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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.
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.
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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.
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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
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.