NaNoWriMo 2009

[Blaziking the God General]

Someone was going to post this eventually.

Ah, NaNo. The one month of the year where our lives become thousands of times more complicated by writing a novel. Sure, it's still a little over a month away, but hey, best begin to think about it now.

For anyone who doesn't know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, which takes place in November of every year. Tons of aspiring writers from all over the world take part in it. It's not really a competition, moreso a challenge for people to write a 50,000 word novel in that one month (Which comes out to 1,667 words a day, if you feel the need to know). It's overall a pretty fun challenge, if you're a writer.

I know for certain that I'm participating this year. After my disappointing bout last year, when I got grounded from the computer halfway through the month, I barely got 5000 words done. This year, I plan on actually being able to fully go through it. I've been fleshing out a plot since January in my spare time, and now I've just got a little bit more to cover in the plot, and I'll be good to go. I doubt I'll make it to 50,000, since November is otherwise going to be a pretty busy month for me, but I plan on getting above 30k, at least.

The plot I have as well is interesting enough to have me keep up with it. It starts off with this guy waking up and discovering that the last thing he remembered occurred over 5 years ago, and he is wanted for a murder that was committed around that time. After a long series of events, he and a few other people stumble upon an evil spirit who wishes to bring about the apocalypse and rule the remaining people on the planet. It's got some characters in it that I love.

TCoD's NaNoWriMo Word War 2009

Team A
(Blaziking, Kratos Aurion, Involuntary Twitch, Zeta Reticuli, BlazieAura)

Total Word Count: 177345 (Nov 29)

Team B
(Jack_the_PumpkinKing, Negrek, moon-panther, El Garbanzo, Sandstone-Shadow)

Total Word Count: 97634 (Nov 29)

Team C
(ShiningGlass, Kinova, EvilCrazyMonkey, Dragon)

Total Word Count: 76665 (Nov 29)
​

 

[Sylph]

I'm totally going to take part in this this year! Last year I didn't get a good jump on it and barely had an idea on what to do. But I have a semi-idea on what to do!

I'm going to write a Novel about Halan. About the comic I am doing with him and the plot of time travel, secrets, memories of evil and love.

...are any of you hooked already?

 

[Negrek]

Oh, I'm definitely in. I settled on what I'll be writing over the summer--or at least I thought I'd settled on one, up until three hours ago when a big idea smacked me in the face and demanded to be written. I'll certainly have *something* to write, though.

If I go with my normal idea, I might try and make my NaNo goal to *finish* the entire story in the one month... last month I made 50,000 early despite taking like a week off in the middle due to laziness. However, even if I write at the maximum that I did for any given day last year every day this year I'd still only make 97,500 words by the end of the month... I have no idea how long this 'fic would be, but given that my current chapterfic is over double that, I probably wouldn't even come close.

In any case, I thought I'd try actually doing some serious planning and outlining before beginning this year; I've never really tried writing fiction to an outline, and NaNo seems like the perfect time to experiment with a different sort of writing style. Whichever story I ultimately decide to go with, it will be something very different, too, so I'm quite excited. Should be a lot of fun!

 

[Jetx]

Probably not doing it this year. It totally drained me last year, and this year I have about twice as much coursework to be doing.

Good luck to everyone entering. The key to victory is not giving up ;)
xD

 

[Tailsy]

I might do it; like Jetx I have a motherfucking pile of coursework to do. Stupid Advanced Highers and their dissertations. I have something I do want to write, but I sincerely doubt I'll get anything done :(

 

[Butterfree]

Recently I've been itching to actually write those fantasy ideas I have. One is an ice age sort of setting with a tribe of humans living in caves and dragons as the dominant animal that I've been planning for ages and actually considered writing last year; the other is something based on that magic system I thought up a while ago (with my recent modifications to it). I don't know precisely which one I want to write; probably the former, because I don't actually have a plot for the latter, just a world. On the other hand, the former is already bumping into my inability to flesh out a story if I know how it begins, the key events that need to happen, and how it ends; I'll have a tendency to just write one after the other. I suppose NaNo could help somewhat with that if I just make random things happen, or if I try to just write a plan and think up something while doing that; it worked for The Fall of a Leader.

Then there's the issue of what language to write it in. In English, I'd be able to actually share it with people who know what they're talking about, and generally I've had a lot more practice writing in English. On the other hand, when I tried to write some bits of it in English, I really bumped into not really knowing all the relevant vocabulary, and I always feel awkward trying to write with words I've just looked up in a dictionary but don't actually know. Meanwhile, I think I'd be reasonably comfortable with it in Icelandic. :/ So eh, I don't know.

 

[Autumn]

Definitely doing it this year. |D Although I am currently undecided as to whether to write the first line that comes to my head and run with it or do the parody story I've been thinking of for a little while now (but don't yet actually have a decent plot for).

 

[Vladimir Putin's LJ]

I might try it, depending on whether or not I can manage my schoolwork. If I do take part I don't expect it to be a masterpiece, but I'd like to better my writing, and this seems like just the thing.
Need to find a plot though. I might just write down an idea of mine I'm excited about but haven't had the time to work on yet.

 

[Phoenixsong]

I intend to give it my best shot, as hitting 50,000 last year was too much fun not to want to do it again (although I could do without the dead, aching, useless hands by the 28th) :3 The last two times I attempted it I only had a three-day school week, though; this quarter I have a full five-day week, long distances to travel just to get to class and hours that are all over the place, so it's almost like normal school but worse, and I imagine that that will make things a lot harder.

I've got a few ideas I'd sort of like to try: few more Pokémon fanfics, a Tales of Symphonia fanfic, a Fire Emblem fanfic and maybe two to four original ideas, although only one of the Pokémon fics and the ToS fic actually have plots/storylines that're close enough to usable. Or have plots/storylines at all, for that matter. I've decided that that's one of my biggest problems: I can come up with interesting premises or fun milieus all the time but it takes me absolutely forever to think of interesting stories to tell based on those premises/milieus and so nothing ever gets done. :/ But the ideas that are fleshed out enough to work with are fun, and I've still got over a month to see what I can figure out when it comes to my other ideas. And, for that matter, about a month to figure out what my schedule from hell is going to do to me so that I know for sure whether I can attempt a proper NaNo challenge this year. If it looks like it's going to be too hard to do then I may do a more casual challenge, maybe a smaller word goal or just spread it out to the end of December or something.

Should be interesting. :3

 

[nothing to see here]

Hmm... actually kinda considering trying this for once. Research papers should be done before November, so there'd be plenty of free time to write some other stuff.

No idea what I'd actually be writing, though. Maybe that Pokémon story idea that's been bouncing around in my head but never really gotten anywhere... or some kind of Super Mario Bros.-based story... or a novelization of Okédoké!... or something based on that weird dream I had a while back about a giant bird attacking a city and some guys in a van having to drive it off. Maybe even something completely new.

I guess this could be a good way to actually write one of those ideas I've had for a while.

 

[Kinova]

I'm not sure. B:

I really loved the challenge itself in NaNo when I did it two years ago, but currently all I have for it is a grand total of two characters (one which I love and one which I'll enjoy messing with, but nowhere for them to live plotwise or worldwise) and in all likelihood a gross amount of homework throughout November. So it's not really a hugely sensible idea.

... but it would be fun. I suppose I'll just have to wait and see if I can come up with anything before November. And keep on top of my workload. |P;

 

[Leviathan]

I'm definitely going to try, although I'm not sure if I'll be able to do it this year with the vastly larger workload I have. :/

Divinity has barely had any work at all done on it since I hit 50,000 words last year, and still has a long ways to go before being finished, so I'm just going to try getting the inspiration to continue it and hopefully reach 100,000 by the end.

 

[Involuntary Twitch]

Hm. I dunno. I have plenty of ideas, but they're either fanfictions that I don't think would stretch for 50,000 words or not developed enough. Er. I may do the superhero school story that I've been putting off writing, which features expies of my friends; in order to do that, though, I'd have to settle on an actual plot. Or I could finish last year's story-- I think I'd be able to stretch what's left to do with the plot out to 50,000.

Thoughts?

 

[Negrek]

Why not just write as many of the smaller stories as is necessary to reach 50,000 words?

 

[Darksong]

Tried last year, got to 28,000. But this time, I actually have the characters I need, thanking Cryptica for a lot of them. It's going to be about wolves, in a kind of fantasy style. And for my need to write, I'm definitely going to do it this year. :D

I just need to consider the plot... and find the various drawings of our characters...

 

[blazheirio889]

Last year I totally failed. If there's one thing I cannot do to save my life, it's thinking of a storyline. However, I've realized that I've written at least 30k words in reffings, though, so maybe I'll just try to reach 50k words in ASB reffings, if that's allowed.

Some year I'm going to write it with a friend, but since I have no storyline/plot in my empty little head, I'll just stick with my reffings.

 

[Harlequin]

I don't think I'll be doing NaNoWriMo this year. I just have far too much to do by January. If it were in, say, August I'd do it in a heartbeat. As it is I have to bring my chemistry marks up from 58/120 and 54/120 to 90/120 and 90/120 and manage Bs in all three of my A2 modules... And that just won't happen if I do NaNoWriMo.

We'll see, though. If I can make up a schedule and stick to it for the revision and pencil in some NaNo time I might. I have at least one thing I could write about, and I might even take the chance to write more of Firefly's Folly (or possibly something set in that world!).

 

[JackPK]

I'm totally trying this year, but based on my reffing speed I doubt I'll get anywhere near 50k. I don't mind though.

Right now I'm thinking that I'm going to start the Heroesverse-based entirely-OC Paradise Lost tribute that I've been plotting out for the past two years but have been too lazy to start, though given Heroes's recent quality I'm unsure whether I'll have enough inspiration to start it/keep it up. (Don't spoil the premiere for me, I'm gonna watch it later this week on nbc.com!! lol) But anyway I've already decided it's going to be divided into three "volumes" (kinda like Heroes) each of four to eight "chapters" (I'm 70% it'll go 8-4-8) which I'm hoping will each be roughly 50% to 75% the length of a novelized Heroes episode (which, believe it or not, I've actually tried to do). I figure that puts me at about 6k to 7k per chapter, and Vol. 1 is 8 chapters. That puts me at maybe 48k to 56k for Vol. 1, so my NaNo goal is just to finish Volume One regardless of actually hitting 50k. I figure if I set a tangible goal (write until this part of the story's done) rather than a numerical goal (write until 50k words), I'll write more faster because that's how my motivation works.

Currently I've got my local best friend doing it too, and (if she can get her internet up to talk to me) my BEST best friend who recently moved is going to do it too. The latter is an accomplished speed writer who once filled up about five or six thick notebooks full of a soap opera about Sephiroth and Cloud over the course of the 8th grade, so to even get close to her I'll have to write my buns off. That'll motivate me too.

Damn, that was a lot of useless information. Maybe this writing thing isn't as hard as I build it up to be. :P

 

[EvilCrazyMonkey]

Last year I miserably failed. I got less than 5k. But then I didn't really have a passion for writing; it was just something I did. Now I am much more into writing (and am trying to get in an arts-related boarding school that has a creative writing division in January). To get in, you must submit either eight poems (I cannot write poetry to save my life), a chapter from a novel (and, if unfinished, plans to finish it, which I could do with NaNo, but probably won't), or a short story. I'm doing the short story, but I only have two, one that needs severe editing and another that is about gay people, which I don't want to submit (I'm in SC, after all). Since I've also gotten a lot of nifty ideas for short stories, I will probably write them instead. So my goal: write 50k words of short stories. This will probably work better because I have never dedicated myself to a novel and because I will feel more accomplished with each short story. In December I will edit them all and in January submit one. I'd like to try something in verse (right now I am hooked on it; I just read The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan and I'm in the middle of Tricks by Ellen Hopkins. They're both absolutely amazing and recommended), so maybe I'll do a story or two in that.

Two of my friends tried to co-write a novel last year but didn't make it much farther than me. I also convinced another friend who loves writing to do it, but she didn't either. I know this year we'll all be doing it. Now I have some motivation to not quit in the first week...

But anyway, yes, definitely doing. I really, really hope that I don't run out of ideas halfway through (to prevent that I'm writing down every single promising idea that runs through my mind).

 

[Flora]

I might actually do it this year. If I remember, I said I would last year, but then I didn't. *shrugs*

Though now I actually have a good idea, so it should be interesting.