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National Novel Writing Month 2018

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Telgin:
It's a touch early to be starting a thread on National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) 2018, but in the interest of carrying on the tradition of having an annual threat about it here, I'm starting this one today.  It was on my mind since I was talking to friends about it, and it never hurts to start planning early, right?

I suspect most people who are clicking on the thread here are already familiar with NaNoWriMo, but in case you aren't...

What is NaNoWriMo?
NaNoWriMo is an informal challenge to anyone who wants to write.  The idea is simple: you simply have to write 50,000 words of a story during the month of November.  You don't necessarily have to finish the story, so long as you write that many words, and it doesn't matter what the story is.  This isn't going to be published anywhere without you doing it, so it can be fanfiction for all that the challenge cares.

The point is to just get words down.  A lot of writers agree that this is the hard part, and you can easily get stuck trying to edit or world build.  From experience, I can say that it's very true, and anyone who wants to give this a shot is strongly encouraged to not fret about the quality of your work and just focus on getting a first draft down.  I did last year and hate how it turned out, but I'm still glad I did it since it puts me in a better place to try it this year.

Is this a competition?
Not really.  You're only challenging yourself.  You can certainly compare your progress to others, but it's informal and you won't get anything but a warm, fuzzy feeling for beating someone else.

Is my writing safe?
Sure.  You don't have to publish anything you write, and nanowrimo.org just has a tool for inputting word counts.  They have a word count utility as well, which supposedly scrambles the text so that nobody could possibly steal it, but in seriousness there's no reason to be afraid of whatever you're writing getting out in the wild without you doing it.

Can I win anything?
Only personal satisfaction, which is a surprisingly good thing in my experience.  Supposedly you can get some discounts on software or other sponsored goodies if you "win" by hitting 50K words, but I don't actually know how this works.  I "won" last year, but didn't investigate that part.

Can't I just cheat and enter whatever I want in the word count tool then?
Sure, but you're only cheating yourself in the end.  The whole point is to make something of your own and prove to yourself that you can do it.

Official website:
https://nanowrimo.org/

Links to previous years:
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012


The challenge is still a month away, but you've got time to plan.  I've tried many times in the past and have always failed to plan out stories of any significant length, so I think I'll skip doing substantial planning this year and just discover my story as I go.

I'm currently debating redrafting my attempt from last year, since I hate how it turned out, or just trying something new in the same setting.  Or, as a friend suggested, trying to convert an RPG setting we've worked on into a story.  Lots of possibilities, and not a ton of time to work through them.

Feel free to discuss the challenge or any prospective stories here, and when the challenge starts, note your progress.  I'll post again the day before it starts as a reminder.  If anyone already has a Discord or other chat server set up for it, they can note that too.  I'd link other writing resources, but based on my meandering comments above about getting lost with editing or world building, that might be counter productive.  :)

Caz:
Idk what to write this time. The last couple of years I seem to get nowhere with nano.

We should definitely have a discord for word wars or something though

Rowanas:
I might've written something but it's not my nation, so I guess i'm out. Ah well, back to my previous plan for November - jerking it and crying.

Telgin:
The US is definitely over represented in the participation, but it looks like a lot of Europeans and South Americans participate as well.  They might as well call it Global Novel Writing Month or International Novel Writing Month, but I guess the acronyms don't really roll of the tongue so well.  GloNoWriMo and InNoWriMo aren't that bad though...

Channel your frustrations into writing instead.

Caz:

--- Quote from: Rowanas on October 03, 2018, 07:18:02 am ---I might've written something but it's not my nation, so I guess i'm out.

--- End quote ---

What?

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