NaNoWriMo interest check

Hitura Rael

Moderator
Staff member
Sep 29, 2018
326
1
18
36
Northeast Ohio
www.worldanvil.com
#1
In the last few days there has been a lot of discussion in a group participation in National Novel Writing Month.

NaNoWriMo is a yearly event occurring in November, designed to challenge writers to settle down and write that book. It gives a deadline to work against, people in your area to meet up with for write ins, advice, and support. Winners, people who hit that word count goal of 50,000, are given prizes in the form of discounts on subscriptions to tools for writing, a printed copy of your book, a banner, am icon, discount on merch, and so on.

Recently, they added Camp NaNoWriMo, which occurs twice a year in April and July. For camp you are sorted into "cabins", small groups of people working on similar projects to motivate each other and make friends. Just like real camp! These cabins can be assigned randomly or you can set criteria or choose cabin mates.

Unlike regular NaNoWriMo, camp has a flexible wiped count goal and objective. Rather than a new novel, you could work on a script, an anthology of sorry stories, revisions, or whatever your heart desires. Many use it to revise their work from the previous year or plan for the next year.

I do the November round every year. I have won the last 3 years with a massive novel currently at a word count of 188k. It is good fun and a challenge to come up with an idea and follow it through.

You do not necessarily need to prepare, we call that type "pantsers", but it is very helpful to plan ahead and know where you're going or what you want to do with your story. By going the pantser instead of planner route, I spent many nights staring at a blank page not knowing what to do our where to go with the story. Every time I went this route I failed to break 20k.

What I find works best is plantsing. Have a plan, but leave room to adjust and evolve. You're characters are not always going to react how you want or thought. When you can immerse yourself, they will tell you what they want.

So. Who wants to join me in July for some writing fun?