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Kamikaze Novel Writing
spotmonk writes "November is National Novel Writing Month, and the beginning of this year's nanowrimo program will be starting on Nov 1st. Participants will write a novel of a minimum of 50,000 words in a month's time. Described as valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over talent and craft, nanowrimo takes a kamikaze approach to writing a novel - you may not get the best novel out of it, but at least you've written a novel. Sign-ups last till the end of the month."
The night was moist.
...that Windows was written exactly the same way.
ROMANES EUNT DOMUS
...how the screenplay for The Phantom Menace was written.
Goatse, the novel.
The opening chapter is a real killer....
Monstar L
Reminds me of the "I'm sorry this letter is so long... I didn't have time to write a shorter one." quote.
In middle school we had an assignment to write an 8-page paper. After we handed it in, our next assignment was to make the same paper 5 pages.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
If any of the novels turn out to be good, we'll have found another Asimov (he wrote hundreds of books, so must have been able to write this fast).
See what I've been reading.
I have participated in Nanowrimo for the past three years. There are a lot of people who think about writing something but never set any structured goals in order to get it done. You can take it as serious as you like or loaf all month. It won't make you a great writer but you might find out that you can produce a lot more than you thought. 50,000 words is a hard goal for many and reaching it can be quite rewarding.
There are municipal liaisons that cover areas throughout the country and organize writing groups. I am one in eastern Ohio and what I do is try to keep track of the people in my local area, provide a little encouragement and pass out a couple freebies that the Nanowrimo staff sends out each year. All in all it can be an interesting experience if you are into writing.
It's just a way to make us write something, no matter how horrible, in order to have a story that we can edit and improve on after November's over.
!sig
Last year, you could sign up on the last day of November if you wanted to. If you could write a 50,000 word novel in less than 24 hours, more power to you.
!sig
Pshaw - I'll stick to the original, classic Three Day Novel Writing Contest, started by Pulp Press way back in 1977, and now located here. And yes, entries are judged on quality, not quantity.
Three Squirrels
The 3-Day Novel Contest has run every Labour Day Weekend {CDN} for 27 years and has garnered a reputation as the cheeky and uncompromising rebel of literary forms. The world's most notorious literary marathon demands that would-be novelists produce a masterwork in a mere 72 hours.
more info
back in the day we didnt have no old school
There are hack writers and there are blocked writers, but there are no hack blocked writers... :-)
Many good writers have the skills to write well, it's the writing fast which confounds them.
My wife is a writer and she summarizes succinctly: "It's easier to fix crap than air".
Nanowrimo does many would-be writers a service: permission to write lots of crap and then spend the next 11 months fixing it.
I'm finally going to get that story together next month. It might not be 50,000 words, but it'll be better than nothing.
My father is a blogger.
...Is that they never write sequels.
It's kind of like parenthood: QUANTITY TIME is far, far better than QUALITY TIME.
A lot of people tell themselves that they're good parents, but never spend any time with their kids.
A lot of people tell themselves that they could write a great novel, but have never actually done it. I think this is a great idea, and if it weren't for the fact that November is the Absolute Worst Month at my job, I would be participating for sure. As it stands, I'm still thinking about participating.
Go pee on someone else's parade, orpx.
Education is the silver bullet.
>> On the other hand, if 'right' means writing 50k words in such a way that it tells a well thought out, compelling, and interesting story to not only the author but to the reader as well, then that is much more of an undertaking.
... and they don't write a freling thing. In that case, you're left with ideas in your head, and maybe a stack of notebooks from 'universe building' sessions at coffee shops ... and no fiction.
... but to get a participant writing SOMETHING. Even if it's complete dreck. That's the same advice that published authors and writing seminar teachers give -- get in the habit of writng *something* every day. 100% guarantee that most of it will be crap. However, there will be gems hidden in the crap, that you pull out and polish.
... maybe even print it out doublesided and let it sit on the shelf so they can point to it and say "See? My novel!"
... instead of a bunch of ideas that "aren't quite right", and writer's block inspired dents in the monitor from when you've driven your skull into it repeatedly.
Quite a few people (me included) spend so much time angsting over getting the plotline "just right" and all the various interconnecting subplots to "mesh perfectly" and/or throwing away plot ideas because they're not the gold-plated shining storyline
The goal with NANO is not to shoot for mediocrity
The mediocre participants can reach the 50K mark at the end of November, call their novel finished
The real authors in the crowd will know they've written dreck that will need serious re-writes. If they lack motivation to do *that*, 'NANOEDMO' (editing month) is a few months later. There's a good chance that 90% of the mediocre crap they churned out in November will be thrown out-- leaving 10% to recraft into a new story.
But at least they have the 10% out there to work with
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This mind intentionally left blank.
And where on earth did you get these definitions? At any rate, they certainly aren't universal.