Something that I find quite helpful is to open a new text document each day. It means you have to do a little math to figure out your total wordcount, but it also cuts down on the temptation to edit yesterday's work.
Yesterday evening, I did another strong push and finished chapter two, adding 2,038 more words to my count. So day one ended up being a 4k day for me! I even got to end the chapter on a 'take me to your leader' joke.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
The First Day
And they're off!
Despite what I said on Wednesday, I did actually end up starting at midnight on Halloween night. I wrote from midnight until 3 AM, but thanks to the miracle of DST managed to get four hours of writing done in that time. I finished all of chapter one, racking up 2,001 words before bed.
Anyone else get anything on paper yet?
Despite what I said on Wednesday, I did actually end up starting at midnight on Halloween night. I wrote from midnight until 3 AM, but thanks to the miracle of DST managed to get four hours of writing done in that time. I finished all of chapter one, racking up 2,001 words before bed.
Anyone else get anything on paper yet?
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Thursday Write-ins
As promised, I plan on running some small Write-ins for the group, since the sense of community is the very best bit of NaNo.
I thought about it, and decided that it should be one of the days that we are all here already. And not wanting to make Wednesday any longer than it already is, I thought Thursday would be best. So each week at 4:30, after Intro to Libraries, I'll be in C209 writing for an hour or two. And you (yes you!) should come and join me.
No homework. There's plenty of time for homework already. Losing an hour or two each week won't cause you to fail (hopefully...).
Bring a laptop, or a pad of paper. Or write at a computer and email it to yourself.
And try to have fun. Writing is supposed to be (mostly) fun.
I thought about it, and decided that it should be one of the days that we are all here already. And not wanting to make Wednesday any longer than it already is, I thought Thursday would be best. So each week at 4:30, after Intro to Libraries, I'll be in C209 writing for an hour or two. And you (yes you!) should come and join me.
No homework. There's plenty of time for homework already. Losing an hour or two each week won't cause you to fail (hopefully...).
Bring a laptop, or a pad of paper. Or write at a computer and email it to yourself.
And try to have fun. Writing is supposed to be (mostly) fun.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
The Big Day
So, Sunday is the big day.
Well, if you really want to get some words in, then Saturday night starting at midnight is the big day. I, personally, prefer sleeping at night, so Sunday is good enough for me.
The trick to NaNo is to write every day. You don't have to write a lot each day, or particularly well each day. Just writing each day is enough. One missed day tends to turn into two, two into a week, a week into a month, and so on. That's why it's important to get off to a good start. So on Sunday, open a new document (and save it!), and write a little something in it (and then save it again!). Doesn't have to be publishable. It doesn't even, strictly speaking, need to be a proper beginning. Just write anything, because anything is so much better than nothing.
Worry about the next day on Monday.
Well, if you really want to get some words in, then Saturday night starting at midnight is the big day. I, personally, prefer sleeping at night, so Sunday is good enough for me.
The trick to NaNo is to write every day. You don't have to write a lot each day, or particularly well each day. Just writing each day is enough. One missed day tends to turn into two, two into a week, a week into a month, and so on. That's why it's important to get off to a good start. So on Sunday, open a new document (and save it!), and write a little something in it (and then save it again!). Doesn't have to be publishable. It doesn't even, strictly speaking, need to be a proper beginning. Just write anything, because anything is so much better than nothing.
Worry about the next day on Monday.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Snowflake Method Five
Today, I'm wrapping up my Snowflake Method series. We've done the first four steps together; I'll leave the other six up to you. The steps get progressively more complex and detailed as you go, and you don't really need to do them all to be ready for November. If you've only done the first four, you'll already be more prepared than most WriMos!
The only thing you really need to worry about, in terms of preparation, is having answers to the really obvious questions. When you are writing, you don't want to stop for anything, so any detail that you can't fill in with no more than a brief pause will either get a [detail goes here] placeholder, or derail you. So try to figure out a few potential trouble spots in advance and write them down.
That (especially) includes the names of things...characters, settings, and other nouns. Have a list of character names for every character, even the minor ones. Know what street your main character lives, in what town, in what state or province, and in what country. If they own a car, know what kind of car and what colour it is. Keep a list of these little facts at hand, and add to it whenever you think of something new or finish a section of writing. There's nothing that will mess you up more than going back and trying to find some little detail you wrote a week ago. That way lies madness and editing.
The other thing that really, really helps is a timeline. It doesn't have to be fancy or detailed or precise; it just needs to give you a big picture view of when things happen. You can do one for your backstory, one for your plotline, or both. And the scale can be entirely relative: six years ago, one month later, etc. You don't need actual dates.
The only thing you really need to worry about, in terms of preparation, is having answers to the really obvious questions. When you are writing, you don't want to stop for anything, so any detail that you can't fill in with no more than a brief pause will either get a [detail goes here] placeholder, or derail you. So try to figure out a few potential trouble spots in advance and write them down.
That (especially) includes the names of things...characters, settings, and other nouns. Have a list of character names for every character, even the minor ones. Know what street your main character lives, in what town, in what state or province, and in what country. If they own a car, know what kind of car and what colour it is. Keep a list of these little facts at hand, and add to it whenever you think of something new or finish a section of writing. There's nothing that will mess you up more than going back and trying to find some little detail you wrote a week ago. That way lies madness and editing.
The other thing that really, really helps is a timeline. It doesn't have to be fancy or detailed or precise; it just needs to give you a big picture view of when things happen. You can do one for your backstory, one for your plotline, or both. And the scale can be entirely relative: six years ago, one month later, etc. You don't need actual dates.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Snowflake Method Four
The Snowflake Method alternates back and forth between character-focused and plot-focused exercises. The first step, the sentence, starts with a character and what they do. The second, the paragraph, outlines the plot very briefly. The third step returns to characters again, focusing on each main one in more detail.
Now, the forth step is an expansion of the second step. What was a sentence becomes a paragraph, just like in the jump from step one to step two. At the end, you should have a full page, with about five paragraphs. The first outlines the characters, setting, and initial action. The second paragraph is about something going wrong. The third and fourth are about things getting worse, with new challenges and conflicts and rising tension. Finally, the last paragraph outlines the ending...or as much of it as you've figured out so far...sometimes you won't know the ending until it happens!
Now you have a plan, a roadmap, a guide to what is going to happen to whom, when and how and maybe even a little bit of why. If you can see a flaw in the story now, it's only a sentence or two to fix it, rather than a whole discarded chapter later. You can't afford to throw away any words in November! If the story looks good on the page you just made, then congratulations. And if you can't wait to expand each of those things some more, then excellent! That is the attitude to have.
I'm not going to post an example today, since it's long and I've rambled on enough already. But I did it and I have it, and it looks like a summary of an interesting story!
Now, the forth step is an expansion of the second step. What was a sentence becomes a paragraph, just like in the jump from step one to step two. At the end, you should have a full page, with about five paragraphs. The first outlines the characters, setting, and initial action. The second paragraph is about something going wrong. The third and fourth are about things getting worse, with new challenges and conflicts and rising tension. Finally, the last paragraph outlines the ending...or as much of it as you've figured out so far...sometimes you won't know the ending until it happens!
Now you have a plan, a roadmap, a guide to what is going to happen to whom, when and how and maybe even a little bit of why. If you can see a flaw in the story now, it's only a sentence or two to fix it, rather than a whole discarded chapter later. You can't afford to throw away any words in November! If the story looks good on the page you just made, then congratulations. And if you can't wait to expand each of those things some more, then excellent! That is the attitude to have.
I'm not going to post an example today, since it's long and I've rambled on enough already. But I did it and I have it, and it looks like a summary of an interesting story!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Snowflake Method Three
This is where the Snowflake Method starts to get interesting. So far, we've done a sentence and a paragraph. Now, you start to add detail until the triangle starts to look like a star.
Here's an example for my main character:
James Houston, Traveller Anthropologist
Key Viewpoint Character
Houston is dispatched to the northern ice cap to meet the People, and when the call to evacuate comes, his shuttle fails, leaving him to walk a thousand kilometres to rescue.
Motivation: Initially, he is engaging in his occupation. After the crash landing, he is trying to survive.
Goal: To return to the Fathership safely.
Conflict: Gravity, the gradual failure of his Link. On one level, the conflict is between his little group and the Raiders. This mirrors the larger conflict between the Travellers and the Stukas.
Epiphany: He will learn what can be done without the Link and the AIs.
I left off the storyline paragraph, because it is equally full of spoilers and unexplained references to other parts of the story idea. It's both incomprehensible and gives everything away!
The important thing to notice here is how quick and dirty this is. It's all plot based and structural; the more detailed and character based parts come later.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Snowflake Method Two
Continuing on with the Snowflake Method of yesterday, we're going to do the second step.
Now this one I like to do a little bit different than the standard way. It works best later on if you do it normally, but it's more fun to write a spoiler-free version that sets up the story without telling it.
Here's the tease:
The Travellers are advanced nomadic space-faring humans dedicated to peaceful science, hunted across the galaxy by an unstoppable menace. The People of the Ice are stone age humans with a rich oral history, driven to live on the ice cap by dangerous barbarians to the south. Despite their vastly different levels of technology, they are kindred cultures. James Houston, a Traveller anthropologist, spends a month living among The People, until a frantic evacuation calls him back to space. When his shuttle fails and crash-lands, he must cross a thousand kilometres of barbarian-infested tundra to safety with five of The People...and none of his advanced technology.
Here's the more functional, but less exciting version:
Now this one I like to do a little bit different than the standard way. It works best later on if you do it normally, but it's more fun to write a spoiler-free version that sets up the story without telling it.
Here's the tease:
The Travellers are advanced nomadic space-faring humans dedicated to peaceful science, hunted across the galaxy by an unstoppable menace. The People of the Ice are stone age humans with a rich oral history, driven to live on the ice cap by dangerous barbarians to the south. Despite their vastly different levels of technology, they are kindred cultures. James Houston, a Traveller anthropologist, spends a month living among The People, until a frantic evacuation calls him back to space. When his shuttle fails and crash-lands, he must cross a thousand kilometres of barbarian-infested tundra to safety with five of The People...and none of his advanced technology.
Here's the more functional, but less exciting version:
James Houston, a space-age anthropologist from the nomadic Travellers, spends a month living among The People of the Ice, a tribe of stone-age feral humans on the arctic ice cap of an old colony world. When the menace that keeps the Travellers ever on the move threatens, Houston's shuttle fails to reach orbit and crash-lands, leaving him stranded. Accompanied by five of the People, he must now cross a thousand kilometres of barbarian-held tundra to rescue -- only to miss his salvation by the final forty kilometres. Now trapped and hunted by both barbarians and a vast steam-age empire, he and the one Person of the Ice that survived the dangerous and ultimately pointless journey try to find a new life, unaware that the Travellers in orbit above have renounced their institutional policy of cowardice and are attempting to rescue them. In the end, the bold and risky rescue succeeds, and in the process changes Houston, his saviours, and the entire Traveller culture forever.
If you like, share yours in the comments below.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Snowflake Method One
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Something that has helped me plan out story ideas in the past is the Snowflake Method. Take a moment and read the site quickly.
Okay, ready? Today we're going to do the first step. So, short and to the point, character-focused and without going into detail or using names.
For me, that sentence is "An inversion of Apollo 13 - a spacefaring nomad is marooned on the surface of a planet and must reach the safety of orbit again." Feel free to post yours in the comments.
Something that has helped me plan out story ideas in the past is the Snowflake Method. Take a moment and read the site quickly.
Okay, ready? Today we're going to do the first step. So, short and to the point, character-focused and without going into detail or using names.
For me, that sentence is "An inversion of Apollo 13 - a spacefaring nomad is marooned on the surface of a planet and must reach the safety of orbit again." Feel free to post yours in the comments.
Friday, October 9, 2009
The Care and Feeding of Story Ideas
So you've (hopefully) decided to do NaNoWriMo this year. Now all you need is an idea.
Maybe you already have an idea that you've always wanted to write, but have never quite gotten around to. If so, now is the perfect time to break it out and use it. If you don't have any ideas yet, that's not a problem. Ideas are the easy part; actually writing them out is the challenge. Think about what you have to say and what you have to share. Think about what you read, saw or heard recently that you liked. Think about what you didn't enjoy, and thought you could do better. And if all else fails, go for the random route, and mix and match assorted stuff until you find a combination that feels interesting.
Once you have your story idea, stop. Go do something else for a while. Take a walk. Fold laundry. Take a shower. Ride around the city on the bus, or drive out and do some grocery shopping. Anything easy and almost automatic. While your conscious mind is distracted, your subconscious mind will be humming along, working on all the things you should be thinking about, but are normally too busy for. As you go about your day, little sparks of ideas should be popping up from the back of your mind every now and then.
When they do, write them down! They will drift away just as easily as they come to you, so you have to capture them while you can. Then, it's just a matter of putting the little sparks together until you have something larger, more complex, and more beautiful. Things should start to come together, and it will all just feel right. It should be less of a "making things up", and more of a "finding things out". You should be pleased and a little bit surprised as you discover how your story idea comes together.
So daydream. Imagine. Have conversations with your characters, and ask them what they think and feel. But above all else, don't try to force it. You have the whole rest of the month to chip away at the mystery of your story idea.
Maybe you already have an idea that you've always wanted to write, but have never quite gotten around to. If so, now is the perfect time to break it out and use it. If you don't have any ideas yet, that's not a problem. Ideas are the easy part; actually writing them out is the challenge. Think about what you have to say and what you have to share. Think about what you read, saw or heard recently that you liked. Think about what you didn't enjoy, and thought you could do better. And if all else fails, go for the random route, and mix and match assorted stuff until you find a combination that feels interesting.
Once you have your story idea, stop. Go do something else for a while. Take a walk. Fold laundry. Take a shower. Ride around the city on the bus, or drive out and do some grocery shopping. Anything easy and almost automatic. While your conscious mind is distracted, your subconscious mind will be humming along, working on all the things you should be thinking about, but are normally too busy for. As you go about your day, little sparks of ideas should be popping up from the back of your mind every now and then.
When they do, write them down! They will drift away just as easily as they come to you, so you have to capture them while you can. Then, it's just a matter of putting the little sparks together until you have something larger, more complex, and more beautiful. Things should start to come together, and it will all just feel right. It should be less of a "making things up", and more of a "finding things out". You should be pleased and a little bit surprised as you discover how your story idea comes together.
So daydream. Imagine. Have conversations with your characters, and ask them what they think and feel. But above all else, don't try to force it. You have the whole rest of the month to chip away at the mystery of your story idea.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
The Spirit of NaNo
"I think the scene---full of smack-talk and muffin crumbs on our keyboards---would have rightly horrified professional writers. We had taken the cloistered, agonized novel-writing process and transformed it into something that was half literary marathon and half block party." - Chris Baty, founder of NaNoWriMo
NaNo has two key goals: to write a novel, and to have fun. The first is obvious, since it is right there in the name, but the second is equally important. Frankly, writing a novel in thirty days is a ridiculous goal, so it's only right that NaNoWriMo itself is a little bit ridiculous.
You get a sense of this silliness from the NaNo site and the forums, but it is espeially noticable when you meet other WriMos ln person. The Kick-Off Party is a lot of fun, the Write-Ins will keep you going when you want to stop, and the Thank God It's Over Party is something else entirely, with all the relief and elation mixed with burnout and residual stress.
So have fun with it! Get in the spirit. Wear comical hats. Put silly details in your stories. Meet your fellow WriMos and enjoy the shared nuttiness of the thing that we're all doing.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
NaNoWriMo on Twitter
NaNoWriMo is on Twitter. You can follow them here.
According to their latest tweet, they have almost 20,000 participants and $40,000 in donations so far, and it's only a week into October. Looks like it's going to be a good Novel Writing Month this year!
Partly related: I also use Twitter. Not much NaNo stuff there this month, but I'm sure that will change come November.
According to their latest tweet, they have almost 20,000 participants and $40,000 in donations so far, and it's only a week into October. Looks like it's going to be a good Novel Writing Month this year!
Partly related: I also use Twitter. Not much NaNo stuff there this month, but I'm sure that will change come November.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
The Story of NaNoWriMo
I talked about this in class during my presentation, but the full story is such an enjoyable read that I wanted to link to it directly. It's written in an entertaining and slightly silly style by Chris Baty, the man behind all of this annual creative craziness.
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/history
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/history
Monday, October 5, 2009
Getting Started
Excited about the upcoming month of words and craziness? If you are, there are a couple of signups for you to do. The NaNo one is easier to do now - the closer we get to the end of the month, the busier the servers tend to get.
The your NaNo account is the core that this whole event spins around. To get yours ready, go to the site and click "sign up now!" at top of main NaNo page. Choose a username and enter you email address, check the three check boxes at the bottom, and press the create new account button.
Wait for the email, then use the temporary password to login the first time. You should go to User Settings and enter a new permanent password, and upload a 100x100 picture and set your timezone while you are at it. You can also set your age and location and such things on Author Info. On the Novel Info tab, you can set the title and genre of your NaNo novel, plus give a short synopsis and except (but only after November first, you cheater!), and even an image to be the cover art, if you are artistically talented.
Now, you should go to My Regions in the side menu, click the Regions tab and scroll down to "Canada :: Ontario :: Ottawa" and click join. If you are new to Ottawa, you can also set a second (or more!) region by scrolling down to and clicking Join again. Then click on the Home Region tab, choose Ottawa, and click Set Home Region so that your word count is added to the regional wordcount, where it bring honour and glory to Ottawa!
Head on over to the forums from the top menu. Say hi in the Ottawa Regional Forum, or drop by one of the Genre Lounges, and browse around to see what looks interesting. And finally, since this is all non-profit and donation-funded, you might want to head to the Office of Letters and Light store and donate. Or buy something. Or both!
Secondly, you should sign up for an account on this blog. I figure since we'll only have a small group of people participating it will be easier to set the blog to members only to avoid spam comments. On the right-hand menu of the blog, click the big "Follow" button under the Participants header. You can log in with your Google account (same as your Gmail login, if you have that), you AIM login, your Yahoo account, or any Netlog or OpenID account.
And now the fun part! Start thinking about what you'd like to write for NaNo. Maybe you have that one great idea that's been at the back of your head for ages, but you've never gotten around to writing. Maybe you recently read something and thought, "I could do that better". Or maybe you just feel that the world needs just a little bit more anthropomorphic wombat murder mystery in it. Whatever you want!
The only real restrictions are that it has to be a) 50k long, b) a novel or something closely resembling it, c) written by you, d) started no earlier than midnight o' one on November first. Or, you know, none of those things. It's not like there's any prize other than the joy of having written, so there's no really incentive to cheat. It's not like you can be disqualified. Of course, if you do cheat, then you are a terrible person and you will get no ice cream in the afterlife. Only frozen yogurt, for the rest of forever and ever.
So do it right, eh?
The your NaNo account is the core that this whole event spins around. To get yours ready, go to the site and click "sign up now!" at top of main NaNo page. Choose a username and enter you email address, check the three check boxes at the bottom, and press the create new account button.
Wait for the email, then use the temporary password to login the first time. You should go to User Settings and enter a new permanent password, and upload a 100x100 picture and set your timezone while you are at it. You can also set your age and location and such things on Author Info. On the Novel Info tab, you can set the title and genre of your NaNo novel, plus give a short synopsis and except (but only after November first, you cheater!), and even an image to be the cover art, if you are artistically talented.
Now, you should go to My Regions in the side menu, click the Regions tab and scroll down to "Canada :: Ontario :: Ottawa" and click join. If you are new to Ottawa, you can also set a second (or more!) region by scrolling down to and clicking Join again. Then click on the Home Region tab, choose Ottawa, and click Set Home Region so that your word count is added to the regional wordcount, where it bring honour and glory to Ottawa!
Head on over to the forums from the top menu. Say hi in the Ottawa Regional Forum, or drop by one of the Genre Lounges, and browse around to see what looks interesting. And finally, since this is all non-profit and donation-funded, you might want to head to the Office of Letters and Light store and donate. Or buy something. Or both!
Secondly, you should sign up for an account on this blog. I figure since we'll only have a small group of people participating it will be easier to set the blog to members only to avoid spam comments. On the right-hand menu of the blog, click the big "Follow" button under the Participants header. You can log in with your Google account (same as your Gmail login, if you have that), you AIM login, your Yahoo account, or any Netlog or OpenID account.
And now the fun part! Start thinking about what you'd like to write for NaNo. Maybe you have that one great idea that's been at the back of your head for ages, but you've never gotten around to writing. Maybe you recently read something and thought, "I could do that better". Or maybe you just feel that the world needs just a little bit more anthropomorphic wombat murder mystery in it. Whatever you want!
The only real restrictions are that it has to be a) 50k long, b) a novel or something closely resembling it, c) written by you, d) started no earlier than midnight o' one on November first. Or, you know, none of those things. It's not like there's any prize other than the joy of having written, so there's no really incentive to cheat. It's not like you can be disqualified. Of course, if you do cheat, then you are a terrible person and you will get no ice cream in the afterlife. Only frozen yogurt, for the rest of forever and ever.
So do it right, eh?
Friday, October 2, 2009
The Plan
So, here's what the next two months has in store for the brave literary types participating.
I mentioned the plan for blog posts yesterday. I'll be following the comments here regularly, so feel free to post questions, comments, cookie recipes or whatnot. I'll read them all (although I not actually do any baking).
Every year, there is a Kickoff Party and a Thank God It's Over Party here in Ottawa. Once the dates are announced, I'll relay them here. Hopefully, everyone in IntroWriMo can come out and meet the larger Ottawa NaNo community at least once.
Similarly, I'd like to attend at least a few of the local Write-Ins durning the month. I'll also be hosting some here at Algonquin, probably between and/or after classes. Again, I'll post more detailed plans as we get closer to November.
I mentioned the plan for blog posts yesterday. I'll be following the comments here regularly, so feel free to post questions, comments, cookie recipes or whatnot. I'll read them all (although I not actually do any baking).
Every year, there is a Kickoff Party and a Thank God It's Over Party here in Ottawa. Once the dates are announced, I'll relay them here. Hopefully, everyone in IntroWriMo can come out and meet the larger Ottawa NaNo community at least once.
Similarly, I'd like to attend at least a few of the local Write-Ins durning the month. I'll also be hosting some here at Algonquin, probably between and/or after classes. Again, I'll post more detailed plans as we get closer to November.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
IntroWriMo
Welcome to IntroWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month for Introduction to Libraries Students in the Algonquin College Library and Information Technician Program (you can see why I came up with the short, snappy name instead). It is the participation assignment for Matt DeBarth.
NaNoWriMo is an annual outbreak of group insanity where a whole bunch of people each attempt to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. It started in 1999, where 21 people started and six won. The next year, 140 people started and 29 won. The following year, five thousand people started. Since then, the number of participants each year has exploded, with more than a hundred thousand in each of the last two years.
When we did our introductions in class and on the forum, many of you mentioned that you were either writers or interested in writing, so I thought a group NaNo would be an interesting and fun project. I am a writer myself, and I've attempted two previous NaNos, with a little over 20,000 words in my best attempt. My goal this year is to at least match that, although I'd love to finish the whole 50k.
I realize that we all have classes and homework that we have to do, and that many of us have work or families or other responsibilities that lay claim to our time. I'm sure some of you are thinking to yourself that there is no way that you have that much spare time for writing. But I can tell you from experience that you will be amazed at how much extra time you can find for writing when you try (and have a bunch of other equally nuts people for support). Try starting, and see where it takes you. Even if you don't reach the big goal, you'll still end up with more written than if you hadn't tried at all. Any writing is good writing.
I strongly encourage people to get involved, and not just because ten percent of my mark is riding on this. It really is a lot of fun, and the camaraderie of being part of it is a wonderful feeling. Writing is normally such a quiet and lonely hobby, so being around a bunch of other writers is a rare treat.
There will be a new post on this blog every weekday through October, then daily until the end of November. Tomorrow's post will outline the plan in more detail. There will also be a weekly poll that will update every Monday.
NaNoWriMo is an annual outbreak of group insanity where a whole bunch of people each attempt to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. It started in 1999, where 21 people started and six won. The next year, 140 people started and 29 won. The following year, five thousand people started. Since then, the number of participants each year has exploded, with more than a hundred thousand in each of the last two years.
When we did our introductions in class and on the forum, many of you mentioned that you were either writers or interested in writing, so I thought a group NaNo would be an interesting and fun project. I am a writer myself, and I've attempted two previous NaNos, with a little over 20,000 words in my best attempt. My goal this year is to at least match that, although I'd love to finish the whole 50k.
I realize that we all have classes and homework that we have to do, and that many of us have work or families or other responsibilities that lay claim to our time. I'm sure some of you are thinking to yourself that there is no way that you have that much spare time for writing. But I can tell you from experience that you will be amazed at how much extra time you can find for writing when you try (and have a bunch of other equally nuts people for support). Try starting, and see where it takes you. Even if you don't reach the big goal, you'll still end up with more written than if you hadn't tried at all. Any writing is good writing.
I strongly encourage people to get involved, and not just because ten percent of my mark is riding on this. It really is a lot of fun, and the camaraderie of being part of it is a wonderful feeling. Writing is normally such a quiet and lonely hobby, so being around a bunch of other writers is a rare treat.
There will be a new post on this blog every weekday through October, then daily until the end of November. Tomorrow's post will outline the plan in more detail. There will also be a weekly poll that will update every Monday.
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