NaNoWriMo

October 9, 2006 7:35 PM

April may be the cruelest month, but November is rough on turkeys. Perhaps coincidally, it's also National Novel Writing Month, as you may recall.
posted by owhydididoit (28 comments total)

eep.
posted by owhydididoit at 7:36 PM on October 9, 2006

Don't remind me. Ugh.
posted by absalom at 7:42 PM on October 9, 2006

Won last year, but I had a hurricane to write about.

Still a few weeks to hope for another disaster, I guess.
posted by ColdChef at 7:46 PM on October 9, 2006

Phht. Neverwinter Nights 2 is released on October 31. Priorities, man.
posted by solid-one-love at 7:47 PM on October 9, 2006 [1 favorite]

Eventually, I'll be able to do this sucessfully, I think...
posted by blaneyphoto at 7:49 PM on October 9, 2006

I've done this one time and one time only and, due to an obsessive personality defect, I won - with three days to spare. If there's one thing I learned from the experience it was this: I will never, ever do it again.

Of course, every year I'll think about doing it. I might even start mulling over ideas and scenes. But, when the rubber meets the road, I always decide not to.

That being said, I'm quite glad I did it.
posted by absalom at 7:54 PM on October 9, 2006

I'm on the fence and can't decide. I finished a draft of a novel earlier in the year and haven't looked at it in months. I fear I suck at the long form and will forever be writing pieces half a page long.
posted by dobbs at 7:57 PM on October 9, 2006

I'm going with an epistolary. All I ever write anymore is scenarios, procedures, and e-mail. Even when I was writing fiction it was short stories, nothing longer than 60 pages.
posted by owhydididoit at 8:15 PM on October 9, 2006

What a curious idea. What intrigues me more, though, is this question: "was this thing around when Joyce penned Finegan's Wake, by any chance?"
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:51 PM on October 9, 2006

This year I might make it since I won't be going to a single event. That seemed to sidetrack me the most -- interacting with others and their world of ideas in the middle of trying to get into my own story. So this year it's together, alone.

on preview: but the NanoWriMo website did not interrupt the flow, and was stimulating and helpful if far too serviceable also as a procrastination tool.
posted by dreamsign at 9:02 PM on October 9, 2006

And as well as NanoWriMo it's Movember
posted by sien at 9:21 PM on October 9, 2006

I won last year, even though I didn't finish my novel (and still haven't done so). I'm currently in a quandary: should I finish last year's book or start a new one? Or spend the entire month playing Animal Crossing and eating nachos? Decisions, decisions...
posted by Keefa at 12:17 AM on October 10, 2006

okay I signed up. 50k words sounds doable. 2k/day gets you to 60. and y'know, it's not like it has to be good.
posted by juv3nal at 12:18 AM on October 10, 2006

Oh, dear. I guess I'll sign up to let myself down again.
posted by brundlefly at 12:28 AM on October 10, 2006

I've been signed up for a while and never finished so much as 1,000 words - most of which consisted of things I wrote with a headache about the headache I had.

This year, I think I might just try it.

Of course, if you really have a novel in you, you'll just fuck-this and do it. But most of us are born losers.
posted by ryrivard at 12:29 AM on October 10, 2006

For me, what juv3nal said was the critical bit: it doesn't have to be good, but for many of us there's still this incessant inner editor that makes you rewrite that last chapter though you really don't have time for it.

And then you get behind. And then real life stuff happens. And then...

If I didn't care about quality, 50k would be no problem, as I suspect many could.
posted by dreamsign at 1:10 AM on October 10, 2006

Just keep writing. Oh, and have a basic plan going in: you're not allowed to write, but there's no rules against scheming a rough plot outline (assuming you're writing fiction, of course). Last year was my first try, and probably last: got to 50,000 words in 15 days. I was fairly happy with the quality too; it was totally worth the two weekends.
posted by Paragon at 1:19 AM on October 10, 2006

I took part last year and lost. I'll probably lose again this year but oh well...
posted by sveskemus at 4:12 AM on October 10, 2006

My novel's going to be about making a quadruple post on MetaFilter.
posted by eustacescrubb at 5:22 AM on October 10, 2006

Write it, post it to Projects and I shall post it to MeFi. Four times.
posted by sveskemus at 6:22 AM on October 10, 2006

"And as well as NanoWriMo it's Movember"

Ack. That page made my eyes bleed.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:29 AM on October 10, 2006

Lost my first year, won the next two. I use NaNo to practice banishing my inner editor. The first draft is suposed to be shitty (thus says Anne Lamott), so I write 50K words of shitty first draft. It's fun, it's exhilerating, it's an excuse to act like a real writer ("Sorry, Honey, can you take out the trash tonight? I have to Nano."), and at the end of it I have a load of rough ideas I can polish up as short stories.
posted by booth at 8:30 AM on October 10, 2006

I need to embrace my inner editor, but I'm 5 for 5 on NaNo so I guess I need to give it another go. It wouldn't be November if I didn't go to ridiculous lengths to write another novel that I will never allow another living soul to read.
posted by Dreama at 8:37 AM on October 10, 2006

WTF? Why is this on the front page?
posted by languagehat at 8:46 AM on October 10, 2006

Booth's comment is why I'm planning to do NaNoWriMo this year, too...I just need something to jump-start writing in general, and this crazy escapade seems to have just about exactly enough structure to do that without getting in the way.
posted by jdfalk at 9:32 AM on October 10, 2006

It's on the front page because while it happens every year, it hasn't been on the front page for four. I had never heard of it until yesterday when a coworker e-mailed me about it. When I searched MeFi, I saw the old posts, but figured I wasn't the only n00b who had never heard of it, so I made a new post. There also seemed to be a fair amount of interest about NaNo on the MeTa thread about Mefi Writer's Group.
posted by owhydididoit at 11:56 AM on October 10, 2006

For the first time in six years, I am legitimately too goddam busy to do this. It's a relief, but also a little sad.
posted by cortex at 5:18 PM on October 11, 2006

I'm frustrated this year about the stupid rule that you musn't work on finishing last year's NaNo Novel. Why not? What's the point of building up a big pile of 50K first drafts?

Sure, I could do it some other time of the year, but I really like the general environment of NaNoWriMo, the peer pressure, the camaraderie. Just lose some of the creativity-crushing rules!
posted by CrunchyGods at 2:42 PM on November 1, 2006