkling of a plot and have pre-written a few vignettes, but otherwise I'm jumping in with both feet, eyes closed. I've never been one to be able to sit at the keyboard and bang out 2K words in one sitting, so this should be a very interesting month for me.

Best of luck stellabymoor! Know that we'll all be cheering you on!!! You never know what you can accomplish until you actually give it a try!

I'm a newbie. I had a few friends participate last year, and although their social lives dropped for the month, they always talked about what a blast it was. I doubt I'll make it to the 50,000 word mark, but I figure I should give it a shot!

I'm going to do it. I've had segments and assorted bits floating around for awhile and maybe just writing it all out will be more effective than the endless polishing of paragraphs. It can't be less effective!

First time. Nervous.

Yay! I'm so happy to see RidgewayGirl and citygirl!!
Don't be nervous, it's all in a spirit of fun. We're all here to cheer you on and help you out.

Welcome to all the newbies! I think it's pretty normal to be nervous but it's great that we have such growing numbers of LT participants!

Good luck to everyone!!!
THREE MORE DAYS!!!

I've contemplated doing NaNoWriMo for several years. This year, in particular, I gave it a lot of thought. Ultimately, though, I've decided to abstain given my work load for the month - deadlines at work and with school work. It's just not a good time. Of course, the whole concept can be done any month so perhaps I should do it in the coming few months sometime. However, the idea of participating with a mass is really appealing to me so maybe I'll hold off until next year.

*waves to the newbies* Welcome! Get ready for an AWESOME month!!

It's definitely overwhelming at first, especially if you have other things on your plate that you can't push aside as easily as sleep and stuff. But the NaNo EXPERIENCE is what is so awesome... I mean, seriously, the 50k goal is awesome if you achieve it, but I've only won 2 years out of the 5 that I've participated, and the non-wins were just as fun. The people you get to meet/talk to, the character-building and long/late chat session... It's so wonderful.

The above is for Deesirings, 'cause I think you should just go for it even if you have other stuff to do... It's fun!! :)

Thanks, Heather.

It appears I have about 48 hrs to reconsider (if i want to start on time). So I'll obsess about it a bit more before deciding.

Perhaps I have been too focussed on the possibility of actually completing the 50k words. But I really do have an unusually busy November scheduled. We'll see. Perhaps it would be a worthwhile experience even if I think I can only write part of the novel.

I can't find my copy of No Plot, No problem. It seems to have grown feet and walked away. Anyway, Chris Baty said somewhere that even if you only write 10,000 words - it's 10K more than you had before you started. And many people never write 10K so it's still an accomplishment. I keep trying to have that mentality about my ever-shrinking 401K.

Ooooooooooooh. So close....It'll be nice to have LTers to talk to about it.

I decided this week to take the plunge. I'm pretty excited to finally try and complete the process of a first draft for one of my novel ideas! I wanted to join in 06 and 07 but chickened out so this is my first year with NaNoWriMo. The whole attitude about it is great for someone like me who always has so much else going on and uses that as an excuse; I feel like I have to be in the right place with the plot 90% worked out on paper BEFORE I write and NaNoWriMo just encourages you to DO IT no matter what it looks like. LOL! I'm hoping the forums there and here will be motivating, too.

It's official - I'm a NaNoWriMo newbie, in part because of the kind nudge Heather gave me above.
I'm excited. I've written a prologue and a chapter. Though I had no plot outlined (no problem!), I thought I had a very general sketch in mind but I've already gone in an entirely other direction.
So far, so good.
Here's to a fun ride for all NaNoWriters!

I don't know that I've ever really shot for the 50,000-word goal, but I do tend to write 8,000-15,000 more words in November than I would, otherwise. Who knows what this year may bring, goal-wise... :)

Is anyone doing 2022?

Sorry I've been slacking on my usual threads for the year. Things have gone bottom up for me lately.

Ooh, I am tempted! Not sure I can put that much of my life on hold, though.

New thread for the first week is posted!
https://www.librarything.com/topic/345517