NaNoWriMo is Upon Us

[LightPhoenix]

I will be attempting it. Honestly though, with graduate school, I don't think I'll make it.

 

[JediSoth]

I've already written something I've submitted for publication. I'm doing NaNoWriMo because I need to work on developing the discipline to just sit down and write. I have a ton of story ideas rattling around in my head, but I never just sit down and write them.

Well, I'm going to this time. And if it's crap, at least I can say I did NaNoWriMo, and I'll know that I can write that much for one story. If it's not Utter Crap™, maybe I can punch it up a bit over the next few months and submit it to a publisher. You never know.

Day 2. 10,341 words written so far.

JediSoth

 

[Dog Moon]

Oooh, I actually noticed this at the beginning of the month this year. I am totally gonna attempt this. Actually with the 30 words I wrote yesterday, I'm well on my way!

 

[trancejeremy]

That's kind of the point of National Novel Writing Month... Things get in the way, and it's hard to write. It's something that can always be pushed to the wayside while other things take precedence... National Novel Writing Month is all about setting aside the time, carving out chunks of your schedule to fit in novel writing because its something that you want to do.

Novel length is around 50,000 words...

I thought novels were more closer to 100,000, though. 50,000 is more like a novella.

 

[NiTessine]

Yeah, I'm doing it, yet again. Currently standing at 4,001 words, with something resembling a plot slowly beginning to emerge from the sludge of filler words I've been typing up.

I was supposed to create an outline last month, but other writing projects got in the way.

 

[JediSoth]

I thought novels were more closer to 100,000, though. 50,000 is more like a novella.

The official dividing line between novel and novella is 40,000 words. The Great Gatsby was roughly 50,000 words.

JediSoth

 

[takyris]

Today's average novel length depends on the genre. One of those thin Harlequins is about 60,000, I believe, while an average mystery paperback is around 75,000. Your average media tie-in novel (like a Star Wars book) runs in the 90,000 - 100,000 range, and a normal SF or Fantasy novel runs 100,000 and up.

If you're just writing to get yourself to write, write a 50,000-word novel. If you're writing to try to get something that can sell, you've got much better odds if you write something closer to normal industry length.

 

[maxfieldjadenfox]

I'm doing it again. I haven't finished the last two years, but maybe third times the charm... I'm Jadenfox on NaNo if anybody wants to say hi.

 

[yangnome]

I'm back again this year too. This is my fourth year. The first year, I only wrote for one night, tehn didn;t pick it up again. year two, I wrote slightly under 80k during the month, a novel I am now trying to find an agent for. Last year, I wrote to 50k and stopped, because I knew that despite havinga good story, the novel needed major reworking (change in POV) and writing further wouldn';t do me any good.

This year has been a bit different for me. In years 2 and 3, I crossed the 50k line by day 10. This year has been a lot slower. I find myself writing once every two or three days. So far, the story is still working, it just feels different. I'm sure I'll hit the 50k, and my aim is somewhere between 75 - 80k for the month.

To answer questions above (even though they are a few days old), I think people approach nano for different reasons. Some want to write 50k words, just for the challenge of writing a 50k word story (or sometimes just any 50k words)--they are looking soley for the challenge. Others have a story in their head they'd someday like to write--what better way than nano? Some take nano seriously and write a book that they intend to attempt to polish and publish someday. Make no mistake, anything done in NaNo will be a rough draft, but that doesn;t mean it doesn;t have potential after a bit of sweat and polish.

 

[Urizen]

I wish I had time to do this.

Like many people, I've been saying "I need to/am going to write a novel" for years.

One of my biggest problems though is finding the story I want to tell.