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Confession time: I mentioned this last year, but I haven't ever done NaNoWriMo. I've written a book in a month before, and I've definitely written 50k in a month more than once, but November tends to be a notoriously busy time for me, so I never accomplished either of those feats in the month of November.
As a writer who has never participated in NaNoWriMo, I can't talk about the event from experience (obviously), but only from what I've observed. From what I've seen, NaNoWriMo seems to be a fantastic opportunity for writers to get a significant amount of writing done with the encouragement and excitement of thousands of other writers also working on a project at the same time.
Now, I may not be able to talk about NaNoWriMo from experience, but I can tell you that writing with encouragement from a supportive community of writers not only makes the sometimes grueling experience of writing a novel much more enjoyable, but it can also help motivate you to write faster, longer and more often. As a bonus, when you finish your WIP, there are writers out there happy to celebrate with some virtual confetti and balloons with you.
Getting back to NaNoWriMo, from what I understand the celebration is a lot more than just virtual confetti. Last year some of the prizes for those who completed 50k within the thirty days got 50% off of Scrivener and five free paperback copies of their book from CreateSpace as well as other goodies.
In short, NaNoWriMo is a month long event that I feel could be highly beneficial to writers of all skill levels, regardless of whether or not you actually complete the 50k. Don't underestimate the power of an encouraging community and extra motivation to write—sometimes it only takes a little push to inspire you to create something great.
So now I turn the discussion to you, fellow writers. For those of you who have done NaNoWriMo in the past, what was your experience like? For everyone else, will you be doing NaNoWriMo this year? Why or why not? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
43 comments:
I love Nano! Wish I could participate this year, but I'm deep into edits and won't have them done in time to start something new in November. But I've done it twice before and I highly recommend it. Open Minds started as a Nano novel! (Of course, it took two more years of edits before it was ready for the world, but still...)
NaNo is awesome! I've been participating every year since 2009. I like it because it feels a lot less lonely and daunting when you know thousands of others are writing a novel at the same time you are! I love spending an entire month with so many people who love writing and books just as much as I do. It's a wonderful experience, and I hope some time you get the chance to participate!
I'm afraid I'm in the same boat as you Ava about being busy.
Also, my WiP is coming along well at the moment and I can't imagine sidelining it for a novel I'm yet to conceive. Hats off to those who do take on NaNoWriMo. A 50k word count still seems so far away for me!
That's cool to hear that Open Minds started as a Nano novel, although it doesn't surprise me that it took two years for it to reach a point that it was ready for publishing--there's a pretty big discrepancy between first and final drafts. Thanks for sharing your experience!
I know from my experience with #wordmongering sessions that writing while knowing there are others buckling down at the same time makes the task much more exciting--and if you have a competitive streak, it can give you a little extra motivation as well. Applying that same concept to a larger scale (as is done with NaNo) seems like it'd be quite the experience. :)
I'm not sure how far along you are in your WIP, but have you considered doing NaNo with your current WIP? I could be wrong, but I don't think you necessarily have to start something new--the goal is just to write 50k in a month. At least, that's the way I understand it...
I LOVE NaNo! I have participated for the past five years and have won four out of the five. I blame my loss last year on the fact that I was pregnant! Hehe. My new book comes out October 29th, so that leaves me wide open to start something new for NaNo this year, and I can't wait.
One of the hugest advantages of Nano for me has been the friendships I've made along the way. I met my critique partners through NaNo, and they have been my best friends for years. It's an awesome time to meet local writers and writers all over the world. I highly recommend it!!
I will do NaNoWriMo this year for the first time - because I need to SILENCE MY CENSOR.
It seems like the community alone may be a good reason to try it out. Congrats on winning four/five years (and for the loss year, congrats on your progress nonetheless) and thanks for the glowing recommendation! :)
That's an excellent reason to try NaNoWriMo. Writing a book in thirty days definitely forces you to ignore the censor.
I haven't done a NaNoWriMo before, but I'm considering it because I'm wrapping up my current WiP, and the timing is perfect for my next story.
Now, saying it and doing it are two different things, so we'll see what really ends up happening ;)
Just singed up :D I'm not completely certain I'll be doing it, although I am in the process of writing a novel, but it will be a good encouragement to get a bit of extra writing done. Thanks for passing on the link. I've heard a lot about it but wasn't quite sure how it worked.
I did NaNo in 2010--a great experience that I'm happy I've had, but November is a busy month for me, too. I actually finished well before the 30 day mark, and it was such a great feeling (and the bragging rights weren't bad either! :) ). It's a great program that I love, and hopefully I'll be able to do it next year.
I LOVE NaNo and look forward to it all year. I've completed 50,000 words for the past three years, and yes, I haven't finished any of these novels, but I never would have gotten them written without NaNo. It just encourages you to write every day, no excuses, and you manage to find the time. The encouragement of others is very motivating. I think NaNo is a wonderful experience and don't get all the digs and negatives I sometimes receive in comments about it. Go NaNo! Thanks for the post.
I'm at about 19,000 words but currently rewriting sections after I made changes to the overall plot. I would love to try NaNo, but perhaps not this year. :)
I love NaNoWriMo. This will be my third year participating (I finished both of my previous years). I use NaNo to take a break from my WIP (a 4 book series). When I get back to my WIP in December, I find myself refreshed and full of tons of great ideas to make my story better. It's sort of like a spa for my mind.
When working on a long term project, I don't want to try anything outside my comfort zone,but I am still curious to try other genres. NaNo also gives me a chance to explore different genres that I have never tried before.
If you haven't tried NaNo before, I highly recommend it.
I love the community and the euphoria that surrounds Nanowrimo, but it's outlived its usefulness for me. I did it every year from 2003 to 2010, and that was enough for me. I'm more into the planning and plotting these days, which is pretty much anathema to everything Nano stands for. I still have a great fondness for it, though.
I love the idea of NaNoWriMo, but have never officially participated, mostly for the reason that you mentioned, Ava - November is just way too busy for me! I will of course do some writing during November, but if Nanowrimo came during a dull month like Feb or March when there were no seasonal events going on and I wasn't gearing my business up for a major sales holiday, I'd be more likely to participate.
Ah, well. Here's to writing, though, no matter what month it is! ;-)
November is and has been more of a revise moth for me. I usually write new stories in the summer and by November, I'm doing the "other" things that make a story better. So for me this November will again be called NaNoRevMo.
I should also point out that Writers Digest usually gives away a handful of excellent free e-books when NaNoWriMo begins. Stalk their twitter account and you'll see it again this year... I hope!
I've done it six times and it's been different every time. The first one was the first time I wrote and original novel instead of fanfic. I was sure I didn't have enough material. I didn't think I could get that many words in a month anyway. Then I hit 50k on the 19th and finished the story at 62k on the 25th.
The next year I upped the stakes and did 75k in the month. The next year I did 100k. And decided that I'd better knock that off right the hell now. I'm kind of competitive you see. :D NaNo number 4 was hellish. I only finished thanks to that competitive streak and sheer bloody-mindedness. And it was literally only a few hundred words over 50k. I was quite prepared to do a "rocks fall everyone dies" ending for that.
2010 I wrote one that would later become my first published NaNoWriMo book (3rd published overall.) And 2011 I did one that's currently on submission. So I didn't stop doing NaNo just because I'd turned pro. It still does a lot for me.
I find it great to refocus myself and my habits on writing. At the start of the month I'll have a purge of all the online stuff I'm doing, blogs I'm reading, games I'm playing or whatever, and put them on hold for the month. If after November I find I didn't miss them, then I drop them for good.
Deadlines are motivating. Ones that involve contracts and money certainly are! But for people who haven't reached that stage yet NaNoWriMo is a great way to learn about how you can make yourself pull that extra effort out of the bag when it's needed. How to organise your time. How to make yourself write even when your brain feels like sludge and you'd rather clean the over. With your tongue. Because one day there may be a real, serious, meet-this-or-you-get-no-money deadline, either for writing or something else, and it's good to know what you have to do before that day comes.
And yes, I'll be there again this year. I can't stay away.
In between WIPs is the perfect time for NaNoWriMo! If you decide to do it, let me know how your experience is!
Happy to help, Margaret! Extra encouragement and writing is always a good thing. :)
That's fantastic! Do you plan on doing it this year?
How wonderful! I agree that encouragement from others can be extremely motivating--especially when you know they're tackling the same sort of task that you are at the same time. And you're very welcome! Glad you enjoyed the post. :)
Thanks for the recommendation, Sheridan! I find it pretty interesting that you use NaNo as a vacation of sorts from your other writing. It certainly does give us permission to try new things and write without worrying about the outcome.
Interesting--would you consider NaNo and plotting mutually exclusive? I imagine you could conceivably plot out a story in October then spend NaNo writing it.
Regardless, the excitement and community around NaNo seems like it could be reason alone to try it out.
Not necessarily, although the stated goal of Nanowrimo is to break away from plotting and planning and just break through the inability to finish something. I find that when I have a solid outline, I can write at least as fast as I can during Nanowrimo... and i'm kind of done with the improvised novel.
That was deliberate on the part of the founders, I think, because a lot of writers tend to wait for that "dull month" that never comes. I know a lot of writers who vow to write their Nanowrimo novel in January, when everything has "died down." The rate of follow-through has been about 0%.
Interesting--I didn't know that. I've also found that I can write pretty quickly when I plot first. I don't necessarily plot out every detail, but having an outline saves me the time of wondering where the story is going to go and getting stuck.
I'm not entirely sure how it works, but I've heard that there's a Camp NaNo type thing that is similar to NaNoWriMo, but it goes year-round. I haven't tried it out, but that's an option as well.
Regardless, writing is writing no matter what month it is. :)
That's such a great point, Dan. I hadn't really thought about the reasoning behind putting NaNo in November. Thank you!
Never done it but I'm looking forward to it next month. Fortunately it will come at a time when I will actually have my evenings free. Best I've done is 30K a month and that's just with an hour in the evenings so I'm hopeful I can do a 50K.
Last year I was participating in NaNoRevMo too. I also have a tendency of writing new stories in the summer, but it all depends.
Also, great point about the free e-books! I'd forgotten about those, so thanks for the reminder!
Wow! Thanks for such a thoughtful response, Becky! Completing not just 50k, but 75 and 100k in a month is absolutely incredible! I also think it's great that you use NaNo not just to get writing done, but to refocus and adjust your habits. Sounds like a really smart way to increase your productivity.
Best of luck during NaNo this year, and thanks for the glowing recommendation!
50k in a month really isn't so bad as long as you break it up. I think it comes down to roughly 1,667 words a day if you write every day or 2,500 words a day if you write five days a week. Definitely doable. :)
I adore that so many people are inspired by NaNoWriMo, however, November is a month I focus on friends and family. Last year, I did my own version in January, and loved it. I plan to do it again this January.
This will be my first time!!! I'm so excited. I've been a writer since...well, since I COULD write, but I've only really entered the community in the last 6 months or so. Mine's going to be contemporary YA like my first novel, but I think the idea's a lot better this time. Good luck to everyone!
Nano is awesome. I have had false starts a couple of times, but last year I won while pregnant and in school. I got my first novel out of it, and I'll be revising it this year. In fact, I'll be opening up the document for the first time in a year! So I'm really excited. So I don't think I'll be doing it this year due to that, but I'll be cheering y'all on and I'll do CampNano for sure!
You can definitely do your own version at any time of the year. I've also heard there's a Camp NaNo-type thing online that starts at the beginning of every month (or something like that). I'm not entirely sure how it works, but it might be worth looking into. :)
Yay! That's very exciting, Emily--I wish you the best of luck! ^_^
Congratulations on your NaNo win last year and good luck with your revisions!
Hoping for glitter & confetti this year, as the two years past I've "failed" to reach 50K. I have "failed" in quotation marks because I think writing any amount of words can't honestly be considered losing. We're competing against ourselves & the calendar, not running in the Olympics or something. Altho... hmmm. something to consider in the future, eh?
I absolutely agree that writing any amount of words is never considered losing. Progress is progress and whatever you add to your WIP is something to be celebrated. :)
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