Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related NaNoWriMo 2007 - Sign up now! Mere hours till Nano starts!!

Okay guys... NaNoWriMo is MERE HOURS away!! It's time to start contemplating story idea's and making outlines in preparation for the big month.

So who is in? Last year we had one great fic come out of NaNoWriMo, which was LaraMoon's Reversal of Fortune so it would be neat if we had more people participate this year to see what the community can do.

It can be any type of novel so it doesn't have to be a fanfic. Even if you aren't writing a fanfic come join in on the thread to tell us you are writing. ^_^ The more the merrier!
------

For those of you who have no clue what NaNoWriMo is:

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.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and -- when the thing is done -- the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.

In 2006, we had over 79,000 participants. Nearly 13,000 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.

So, to recap:

What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month's time.

Who: You! We can't do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let's write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.

Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era's most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.

When: Sign-ups begin October 1, 2007. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.

Here are some nice articles and tools for your Nano Experience:

How to Win NaNoWriMo is 5 (no 6!) easy steps.
Printable Plot Planning Worksheet
NaNoWriMo Report Card

If I could only find a cool "what if?" type idea... *sniffles* Because I so totally want to do this again this year. I'm just lacking the right little spark that's going to get me started and turn into something cool.

...and I hope that a few other people from here are going to join this year. It's such a wonderful challenge to take on!! Come on, people!! If I could make it, right in the middle of the most insane month of the year at work, anyone stands a chance of completing this!!

Haha, well that's why it is good to start thinking ahead of time. you have two whole months to find that story.

Maybe you should look through the fanfic challenges and see if anything sparks your interest? ^_~

hey cool idea the whole month-long writing fest etc...

sounds like fun


now if only i had the time

oh yeah, and if only I lived in the states


btw
do you guys play it via a fanfic motif, or just plain anything goes???

It's not organized through lcficmbs, actually. It's a national organization. And really, anything goes I believe. It doesn't have to be fan fic.

I looked it up after I read the wonderful Reversal of Fortune story that Lara wrote. It sounds so fun! I'm going to have to see how my homework looks this year, but maybe I could give it a shot... maybe. Thanks for reminding me of the contest, Jojo!

I have an idea. It's not a fanfic idea, but it's something I came up with the other day, so... I might. But I can't imagine finishing it when I only have evenings and weekends to do it. But I know thousands of other people have done it (including Lara last year!) so that's no excuse for not trying.

Here is what the NaNoWriMo website says:

Can I participate if I'm not American?
You bet! We are very proud to be an international event, and don't consider the "National" in the title to refer to the United States. This is an event for all nations. We'd change the name to "International Novel Writing Month," but InaNoWriMo doesn't roll off the tongue in quite the same way.

Lisa: It actually is weird. It is a neat little exercise and after the first few days you hit this weird point where writing becomes easy. At first you still want to pick over it but after a while you learn to just write. It is amazing what your mind will start to pump out and how fast you will write. There are tools to help you gage how fast you are writing as well and I think you only need to write about 1700 words a day (actually less but 1700 lets you finish a little early). It's not so bad if you think about it. ^_^

It's very interesting to let yourself just write. If it is something you want to share later you can edit it the next month... but it sure is fun to see those pages grow and grow.

You'd be amazed at how many people from all over the world try it. And some don't even write in English - I've seen stories in French and people discussing their efforts in French on the boards as well.

There are stats that you can look up. For instance, I know that in the Montreal region (or at least, for people who listed Montreal as the region where they are) there are 60 people who completed the challenge last year. I think it's kinda cool to be in such a select club.

Lisa - evenings and weekends is all I had. And some weekends, I sat there and did nothing but write... I remember weekends of over 10000 words. *lol* But it was really lots of fun!

And I'm really glad that it turned into a story that people enjoyed reading (thank you!!) but just the fact that I can say that I started it and finished it - the accomplishment in itself - is worth more to me than any Kerth noms that I got for it.

As JoJo said - it does get easier as you go along. Honest to goodness, it really does. I started out not really knowing where I was going and then eventually it's like words just started pouring out of me, literally. The secret - to me, anyway - is to just write and write and not worry about polishing your story. Don't worry about finding the actual perfect word right then and there - put in a word that works, you can go on a quest for perfection later. While you're writing it, just concentrate on getting words out, sentences aligned and paragraphs out on the page. You can polish and fix the story when you're all done, once you start thinking about posting it. Which, you know... you don't even have to, if you don't want to.

Just go on, try it. You know you wanna!!

I'm giving it thought.

James and I have talked about writing Black Leather over Kansas for years. He's given me permission to take over the project for him, but I've written bupkiss so far--not even an outline, although we've verbally fleshed it out. Recently, I toyed with the idea of writing the intro only, just so I could say I'd done it and move on to something new, but that wouldn't really do it justice.

However, I'm not sure I could leave my family wifeless and motherless for a month to do it. And also, IF I finished (that's a big if considering less than 1 out of 6 accomplished it last year) who would betaread a full length novel--even if I did do a rewrite in December and January to polish up the many rough edges?

Elisabeth
who's still thinking

Okay, I hadn't realized what 50,000 words looked like. No, In Any Language was 48,000 words. I always thought of it as a novella, but I suppose a novella is just a short novel.

Elisabeth
who has passed the link on to my local homeschoolers group. Wouldn't it be neat if a few of my friends would participate, too? Oh, that's right. I'm just thinking about it.

Elisabeth, if you homeschool you may also want to pass this one on as well:

http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/ This is the nano for school teachers and their kids.

Rules: http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/modules/xoopsfaq/index.php?cat_id=8

Just a FYI for everyone. In 9 days you can sign up for NaNoWriMo on the website if you didn't last year. ^_^

When you do post your names up here so we can all keep track of each other.

~Jojo, who came up with her NaNo idea this morning. ^_^

I wish they'd extend this writing to include NONfiction. I have no time for the fun work of fiction.

I also wish they'd move it to the month of November. I have a feeling all the support everyone gets from these boards in accomplishing their goals would lead to some really great paper production on my end!!

Capes: It starts in Novemeber. Sign ups for the website start on October 1st.

Also this is taken from the website:

How do you define "novel?" Does fan fiction count? What if I want to write interconnected short stories rather than a novel? What if my story is largely autobiographical, or is based on a real person? Can I still write it in November?

We define a novel as "a lengthy work of fiction." Beyond that, we let you decide whether what you're writing falls under the heading of "novel." In short: If you believe you're writing a novel, we believe you're writing a novel too.

Really you can write whatever you want.

The main idea of this event is to get people interested in writing who normally wouldn't believe they could write. It is also to help raise money for not only the site to continue this program but also so they can start programs to help kids all over the world learn to read and write. Most recently they were partnered with Room to Read .

Just a reminder to everyone that sign-ups begin today. ^_^

They will start this evening. If you are going to participate it would be nice (but not necessary) if you post your nick here so that we can put you on our friends list.

The friends list lets you keep up with your friends progress and you can see how many words each person has written. ^_^

Woo! I can't wait.

Years, er...Decades ago( gosh, am I that old!?) I outlined, all on A floppy, a five world federation of planets, got all the details worked out and...wrote only one story about it.

Five days after I finished the story, the disk got wipe clean in a freak magnetic accident (read, I have become a backup freak).

I was devastated and didn't write ANYTHING again and swore off writing until I found the FOLC community some 10 years later. That was (GASP) 12 years ago.

I am going to sign up and write another story from that same universe based on what I can remember of it.

I already have a basic outline written, as of today.

James

I even updated my Avatar for the occasion!

Oooh! On my way to sign up right this instant!!!

ETA: um... ok... I'm a little over excited, sign ups only open this evening. I shall endeavor to relax a little in the meantime.

Sign-ups still aren't ready. *sniff*

Lara: I'm pretty sure we will just use our sign up info from last year. ^_^

I keep hitting refresh on the site...

No guarantee I'll actually get to do it, but I'd like to have the option...
Carol

WOOHOO! I'm in:). Same nick as here.
Carol