Once again it's time for all good men and women to set aside whatever secondary interests might be filling their time -- work, family, personal growth -- and write a whole book in 30 days. And this year, I'm here to help you.
I've written previously about National Novel Writing Month ( www.nanowrimo.org ), when otherwise sane people pledge to craft a 50,000-word novel during November. From its inception in 1999 when 21 maniacs decided, 'what the heck, let's write a book,' to this year when over 37,000 people have signed up already, "NaNoWriMo" has grown in leaps and bounds.
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This is actually in reference to me volunteering to be the ML for my area this year -- writing 50,000 words in a month not beimg enough pressure, apparently -- but I had to remove references to that lest my column be a conflict of interest. FYI.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Seriously? Yep, I'm one of those 37,000 certifiable insane people. I'm starting from scratch - character and plot development, nothing more - and writing an entire novel in November.
I would volunteer to be a rep in my area, but so far, I seem to be the ONLY person in Sri Lanka signed up. Not even my writer husband will join me. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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So? Be the ML for you! Organize kick-off parties, weekly meetings, helpful phone calls. Give yourself little pens and cute writing pads. Keep track of your progress as compared to the other local writers, i.e. you.
And, most importantly, be there for yourself. It really helps.
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I also thought the MLs were supposed to be veterans. This is my first year. I wanted to do it last year, but I wasn't on the internet, so no go.
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quote: I have thousands of plot ideas I'll never use, largely due to legal injunctions, and I'll be happy to share them. Your main characters stuck in a rut? Have them swallowed by a 75-foot, land-going, space manatee that works for a defunct cold war spy agency and speaks only in Latvian show tunes. Ha! Your readers won't see that coming, will they?
posted
Whoo hoo! This means I made it over a full year with Hatrack, because I remember you writing about this subject LAST year! yay! (although I don't know if at that time I yet realized that you were the columnist himself)
posted
The fact that I'm too lazy to search for the actual Hatrack thread about this does not bode well for my entry. But I did sign up. So beginning November 1, all my hatrack posts will bear the following sig:
quote: Confront me if I haven't written my 1,666 words today.
Okay, I guess I'm sitting here waiting for my confirmation email. I guess out of idle curiosity I will go and see how many words I have written on Hatrack today. 117 lines x about 14 words a line (on the largest font magnification) = pretty darn close.
posted
Oooh, Virgilesque. Is that like Dangeresque but dressed in a sheet?
I just realized my junk mail filter probably ate the activation email. I wonder how hard this is going to be to straighten out.
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I've been poking around the site and it's pretty humbling to note how many people apparently don't finish. Like less than 10% I think. You have a better chance of death while summiting everest.
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I think I might do it.. I might develope one of the 5 or 6 novels I want to write... Encourage me I am afraid... *does not think I am good enough to be a writer*
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Syn, you just gotta grab the brass ring. You can't die on Everest until you try to climb it. I wonder if my validation email came yet.
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You can do it! You can do it! You can do it!!!!!
Now drop and give me 2000 words!
All you need to do is write 7 pages a day and it's done. That's no biggie.
I'm doing it on the "how fast can I possibly finish the @#$#@!! thing" track. My personal best writing day ever was 65 pages. It was insane, and my head hurt. I'm frankly surprised I recovered. And I've done 150 pages in a week over at Book in a Week, so in theory, this should be no big deal.
So, who's all in? LET'S GO, PEOPLE! START PLOTTING! GET YOUR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT DONE! LET'S GO GO GO GO GO!!!!!!
(I think my hubby might lock me up in a rubber room. He's looking at me funny. )
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I got a few things I can develope... It's just... That I lack confidence in some of my writing. I ought to wait until I am 30.
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If you take that attitude, all you'll be in a few years is a tween who spent their tweens wishing they were 30.
(Is the tough love working or do you need something else?)
P.S. What I'd like to know about you is why do you work in a grocery store? You're obviously very smart. You could go straight autobiographical and it should be interesting. By the way, what are people trying genre wise?
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I think that, if you want to write, you ought to write and not wait until . . .
you're older you've finished school you've gained some "real" life experience you've got time you're married and have 2.x kidlets you're smarter you're wiser you're <insert excuse here>
If you want to write, then write. It's only through writing that you become better, and if you wait twenty years to start writing, you're still going to have to go through that same learning curve, so why not tackle it now and start developing your writer's voice? And have a lot of fun in the process.
Just my 5 Rupees, adjusted for inflation.
I'm a total sci-fi gal. My favorite everything is sci fi. I grew up on sci fi. So, guess what genre I'm writing in?
That's right. Political satire.
Yeah, sci fi. I'm writing sci fi. Pretty much everything I write is sci fi, so it makes sense to continue in sci fi. Plus sci fi is more fun than anything else.
Did I use the phrase "sci fi" enough times in this post? Did I? Did I? Huh? Huh? Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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It was the only job I could find at the time. I had been out of work for a whole year. It's so hard to find a job without a car and experience. But if I don't quit my job soon I'm going to get fired.
I want to do fiction and do something in which i rant about being a music drunk at the same time.
Hey, where I live, the currency IS Rupees. And 5 Rupees is equal to about 5 US cents.
quote: It was the only job I could find at the time. I had been out of work for a whole year. It's so hard to find a job without a car and experience. But if I don't quit my job soon I'm going to get fired.
I want to do fiction and do something in which i rant about being a music drunk at the same time.
A job to live is important, too. But still, find some time to feed the writer demon.
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I did pretty well last year... I got to 30,000 before my will to write left me.
Bernard, unfortunately, shall not be participating with me this year, so I plan to use him as my editor.
And I already have the plot--it's a jumping off from last year's. If any of you wish to read my novel this year (which will be a bunch of short stories), I plan on posting them in a LJ so lemme know and I'll give y'all the address.
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rivka, you're so sweet. And no, you didn't mention it. Until now. But I'll let you mention it as often as you like.
Have I mentioned how much I love being back at Hatrack?
NOW DROP AND GIVE ME 1500 WORDS!!!!!
Oh hey, if you think I'm obnoxious now, just wait until NaNoWriMo actually starts!
Okay, gotta get back to plot development now. And yes, I am one of those writers who *must* have a plot to work from. Curse my husband, he goes straight into writing with nothing else done - no plot development, no character development, no world building, nothing. Curse him! Curse him, I say! Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Cool. Rupees makes me think of Hindi music and I LIKE Hindi music. I have a ton of characters that go through my head pretty much most of the day... I love making up characters, but writing about some of them, especially the ones that are older than me is not easy.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Have you watched any Hindi movies? If you like the music, you'll love the movies because . . .
In a typical Hindi movie, which would be, oh, 2 1/2 to four hours long, if they cut all the singing and dancing out, would be typical Hollywood length.
And the Hindi movies are strangely addicting. I saw my first one shortly after I arrived here, and have watched many more since then. And I enjoy them thoroughly. My favorite actors include . . .
Sharukh Khan - who's in almost everything Amitabh Bachchan - who's in everything else Hrithik Roshan, who was recently in Koi... Mil Gaya, a cross between Flowers for Algernon and ET. First ever Hindi sci fi movie.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I like Kajol a lot. She has been in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Ghabie Kushi Ghabie Gam (sp) which I really like a lot. Both of them have nice songs and 3 of the same actors.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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quote: I like Kajol a lot. She has been in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Ghabie Kushi Ghabie Gam (sp) which I really like a lot. Both of them have nice songs and 3 of the same actors.
Hubby tells me that I've seen - and we own - Ghabie Kushi Ghabie Gam, but my goldfish memory precludes me remembering it at the moment, even with his efforts at refreshing the plot for my fried brian. I suppose I also thoroughly enjoyed it, given who all's in it, but I don't recall that either. I just know that I haven't seen a movie with Sharukh or Amitabh that I didn't enjoy.
How pathetic am I?
NOW DROP AND GIVE ME 10 PAGES!!!!
(This advertisement sponsored by NaNoWriMo, the insane way to write a novel)
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I know Khan.. He's that guy that always plays goofy guys, right? He was in another movie I love with this woman that had pretty eyes... Which one is the other one? The one in both Kajol movies? *ignorant*
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Syn, I didn't mean to put you on the defensive about your job, I was genuinely curious. Anyway, I don't want you to subject yourself to this from peer pressure. Last year I was totally non-interested by the whole concept.
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I am not defensive about it... I really do want to quit soon because it's driving me nuts Part of me thinks i should suck it up, but the other part is getting fed up and tired of it. Furthermore... I really do need to finish or start some novels because I want to write so badly...
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I just hope I can maintain my current level of enthusiasm. I'm chomping at the bit, have a 5 1/2 page outline.
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It varies, depending on your page margins, font size, how much dialogue you have and how many paragraph breaks you use. Courier-type font, about 12 point size, double spacing, and one-inch margins would give you roughly 250 words per page.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Dunno if it helps or hurts, but some examples of books clocking in around 50,000 words or so:
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Brave New World by Aldous Huxley The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger The Hitchihiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain Generation X: Tales of an Accelerated Culture by Douglas Coupland
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Even though NaNoWriMo is for 50,000 words, I'll be going for more than that, most likely. Like, perhaps, 70 or 80 thou. Dunno, just a thought.
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I wonder what they mean by previously written prose... I have about 3 or 4 things I'd like to develope, but I don't know which one and I wonder if I should just rewrite this first story altogether or just add to it... @_@
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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The idea is that you should avoid using this time to complete something already begun. Start fresh, with nothing more than notes or an outline ahead of time.
That said, there's no real rules, you won't get banned or anything if you do otherwise, and winning is up to you.
[ October 31, 2004, 12:38 PM: Message edited by: Chris Bridges ]
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I worded that badly. What you consider "winning" is up to you. As far as NaNoWriMo is concerned, 50,000 original words in 30 days is winning. If you use the month and "only" finish up a novel that's plagued you for years, I'd say it worked for you...
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Winning for me equals getting over that whole, "Oh my goodness I must write this over again beause it is so crappy 5 year olds and birds could write better than me I suck I suck I suck." I would like to finish something.. If I finish 3 or 4 things I will reward myself with sushi.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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quote: Winning for me equals getting over that whole, "Oh my goodness I must write this over again beause it is so crappy 5 year olds and birds could write better than me I suck I suck I suck." I would like to finish something.. If I finish 3 or 4 things I will reward myself with sushi.
Then that's what you do - whatever will get you over that whole "my writing sucks" feeling.
I started writing for a magazine about a half year ago. I was assigned an article, and I sweated over it. I thought it was terrible, but there was a deadline, so I had to submit it. I figured I blew my only chance to write for this magazine cuz my stuff was that terrible. The phone rang, and it was the editor. I was expecting him to yell at me because he was so unhappy with me. It turns out that he thought my article was pretty good and he wanted to compliment me on it.
The moral of the story? Sometimes we, as writers, especially when we're starting out, have absolutely NO PERSPECTIVE AT ALL on the quality of our work.
That's number one.
Number two. Let's say for a moment that what you wrote wasn't that great. Well, who cares? It's a first draft. First drafts are supposed to suck. Well, that's not entirely true. First drafts are merely supposed to exist. First drafts are where we get the bare bones, the ideas, the story down. It's during editing that we clean it up and make it look all pretty.
Almost all writers have to edit their stuff heavily. Most of us end up snipping out entire paragraphs and chapters because they're so dreadful. A lot of us end up tossing our first manuscript into a closet because we can't bear it seeing the light of day it's such drivel. Welcome to the club.
It's only by writing and writing and writing some more that we get better and better and better at it. And then we get even better by editing and revising and editing some more. And then we get even better by asking others to critique our stuff. And we get even better by critiquing other people's stuff. And we work on it, and work on it, and we get better. Becoming a good writer is a process, not an event.
In other words, Syn, it's not you. It's pretty much all of us. So cut yourself some slack, relax a bit, and have fun with writing. That should be your prime focus. Have fun.
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