[My life this week is more nuts than usual; so, while I have a post on villains half-done, for now, unfortunately, that’s how it’s going to stay. So apologies, this is only a brief interlude. Hopefully I’ll post Saturday – if not, next week!]
I assume most of you have heard about, if not participated in, NaNoWriMo; in case you haven’t, this is how the good people at the NaNo site describe their aim:-
National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.
You can read more about NaNo, here.
And NaNo fever is spreading round these parts.
I’ve signed up for the first time because November is the last month I’ll be able to stick to my usual writing routine for the rest of 2010. The kids start two month’s summer holidays come December 3rd, so I have to break the back – and more – of this draft of my WIP by then if I’m going to have it done by 31st December. And I need to be done by then. I'm at the stage where I'm really needing feedback from readers as to whether my story works; and while the writing itself can always be tightened and prettied-up, the plot simply has to be in place in order to get that kind of feedback. Currently, my plot looks like a piece of swiss cheese, lots of holes where there are many scenes that remain to be written, and many other scenes that need a good tweak.
Bottom line, I simply have to do this. And I figure that if nothing else, NaNo will force me to leave my newly written scenes be and move on, instead of doing the endless fiddling to which I am prone.
How I’m going to achieve 50K I’m not quite sure – although it’s a little less daunting to think of it as only having to pump out approximately 1700 words a day, for 30 days.
Um, yep.
Anyway, Claire and Susan have also stepped on up to the challenge – how about you?
If you're going “Nano-ing” (go here to sign up) please feel free to add me as one of your “buddies” (I’m “Rachel W”). I’ll need all the public accountability I can get. :-P
Here’s to a mad November!
I hear you on the accountability. That's the whole reason I signed up this year. I'm gonna try to churn out 50K of rewrites since the first draft is, well...um, it's crap. Good story, bad writing ;)
ReplyDeleteRachel- this is all good, because I want that book in my hands.
ReplyDeleteAven- all my stuff is rewrites, too, because I've made massive changes to the plot. I'm so excited about all the people doing NaNo- I reckon as a big group, we can drive each other on to victory :)
I'm hoping NaNo will help me get through the scenes I've been avoiding writing. Either way I've got to call the novel done by the end of November because according to that schedule I set a couple of months ago, I'm supposed to take December off writing! Gasp!
ReplyDeleteO.M.G.
ReplyDeleteI've done it -- signed up.
User name: JenHendren
Friend me, I need support. :)
Jen
Yay, looks like NaNo is going to be quite a party!
ReplyDeleteAven - Good luck with those re-writes. And if you kick my butt, I promise I'll kick yours. ;-)
Claire - You know I can't wait to have your book in my hot little hands, either. :-)
Deniz - with that deadline looming, it sounds like NaNo is just what you need. Good luck!
Jen- Yay! So glad you signed up. I've buddied you - now, bring on the words!