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So, November is coming and another edition of NaNoWriMo is about to start.

For who doesn't know it already, NaNoWriMo is a website ( https://nanowrimo.org/ ) that proposes a writing challenge every november. The idea is getting around 1600 words on page each day of the month - in doing so the participants will have a sizeable novel of around 50k at the end of the challenge.

I'm opening this question for the usual topics: who's going to participate? What are your thougths/plans about it?

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    How did you go with last year's effort?
    – Chappo Hasn't Forgotten
    Commented Oct 17, 2018 at 10:53
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    I managed to get my idea on paper. I fell short of around 6k words to the 50k mark. I still have the thing in my pc, needing the final chapters and some serious editing, but overall it was a good experience and I was able to keep an average of 1400 words a day (though I was quite not as busy as I am now)
    – Liquid
    Commented Oct 17, 2018 at 11:01
  • @Liquid why did you not finish the story of last years effort? More importantly why start a new one? (just curious)
    – Totumus Maximus
    Commented Nov 16, 2018 at 9:42
  • @TotumusMaximmus I will at the earliest convenience (I fell out of love a bit with that story and it needs serious editing). The new one has more breathing space, leaves me more time to explore/expand, and it's more suited to the word-per-day format.
    – Liquid
    Commented Nov 16, 2018 at 13:42

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I'm currently taking part in an Inktober-inspired daily building challenge in one of the video games I play, so I'm afraid I intend to sit NaNoWriMo out this year to avoid burning myself out. I'll probably still write daily or almost-daily, as I've become accustomed to doing that, but I probably won't be sticking to just one story and I certainly won't be pushing myself to make the 50k word count.

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    If you already have the habit of writing daily, I think that's a great success. NaNoWriMo is probably better suited for people (like myself) that are too uncommitted or undisciplined in their writing
    – Liquid
    Commented Oct 18, 2018 at 12:23
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I'm up for it! Great way to slam out a first draft of the novella I've been researching/preparing.

It's a modern take on Conrad's Heart of Darkness [which explains some of my Conrad-related posts on the main Writing site ;-) ], where my "Marlow" is a successful suburban man driven to rough sleeping by personal tragedy, and undertakes his own metaphoric river journey from his camp under an inner-urban bridge, down the main river to the heart of the city, where he's introduced to a Kurtz-like figure - mysterious, charismatic, powerful, likeable, corrupt, dangerous - and is finally forced to confront his inner demons (his own heart of darkness).

I'm itching to start writing, but I also like the idea of a time-limited challenge, so I'll happily hang out till 1 Nov. I love the idea of a whole month of intense feverish writing, and I also desperately need to complete something so I can get my loving family & friends off my back! - "how's your writing going, have you written anything yet?" gets a bit tiring when you get the same question at least weekly...

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    In my experience it's a great way to kick start a project, exspecially if you already planned out it first. So, good luck with that!
    – Liquid
    Commented Oct 17, 2018 at 12:11
  • I've just created my NaNoWriMo profile, so if anyone would like to add me, I'm Chappo-Oz.
    – Chappo Hasn't Forgotten
    Commented Oct 18, 2018 at 4:38
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    I'm having trouble adding you at the moment, but I'll retry later. I'm Tower by the way
    – Liquid
    Commented Oct 18, 2018 at 8:02
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    @Liquid I get 4,182 results when I search for "Tower"! You can go to my NaNoWriMo profile here and add me, which should then show up in my profile to add you :-)
    – Chappo Hasn't Forgotten
    Commented Oct 18, 2018 at 9:58
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I'll be doing it. This will be by fifth NaNoWriMo.

I forgot that the NaNoWriMo was coming up so quickly, so I don't have a book plot yet. I am sit down on November 1st and stare at an empty page trying to think of something.

Anyways, best of luck to everyone participating.

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    Best of luck, even after a third of month has passed. How did your other four months go?
    – Liquid
    Commented Nov 11, 2018 at 10:14
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I'm gonna try. Don't know what kind of progress I can make between work and writing a thesis, but I'm actually curious to find out how much I can get done if all my off-duties hours go to this challenge.

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I’m thinking of joining again but to edit rather than write. I finished last year and am now on the fifth (hopefully final) draft of the same novel. There are still some things left to add and switch around, and then some runs of end-to-end edits… but I’m itching for a push to get it there.

The novel is a platonic love story between two asexual high school kids. The Nano draft is total trash, but it was a start. And even now I feel the habit of writing daily has stuck with me. I’m excited to see how I can make it work for Nanowrimo! Anyone ever tried before? Maybe a daily time target rather than word count?

If anyone wants to be buddies I'm sudowoodo on there as well.

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    I'm wondering about this myself. I still don't know if I should take NaNoWriMo as an opportunity to edit. Congratz on your fifth draft tho
    – Liquid
    Commented Oct 18, 2018 at 12:24
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I will be doing this year's NaNoWriMo. I have started several story ideas, but these story ideas don't go anywhere. I think I am just going to pick the one that seems to have the most complexity. It seems to have the most complexity, because the story outline is many paragraphs long, starting with the main character's college graduation and ending with the main character's death. A complex, multi-faceted story written in a highly verbose manner will bring the story to 50,000 words.

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This will be my second NaNoWriMo attempt, seeing as my first one crashed with my hard drive.

My novel is a darker fantasy, with a larger main cast (Seven in total), and is about a prince of a country who is framed for his murder (which he witnessed before his very eyes.), and flees to a neighboring country. He then sells what he has for a fraction of what it's worth, still achieving a hefty sum.

Afterwards, because if he joins an adventuring guild, he'll have to tell them who he is, he purchases six slaves to fight for him.

I hope to finish the novel this time, and I can't wait to see what you all have done!

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Aww I noticed this too late. I would love to have given a try to this.

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    Well you can still join in
    – Liquid
    Commented Nov 5, 2018 at 16:12
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    It's nowhere near too late! I signed up a month ago, got off to a modest start (750 words) on day 1, and haven't been able to get back to it since. Instead of giving up, I've simply recalculated my target output for the remaining 24 days. I think I can still get to the 50,000 - but even if I only get halfway there, it's way more than I would have achieved if I hadn't participated. Think of it this way: currently, you're only 2-3 hours of writing behind me! It's definitely worth jumping in and having a go :-)
    – Chappo Hasn't Forgotten
    Commented Nov 6, 2018 at 6:39
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    I suppose you are right. But I have done too little research in how to properly work within the programme. And 50k words is a daunting mountain to climb. I'm working on a project and I have only written about 30k in 5 months or so. I just don't know now.
    – Totumus Maximus
    Commented Nov 6, 2018 at 9:02
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    The real value of NaNoWriMo is not actually climbing the 50k mountain. Yea, they give you a banner if you do and you get bragging rights, but that doesn't make you a better writer per se. If you're struggling to put words on paper consistently, it could be a good source of motivation to increase your daily efforts.
    – Liquid
    Commented Nov 7, 2018 at 9:55
  • You could play by your rules and ignore the daily suggested number of words, working on both research, outlining and writing at the same time. In the end it's just up to you. I realize tho that NaNoWriMo is not useful for everyone or in every situation, so if you aren't convinced, no harm done.
    – Liquid
    Commented Nov 7, 2018 at 9:57
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    I really like the idea of it. I guess it is not the right tool at the right time for me. I have tons of idea's and things I want to write about. But if I'm not sticking to my guns and stay on my current project I feel like I'm risking completing it at all. And that would be a shame.
    – Totumus Maximus
    Commented Nov 7, 2018 at 10:22

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