Am I a Rebel? Find out here!

Am I a rebel?

We get this question here a lot. The odds are not; there are some rules that people think are rules, but really aren't! So we're going to touch on the most commonly asked ones. The first rule of NaNoWriMo: If you think it's a novel, so do we. Some people like to know if they are or are not rebellious, though, so we'll let you know if you ask. If you'd like to know if something's against the rules or not, ask in the Rules and Regs forum.

Here are the basic rules for winning, as outlined on the How NaNoWriMo Works page.

* Write a 50,000-word (or longer!) novel, between November 1 and November 30.
* Start from scratch. None of your own previously written prose can be included in your NaNoWriMo draft (though outlines, character sketches, and research are all fine, as are citations from other people's works).
* Write a novel. We define a novel as a lengthy work of fiction. If you consider the book you're writing a novel, we consider it a novel too!
* Be the sole author of your novel. Apart from those citations mentioned two bullet-points up.
* Write more than one word repeated 50,000 times.
* Upload your novel for word-count validation to our site between November 25 and November 30.

What does being a rebel mean? Does this mean I can't validate, or use the site, or participate in NaNoWriMo?

Absolutely NOT! You are 100% welcome. In fact, you're so welcome we gave you this very shiny forum, where people won't accuse you of being a cheater or "not doing it right." Some rebels validate, others don't. We don't check, and we don't care! Some people feel that if they're not doing it by the book, they shouldn't validate. Those people will still get shiny green bars of completion once they hit 50k. Others feel they worked hard, and should get their purple winner's bar and winner's certificate.

Neither is wrong! This is a self-challenge. The REAL prize of NaNoWriMo is the accomplishment, and the big new manuscript you have at the end. Everything beyond that is icing on the cake.

I won't be writing crap. I'll probably be editing while I write. Am I a rebel?

Nope. Writing crap is allowed... not required. Chris Baty asks you to give yourself permission to write crap... but you aren't required to write crap to win. Some of us even manage to churn out pretty decent drafts! Those of you who edit... you're not rebelling either. Editing is discouraged, but not forbidden, and only because when you edit, you slow yourself down and may end up bogged down in worrying about whether or not it is perfect. Plenty of people edit, win, and validate!

I'm writing fanfiction. Am I a rebel?

Not even a little. The only rule we have for content is that it must be fiction. Beyond that...

I'm writing a collection of short stories. Am I a rebel?

Probably not. There's no actual rule on this one. We define a novel as "a lengthy work of fiction." However, we the moderators feel that since you find short story collections on the shelves alongside longer works of fiction, if they're related, they count. They need to have some common theme, or linking thread that weaves them together that makes them a single, "lengthy work of fiction." Which leads us to the next:

I'm writing a series of unrelated essays/short stories/vignettes. Am I a rebel?

Probably. Again, there's no official rule on this one, but if you're just combining unrelated work to get the 50k, it's probably not a novel.

I'm writing a memoir/biography/guide to Europe/creative non-fiction. Am I a rebel?

Yes. Nonfiction is outside the bounds of the NaNoWriMo challenge. If it's not fiction, then it doesn't fall within the confines of "a lengthy work of fiction." The exception to this is fictionalized memoir; we don't tell you how MUCH fiction you must include. It's up to you to decide. Fictionalized memoirs are okay, true, non-fiction memoirs are rebellion.

I'm continuing last year's NaNo, or another work I've been writing on before November. am I a rebel?

Yes. You have to start from scratch... scratch doesn't mean with nothing (you can plan), but it does mean that you can't start writing before November 1. To win officially, you need to write your novel, or at least the first 50k of it, between November 1 and November 30.

I started this idea, but it never got far. I won't be using the stuff I wrote, but it's the same idea and characters. Am I a rebel?

No. Ideas are fine! When you make biscuits from scratch, you sometimes use a recipe, and you don't make the flour and water out of nothing! As long as you set anything you've written aside, don't refer to it, and don't include any of the original prose... it's fine.

What if I don't finish my novel at 50k? Am I a rebel?

No. 50k is a threshold... not a limit. If you're a vet, you may remember when Chris encouraged you to hit "The End" on November 30, but that's not even recommended anymore. It's a great goal, but if you don't finish, you're not a loser. The goal is to write at least 50k.

I'm writing a script. Am I a rebel?

Yes. BUT, if you wait until April, you can join The Office of Letters and Light's other challenge, Script Frenzy and write a 100 page script in 30 days.

I'm writing a video game/drawing a graphic novel/poetry/music. Am I a rebel?

Yes. while these are incredible art forms in and of themselves, we focus on novels. Graphic novels are novels, but we don't have a way to validate them... it has to be text.

I'm writing my novel in journal form/as a fictional guide/in verse/insert other strange form here. Am I a rebel?

Is it fiction? Then no! We don't care what the format's like. If it's a lengthy work of fiction, we don't even care if you write it on stone tablets in unrhymed verse... it still counts.

I don't have a computer, and I'm handwriting my novel. Am I a rebel?

No. In fact, we even have a special clause for you handcrampers out there to validate. Check it out the Luddite Clause.

Obviously, this is not an exhaustive list, because you guys always come up with something to surprise us. But feel free to ask your "am I a rebel" questions in this thread. We'll try to answer!

Just a remark: the Luddite Clause link doesn't work - I actually wanted to read it :)

Ooops! Nice catch. I forgot to edit the link for the updated site. :)

Thanks :)

I'm planning on writing two separate 50,000 (or more)-word novels, both in November. They're perfectly 'normal' novels otherwise, I'm just writing two of them simultaneously. Am I a rebel?
(Also, the title of this thread is missing the word 'a.' Don't know if that's fixable; just thought I'd point it out...)

Fixed the title.

And it depends miss_technicality - if what you mean is that you're writing two novels but both of them will be 50k individually, then no you're not a rebel.

But you -would- be a rebel if you're planning to write 50k combined between the two novels and they're not related.

In other words.. a collection of short stories which are related or have a common theme - as listed above.. aren't considered rebel work because they have a common theme.

However, from what I can tell you're not write short stories - you're writing two legitimate 50k novels - which will total 100k by the end of the month. If this is the case then no, you're not a rebel :)

Hopefully that made sense (.. dragonchilde feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about this XD)

I think I'm rebelling.

I started a novel over the summer and have put it aside until I can squeeze out time to work on it. I've got, oh, 9K words written on this thing, and I need the Kick in the Pants and/or The Excuse to Tell My Family to Get Out and Leave Me Alone, I'm NaNo-ing. Do your own laundry, people. Cereal in the pantry.

My plan is to build on what I've already done, but NOT to include anything I've already written in my word counts. It's locked up in my desk, and I ain't touchin' it until December. No edits, no checking the work for continuity, nothin'. (Okay, fine, it's really on a jump drive, not locked up. My teenage daughter would probably lock it up for me, and laugh in my face if in a fit of insanity I begged her to retrieve it.)

It doesn't really matter to me if I'm rebelling or not - I'm going through with the plan. But I like things defined. It's fiction, it's a novel, it'll be 50K words written by me and no one else in November, Lord willin' an' the crick don't rise. It'll just tack on to previously written stuff.

Whaddya think? Rebel or no?

So, I have this idea for my contribution to this year's NaNoWriMo. Basically, I'm going to write something in the style of James Joyce's -Finnegan's Wake-, which essentially amounts to writing something very surreal and borderline stream-of-consciousness. Now, I'm wondering if that is really rebellious of me to do so, since I feel that not only am I abandoning plot, I'm also going to abandon normal cohesion, instead opting to cram in as much symbolism, puns, and other types of literary devices I possibly can into the space of the "novel".

So, is my idea a rebellion or not?

I'm thinking of combining incidents from real life with fiction. No one will know what is true and what is fiction, am I a rebel? The whole work will be presented as fiction?

Mals86 - Welcome to the Rebel fold! You're definitely a rebel as, even though you won't count the words you wrote earlier in your 50k total, they say you have to start from scratch.

Joseph Staleknight - Nano defines "Novel" as a "Lengthy work of fiction" -regardless of whether it's plot, stream of consciousness or what have you - as long as you think you're writing a novel.. we do too! - You're probably not a rebel.

73LadyB - Fictionalized Memoirs (i.e. a memoir combining true events + original fiction) is perfectly legit and not cause for rebel status.

Yes, do do that LadyB! - Come to the dark side... we has cookies ;)

ooh cookies

I will probably end up being a rebel, I don't think I will make many words this year but I want to come into nano again and have a play. I will see what I end up doing, but will probably be working on an already started piece of fiction. With 2 kids under 3 I need to get this things moving!!

cookies please

One of the problems with ADHD is forgetfulness. It causes a certain lack of follow through. Sometimes I think it takes me a thousand beginnings to stumble my way to one conclusion. So I figured, why not just accept that. Why not schedule the time to sit and make enough beginnings to reach a conclusion. Hey, It might work.

I'm going to be starting out with autobiographical vignettes, but I expect to slide into non-fiction and fiction, just because I have so many collected cool facts and unfinished stories cluttering up my computer. I'm calling my genre Navel Gazing and Found Writing. The "novel" is A Thousand Beginnings. A plot may emerge. Or an ending. You never know.

If I get very self-indulgent, I may write entries to three blogs that I've been thinking of forever. Or I may just talk about them in a loose and rambling way. The blogs are: Science With Shit, Geek Vacations, and Fossils Without Dinosaurs. Fear my titles.

I made up a story for NaNo begin Oktober, which I of course shouldn't have, since I loved it so much that I started writing way before NaNo even started xD Then I made up another story to write for NaNo, but I don't want to put my other story on a hold for a month... I was thinking about just writing 1667 words for that story every day, and only counting the words I wrote in November for NaNo. Am I a rebel?

I've never attempted Nano before, but I'm definitely a rebel. I've been working on my opus, off and on, since 1995. I'm finally on a roll with it again, and don't want to write anything else right now. I'm not sure I need 50K to finish, but at least I'll write until it feels finished. So, how many pages are we talking about? Does anyone know?

I want to write a novel, but I'm not exactly sure if it's right to do.
I plan to write about my entire life so far, with my softball. I've been playing softball since I was little and have some great achievements. I want to write about what it took to get those. This is my first year of NaNoWriMo though, and I want to make sure I do it right.
Would I be a rebel if I wrote about my softball career, sticking to the facts of my life...?

I wrote a few poems over the past year under a collective title, "The Medication Chronicles." However, I haven't written any short stories or any lengthy prose under that title (yet). I am however using my poems as inspiration and using "The Medication Chronicles" as my NaNo title. No idea if I'll eventually include the poems as chapter headers or anything, but the plan as of right now is no. Am I a rebel? XD

Definitely a rebel. Planning to write only-very-slightly-fictionalized memoir/history. But I need the deadlines and discipline and plan to participate full force. Will what I write count for friendly local competitions?

If I'm writing a sequel/continuation to last years novel, but I'm planning on writing 50,000 this year (so that the grand total of the story length [where last years length=N] is N+50,000) what does that make me?

/besides a math nerd. >_>

I know I'm a rebel this year. I'm planning on writing a training manual for flyball, a dog sport I participate in. No new training manuals have come out in a long time, despite great changes in the sport, equipment, and training methods, and if no one else will do it, I will. But, I want to participate in NaNo without putting off writing this. Not technically fiction, so not technically a novel, but it will be a complete book draft of at least 50,000 words by the end of November, so its close enough for me :)

I've participated in NaNoWriMo twice before, but didn't complete my (actual) novels either time, because of running out of steam. I know I won't run out of steam on this project, and would like to get that official completion at the end of the month. Am I allowed to Validate my book at the end of the month?