The time is upon us! The challenge of writing 50,000 words in one month, of penning 1600 words every day, has come! Loin your girds, prepare your preferred writing implement, sacrifice a goat to the Mighty Grash'Haggurack, cry havoc and let slip the dogs of writing!



Drama aside, is anybody giving NaNo a try this year? Having now loined my girds, prepared my preferred writing implement and sacrificed a goat to the Might Grash'Haggurack, I will be taking part in a kind of tangential way; I'm using it to spur me into finishing a current novel project that I've been working on for a while.

Does anyone else have any NaNo plans/ambitions? Any works they're working on at all? If so, I'm making this the thread for exchanging ideas, giving encouragement and swapping goat sacrifice tips. Because we all know that if we don't then the Mighty Grash'Haggurack will be otherwise displeased and shall rise to consume the world in madness and hellfire.

Then that´s what he has to do cause I have no idea what NaNoProMoLowRide is

It's National Novel Writing Month; every November for the last 10 years or so there's been a challenge to write 50,000 words in a single month. There's more info on the official website if you're interested.

Now go and sacrifice your goat, dammit.

Hmm, I wonder if I could complete a draft of my Bruma chapter in one month. I’m sure that wouldn’t “count” as a NaNoWriMo project, but getting 50,000 words out without going back to edit seems to fit the spirit of the event. And also maybe that would help increase my once per three months posting rate.

It's whatever you want. I was gonna set my account up today, but it"'ll have to wait.

I found an official forum for rebels, so I went ahead and sacrificed my goat.

I set up daily files to keep easy track of my word count and discourage editing. We'll see how it goes. 50,000 words might produce 20,000 that I want to keep!

Exactly! Some of the "losers" even get book deals. My husband wants Kayla's story to become a canon. I laughed at him.

Rebel forum? Que?

Kayla's story? Canon? Hahaha.

Imagine all of our stories canon. That would be the day. We can only hope.

Man, the Shivering Isles expansion would rock.

Kobby can write that much in one week. Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges!

Third one down. An official forum for folks who are participating in the spirit of the event if not following the exact rules. Writing screenplays, non-fiction, continuing works in progress, that sort of thing. Though how anyone manages to do the writing and also write about the writing is beyond me.

Did it before - in 2010 and 2011. Won both times. The 2010 one is on the back burner for editing. If you are reading Cardonaccum, you are reading what I wrote in 2011. I didn't participate last year because between work and a hell of a class I didn't feel like having fun with it. This year I'm participating again with another story idea that I've been mulling for a month.

If you sit down and work at it daily, it's amazing how much you can get out on paper (or screen, if digital is your mode). I find that applying a little BDSM on that inner editor really works, and imagining that pissed off little $hit in the corner really makes my day.

There are a ton of forums on the official website with lots of fun people. The Romance forum a couple of years ago posted a thread on romance tropes that had me rolling! Especially considering that I hate romances for exactly those reasons!

Huh, guess I should get on that seeing as I'm finishing a work instead of just writing from scratch.

In other news, I am writing LIKE A LITERATURE BEAST today. Probably helps that I'm hitting my novel's climax, but I've managed to get about 1000 words don in just an hour today. NaNo is one hell of a motivator.

Yay!! I'm glad to hear it. To me that's the whole point, to generate a lengthy piece of work that did not exist on Oct. 31.

I'm using the trick of writing the first sentence of the next day's part so that I have a jumping-off point. No blank screen paralysis if there's already a prompt on the page, no matter how small. I hope, lol.

Hmm, may have to borrow that trick, actually, sounds like a good one to help get things started. Cheers Grits

Also, looking forward to seeing some more Jerric appearing soon from all of this

Sigh, it's that time of the year again. I can worldbuild like it's nothing, but writing down stories is just too hard.


I'll pass on even trying this year. I'm slow enough with my fanfic writing and fanfic reading as it is. So no Nanowrimo for me, just some plastic modelling competition.

Just hit the 50,000 word mark on my novel; UNSTOPPABLE LITERATURE BEAST!! (Yes, I know it's cheating to start with 44,000 words already written. Be quiet).

Also, for those interested, my writing profile can be found here. Add me as a buddy and I shall add you and we shall be bestest of fwiends forever.
And it's totally not a cunning plan to get a sneak peak at what you're writing next, H.E.R.

Aaaand that's why they have the rebel forum on Nanowrimo. For the benefit of others, Nanowrimo can be used to power through that thorny last bit of that unfinished masterpiece - just keep your November word count separate from the rest of that novel.

Ummm, you might be disappointed, as I haven't yet put anything up on my profile.

In other NNWM news: I went off to my first write-in at the local Panera's. We did two word sprints and I fired off 1400 words between the two sprints. Came back home with a total count of 1749 words so far today. Pretty good, but short of my daily goal of 2,000. Still, I didn't write yesterday, so I have a lot of catching up to do!

That sounds fun! I would be pleasantly distracted by the jugs of tea. How long is a word sprint? Is it a timed thing?

I'm catching up from an off day yesterday, too. Nearly there.

A word sprint is a timed event.

Simply put, you type (or write, if that's your thing) without interruption, distraction, or editing for a brief period of time. We did two 20-min word sprints at the write-in. It really forces you to put your inner editor into gimp bondage gear and dump him/her in a far-away corner.

You can try this yourself at home - all you need is a timer of some sort that will alert you to when time is up.

I never thought to use a timer. That's a good idea when I have a large block of time to not burn out early. I use one for other things, why not writing? Thanks!

They're having write-ins at my library, totally going!

Eh, I don't know if that's a good idea for me. The last time I tried to put my inner editor into gimp bondage gear he just got hard and things became very awkward

In all seriousness, that word sprint idea does sound like a good idea, and I'm impressed that you managed to get 1400 words done in just 40 minutes. I might have to see if I can get my uni's creative writing society to do some of those as well.

And Rohirrim! Go! Write! Write like you've never written before!



Actually, in retrospect, write like you have written before, else it'll be illegible.

Just killed three major characters over two chapters. You know what's just been dropped?

Murderer! Are you trying to go all Game of Thrones on us?

Though in retrospect in my Sci Fi I killed off twelve major characters in the space of three or four paragraphs.

Uhh, yes, it was a firefight, and a brutal one at that. Tough to write - I cried for hours afterwards.

Twelve? Blimey, that's all of my main characters and one extra.

That said, I tend not to feel particular remorse for killing off my characters. I prefer to treat them as tools instead of people, an idea I got from Chekhov, as it generally allows me to write with more honesty and less bias (I generally dislike stories where the author seems to really hate the villain and really like the heroes and where they take great, triumphant delight in seeing the bad guy brought low and the heroes triumph [not that that's an innately bad thing in general, but I don't like it to being quite so personal]). Characters written by authors who try not to get attached to them or pick favourites*, I find, tend to be more interesting than those who appear to be the writer's golden child.




And I had a relevant point to make in that post that got lost somewhere. Ah well.



*As much as this is possible; there are going to be elements of bias in every story, as that's just human nature, but when done well the worse that happens is that these favoured characters usually just get more page time.

I love all of my characters, but am realistic about them. Everyone has shades of grey and I try to touch on that as much as possible.

Congrats on your remorseless bloodshed, Mustard! Was this premeditated, or did you kill them in a fit of passion(ate writing)? I've had a few surprises that weren't in the outline, but so far no one has died.

It was semi-premeditated, though considering I went into the story with only a very vague plan that's the case for most of the stuff that happened in the story. I fully intended for some of the characters to pop their clogs, though, otherwise it makes things seem too easy.

Also finalchapterisdonewritingtheepiloguenowohmygodsoexcited!!!

Gomustardgo!!!

I just finished it!

HOLY CRAP I JUST FINISHED IT OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD!!!

*Runs around in circles waving hands in excitement*

Congrats on finishing the novel! How many words?

55,638 words, precisely. I'm adding in a fair amount on my second draft, as there are some character perspectives I need to include, so it'll probably end up being a bit more substantial by the time that I'm done, but it's a start.

That's awesome. Congratulations on finishing it!

Do you have another project to write with abandon for the rest of the month?

No, I'm going to work on redrafting my current piece in preparation for submitting it to an agent; strike while the iron is hot and all that.

I'm making good progress on my own story as well.

Just updated my word count: 23,159! Almost halfway!

How is everyone else doing?

That's great, haute! I have a section coming up that has no outline other than the end result of the main characters still being alive, and there are new characters to introduce. I'm pretty excited about it. It's been very productive to throw caution to the wind and just go for it.

My main issue with NaNo is that it's in November! Busiest month of my year with December a close second. This would be MUCH more fun in February! Ah well.

I dislike all of you. I've never made it past three thousand words and I do this every year but this one, lol.

To be fair, last year sucked.

Good job, mustard. I actually have a few characters killed.in my stories that I haven't posted yet. It's not that.it's fun(well, maybe a little.) It's more realistic that way if there are deaths, especially with waririors and whatnot. Mustard, post some stories here. Nao.

Yeah, while it does depend on the type of story it does seem more realistic to have character deaths in moments of conflict, and it does help make the sense of threat/drama feel better realised.


Also, I notice that all of the characters who ended up dead in my piece were the 'warrior'-type members of the cast. Huh.

And I'd write some stuff for the site but I'm in the middle of editing my soon-to-be Hugo Award-winning bestseller! Don't interrupt my flow, maaaan!

Ain't that the truth? I've always been a pantster writer - I would start a story with a specific scene in mind and just write my way to that scene, then write the crap out of it.

It was difficult at first, years ago. But now I'm better at it. I start by evaluating the scene - what is going on here? Where is it taking place? What is the time/historical era? Then I move on to asking who are the characters here? How did they get here, and why are they here? What motivates them? Why? By asking these questions, and constantly asking questions (one leads to another, and so on), I develop the story in my head. But I generally get nowhere unless my characters are talking to me. And usually they start talking to me when I pepper them with questions. Sometimes I feel like Detective Frank Pembleton!

Today is a great day for 30 minute sprints.

Me too!

Go for it, girrrl!

Hey, fellow Nanowrimo'ers!

How are you guys doing?

My rebellion is going well. I should finish the chapter draft by the end of the month. I doubt if I’ll get to 50,000 words before the end of the chapter, though.

I can definitely see why the rules demand a fresh story for the best chance of 50,000 word/complete story success. When I look back at what I’ve written this month it seems rushed and thin compared to what came before. And that’s perfectly OK, it’s meant to be a skeleton upon which to hang the re-write. But it would be easier if I didn’t have expectations for how it’s supposed to sound.

Next year I think I’ll do a Sonstra and Kjelling story. It should fit within the very short novel length I could grind out in a month, and I have no ideas about what happens other than they both survive to produce Jerric. I’m kind of looking forward to it already.

How’s your story going, haute?

I'm currently writing a spin-off story to my piece so that I don't too bored by just redrafting. Quite fun, so far, and it helps me get some fresh perspective and ideas for my main story as well.

I got a button.

Welp. I just broke 50,000 this evening. Stopping for the night, but I still have more to write. So I'll keep going and see if I can't finish this sucker by Saturday.

Everyone at work has been wonderfully supportive. It's good, especially since my ever-practical mother can't see the value of writing 50,000 words in 30 days just because I can.