Nanowrimo 2018

[sknox]

Somebody I see on the NaNo forum always pass 50k on day 1. She says she has a high typing speed, knows what she wants to say, doesn't need much sleep, and has loads of free time in November.

Well, 100wpm x 60 minutes x 24 hours = 144,000 words
so, she's a real tortoise in my book. <grimace>

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I think I might use it next year to kickstart my next novel but for the moment I’m not needing the team spirit motivation for my wip.

Jo, I’m surprised (not that you’re not doing it) but that you seem a bit down on it (could be my imagination tho). I thought it’d be the kind of thing you’d be into because of your coaching etc. I’ve heard Nano gives a lot of motivation and support to strugglers.

I’m not sure it’s for me but I do think it’s a great thing - gives so many writers impetus and measurable progress, but more important (perhaps?) a sense of community, perhaps?

It’s our Gay Pride...or....or...something

One year I’ll participate I think. Thing is I’m such an organic (and glacially slow) writer, I think it might be too challenging. But one year ...

pH

I blogged about my utter dislike for the concept of it (but not those who do it, who I fully support and hope they get their many words*) once, as I recall. I’m down on it for a few reasons:

The amount of coverage it gets - it makes it look like this is a great thing, you’ll have a novel in a month, what a great way to write! But if people can’t write like that - either because of life, or their style, or the sheer unexpected exhaustion of so many words - it becomes an ‘I-have-failed’ misery. In fact, I met a young writer who is very talented recently who had the stuffing knocked out of her by getting to 20000 words and stalling.

2. From that - it makes the word count too important and the quality and experience of writing less so. Most stuff is rubbish and needs editing - it will take just as long to fix that novel as taking a more considered approach might. And that considered approach might have allowed that young writer to sit back at 20k and let the story percolate and not feel she’d failed.

3. Because it’s so public - I’m doing it! Are you!? And you! Great! - it means that failing is also public. I’ve trunked many projects; I feel better that I don’t need to admit (unless I want to) that I have. And I don’t have a screen telling me I have.

Why shouldn’t Sam just say to the group ‘I’m not doing Nano, it’s not for me, but I’d like to turn up and just write and see how I go’. Because Nano is all about peer pressure.

On the coaching angle - my dislike of Nano doesn’t impact on that. Coaching is about the coachee making the choice for themselves. If they were struggling to finish the dream book I’d suggest ways around that barrier - including Nano, it works for loads of people - and support them in whichever they chose (mostly by giving Hard Stares when progress has not been made or supplying tea and cake)

TLR - I like the concept of writing many words when the time is right: I also like the concept of not being told it is the thing to do/ the way to write a novel/ the bee’s knees. I think it brings self doubt to those who can’t achieve or even start and it makes a private, often therapeutic activity, into a competition.

Boy. I always surprise myself by how much I dislike the concept of Nano


* indeed I think if the muse strikes you should write like the wind and hope she keeps up! But that’s the creative muse, not the one enforced on 1st Nov and made to work for a month

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Why I won't do Nanowrimo

 

[Juliana]

I'm doing it unofficially, simply because I needed a push to get the last book in my trilogy started. I won't be anywhere near finished by December, but will hopefully have a good foundation for the whole thing.

If anyone here wants extra support and chit chat for either official or unofficial NaNo, we have a FB group. Cheerleader pom poms optional. Look me up on FB so I can add you.

 

[HareBrain]

I'm doing it unofficially

Oh, me too, it turns out, since I don't intend to sign up for anything.

 

[AlexH]

I tried it in the mid 00s and wrote a few thousand words of rubbish in the first few days, then gave up. I'm mostly in Jo's camp. I think it's good to have a target but it encourages careless writing (that will take forever (or never) to edit) and people shouldn't be disappointed if they only write 10,000 words. It's still 10,000 words you wouldn't have written otherwise. For people it works for = great!

 

[The Bluestocking]

I think it's good to have a target but it encourages careless writing (that will take forever (or never) to edit) and people shouldn't be disappointed if they only write 10,000 words. It's still 10,000 words you wouldn't have written otherwise. For people it works for = great!

Yeah - another reason it doesn't suit me is that I tend to chew on things a lot (aka let it all percolate and play out in various ways in my imagination) before I write them down. Then I tend to edit lightly as I go along (and have been known to backtrack to re-write an entire scene before my WiP progresses further because if I didn't fix that scene right then, it would be the devil to fix it without impacting everything else once the first draft is done).

But as you said: horses for courses. Some people prefer to speedily get out the first draft without editing/re-writing along the way, others work at a more considered pace (ending with a first draft that needs a far less drastic overhaul).

 

[sknox]

I'm especially with Jo on the failing part. I attended the kick-off dinner locally. About twenty people. Those who had "won" Nano (the very word used) visibly preened. Those who had tried and "failed" previously were apologetic. That, instead of talking about what we had written and what we planned to write.

If a wannabe (good Lord, that passed the spellcheck!) can be knocked out of the game after "failing" Nano, then they probably weren't a writer anyway. But again, per Jo, where's the benefit of making that painful process public?

I'll close with one of my (many) favorite sayings, which seems a better sort of thing than Nano:
To be sure of hitting your target, just shoot.
Whatever you hit, call that the target.

 

[Plucky Novice]

I hadn't heard about this before. It's an interesting concept.

I've got no interest in "winning" nanowrimo as I don't have time to get anywhere near that target but also I don't need to. I'm 5 to 10k off completing my first draft so will then be editing.

However, is it worth joining to meet local writers? I have no writing acquaintances or a group. Is this something that could come from nano?

 

[The Big Peat]

I might be in this month. I'll be starting late because of holiday and am v busy, but it could be good.

That said, I agree with a lot of the criticisms. It worked for me and gave me a great supportive atmosphere but it clearly doesn't do that for everyone - inelegant phrasing but hope people know what I mean.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I hadn't heard about this before. It's an interesting concept.

I've got no interest in "winning" nanowrimo as I don't have time to get anywhere near that target but also I don't need to. I'm 5 to 10k off completing my first draft so will then be editing.

However, is it worth joining to meet local writers? I have no writing acquaintances or a group. Is this something that could come from nano?

You can look up local groups and find people by locations in the NaNo forum, so if you live in an area that's likely to have more than just you (mine is tough sometimes), you could probably hook up and get together for write-ins in a local coffee shop or bookstore or library. People do.