DoctorEvil Posted October 25, 2004 Report Posted October 25, 2004 (edited) Something the Doctor pulled from another site..... November is National Novel Writing Month www.nanowrimo.org/ Quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is NaNoWriMo? National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30. Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over talent and craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved. Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly. Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down. As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and -- when the thing is done -- the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children. In 2003, we had about 25,000 participants. Over 3500 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists. So, to recap: What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month's time. Who: You! We can't do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let's write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together. Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era's most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from your novel at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work. When: Sign-ups began October 1, 2004. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Edited February 2, 2005 by DoctorEvil
Appy Posted October 25, 2004 Report Posted October 25, 2004 Sounds fascinating... and also a little scary
Loki Wyrd Posted October 25, 2004 Report Posted October 25, 2004 A girl I know is doing that, and tried to convince me to do the same. No time...
The Big Pointy One Posted October 25, 2004 Report Posted October 25, 2004 Of course, if you're really hardcore, you could try for quality as well...
Lady Celes Crusader Posted October 26, 2004 Report Posted October 26, 2004 A 50k round-robin? That is absolutly crazy. :woot:
Yui-chan Posted October 26, 2004 Report Posted October 26, 2004 Funny enough, I've been arguing with myself over whether or not to mention this event here in the Pen or not. I'm actually planning on participating for the first time, this year, though I've known about it for a couple of years, now. If anyone else wants to join in, moral support is always generously flowing through the hectic month. ... also, does anyone know what I'm going to write for this NaNoWriMo? I don't, yet. *sob* Thanks for putting up the info, oh Evil Doctor! Rushing, ~Yui
Alaeha Posted October 26, 2004 Report Posted October 26, 2004 You could write about a Dungeon Master who's possessed by a Fiend, and runs around throwing dice at people for real damage (tossing a six-sided die at someone, hitting them, and creating a ten inch long gash in their arm if when it lands, a six is face up.) His former players are then given "Holy Dice" which can damage the fiend possessing him without harming the DM himself. At the end of the story, the DM dies and the players are plane-shifted to a world bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Forgotten Realms. Or you could write about a couple of people who go off on a mission (sponsored by some higher power or another -- Extraplanar Beings or the Government, I'd think) to eradicate Porn. Or a story about a Guy (or a Girl,) who goes around Redeeming sappy romantics and teaching them to see reason. "If you feel like you need a girl to validate your existence so that you aren't a waste of oxygen, I don't care how many amazing girls like you == you ARE a waste of oxygen."
Peredhil Posted October 26, 2004 Report Posted October 26, 2004 Lady Celes - I got the impression that each writer was on their own - the only overlap being that they are all struggling to write 50K words. Ouch. Looks thoughtful I really don't have time but... walks away musing.
The Big Pointy One Posted October 26, 2004 Report Posted October 26, 2004 Write about... Godzilla. And barbecue sauce. (Those were the first two things I looked at in my room. Go figure.) If I tried, I'd start by taking the beginning part of two of my stories and expanding big time. You know, use it as practice for writing an actual novel. The excuse that it doesn't have to be awesome would help me do it, I guess. The only thing I'm unsure about is what to write it with... although I could probably find that out by checking the website. Shmeh.
Zadown Posted October 26, 2004 Report Posted October 26, 2004 1700 words per day, ouch. Guess I'll have to give it a try anyways, and later subject ya'll to the painful experience of actually reading it.
Tamaranis Posted October 26, 2004 Report Posted October 26, 2004 Drat it, Zadown, I wanted to be the first person to announce they're actually going to try it, then later claim to be the person who initiated to flood of entries! But maybe you should reconsider? This'll probably been less Oblivion for the rest of us for the month... Anyway yeah, not exactly sure what I'll write, beyond something very bad.
Zadown Posted October 26, 2004 Report Posted October 26, 2004 Yeah I know, no Oblivion, but I'm not really working on it right now anyways, so... just lost my drive on that storyline for now. Besides, I really want to try something completely different (no llamas, though). The liberating fact that it is allowed to be crap means I can try something that I'm fairly sure is not my forté (forte? fortè? fortë? bah...).
Katzaniel Posted October 26, 2004 Report Posted October 26, 2004 I might consider this, if a.) I had time, and b.) I was capable of ignoring stuff that I know is terrible. My style of writing is so totally against what this has to offer. Perhaps another year; take all my holidays in November, maybe, and see if I could go for what BPO suggested.
reverie Posted October 27, 2004 Report Posted October 27, 2004 hmm, write about a guy that goes around town bumping into people... and in the process creates all sorts of calamady... like being chased by a pack of ferious yet uber cute pack of kittens... rev...
Gryphon Posted October 27, 2004 Report Posted October 27, 2004 Sounds very Mynx-ish Rev...Looks around for Mynx and her kitten minions to realise that she's probably studying for exams.
Tamaranis Posted October 27, 2004 Report Posted October 27, 2004 It's not like I'm going to just write something deliberately silly to the point of being incomprehensible, though it might turn out that way. I'm not going to just keep typing out the next random though until I've got a file that's grown out of all proportion to become a 50K blob of meaningless text. I think the point is to actually take an idea that might normally work and make a respectable novel, and then write it out with all possible speed such that it cannot possibly manifest as a respectable novel, and will contain glaring inconsistencies in the plot, but will still have a plot. Notionally.
The Big Pointy One Posted October 27, 2004 Report Posted October 27, 2004 I wonder if it'd be against the rules to have a whole bunch of people collaborate on such a story. You know, get a group together, and have each write X amount of pages where X = (Total amount of pages)/Number of writers ;p
Katzaniel Posted October 27, 2004 Report Posted October 27, 2004 I'm sure it would, but it would still be fun, and it certainly wouldn't be against the spirit of the thing. ... I figured it out, and at the speed I write (sample size for calculation: 1 post ) it would take ten hours every three days for a total of about one hundred hours writing that month. Definitely no time this year. Definitely have to try it when I'm out of school.
The Portrait of Zool Posted October 27, 2004 Report Posted October 27, 2004 November... beginning of the holiday rush... Maybe next year.
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