I wasn't at all sure which forum to put this in, but I think it applies here more than anywhere.
In '07 and '08, I wrote a new story for NaNo; something that I picked up on November 1st, and aimed to tie up (and in the case of '08, failed to tie up) by the end of the month. This year, though, I've already been working on a story, and it's one that I'm now planning to carry through NaNo. My aim is to basically take my word count at the end of Hallowe'en, and then treat that as my zero-word, so that I add an extra 50,000 words to the story during the NaNo month.
This did give me one particular worry; would there be 50,000 words LEFT to write? If I wrote well through the period leading up to NaNo, then there'd be a strong possibility that the novel may well end before I hit my total word count during November. It'll be over 50,000 before the month starts. So, what I have lined up to one side is an alternative novel idea; another story that I've been wanting to write, but which I don't want to start work on before I'm done with this one. If I DO hit the end mark of that first novel before the end of the month, then I'll put it to one side and pick up the next novel, and carry on from there.
It's an odd way to make a 50k, but it's how I'm approaching it this year; I was just curious to see if there's anyone else in the same (or similar) kind of boat as me for this coming NaNo...
----------
"In the grim darkness of the far future, I still haven't finished my novel."
104,010 / 50,000
Oct 16, 2009 - 10 18
Well, as a rule I never do rewrites or continuations with NaNo - it's just how I've always done. However, I have had one sort of similar experience, in 2007.
My novel was going to be a YA/adventure story about a girl who slays a monster, and, well, it was - but it ended at 32k, and that was on day 6. I wasn't planning on writing any more, and, I actually considered stopping with 24 days left in the month, but then I decided to write the sequel to the story (it was only very roughly planned out), and I just went along with it.
I ended up getting about 90,000 more words, so hey, I'm glad I did.
----------2005: Lark's War (51k)
2006: The Passion of Resentment (50k)
2007: Cenotaph (120k)
2008: The Fires Within Us (121k)
2009: Mourning (?)
5,298 / 50,000
Oct 16, 2009 - 11 11
Interesting. I thought I was the only one. =)
Due to my Creative Writing class, my plan will be similar to yours. I have two short stories (revisions/expansions of what I turned in earlier this semester) due in mid-November. Neither will total up to 50,000 words though. So, once they're turned in, I was planning on writing a different story to make the 50,000 mark.
11,248 / 50,000
Oct 16, 2009 - 12 38
My girlfriend is doing the exact same thing with her story.
----------Good luck to all of you!
There is nothing better than a deadly disease.
51,909 / 50,000
Oct 16, 2009 - 12 39
Nano does have a Rebel forums, sounds like you might fit right in.
Me, I love starting new stories and my other WIPs will wait until Nano is over. :D
------------
Nanowrimo 09: Rocks of Opportunity.
Won:
Screnzy: 07: The State of Orange; 08: The State of Green; 09: The State of Indigo.
NaNoWriMo: 06: Dragons in the Bathtub; 07: Sidhe PD; 08: Flabbergast!
53,387 / 50,000
Oct 16, 2009 - 16 00
I'm moving this topic down to the NaNo Rebels forum, since continuing an existing novel isn't part of the NaNo challenge. You'll find you're not alone there!
----------Heather Dudley
Forums Moderator
Liquid Story Binder, on sale for 50% off during November!
A Dragon Writes
50,089 / 50,000
Oct 16, 2009 - 17 27
I'm in almost the same boat. I started writing my story a week or so ago before I'd heard of Nano, or decided I'd do it. I already have almost 20k words and I don't want to stop this story because I might not have the momentum to pick it up again in December. But on the other hand, I'm also not sure if it'll have 50k words left in the first arc after Halloween. I suspect it will, but if not I'll probably either start a sequel (the larger arc will be in at least 3 parts), or start another story I've been thinking about a long while.
One way or another though, I will do 50k in November!
1,620 / 50,000
Oct 16, 2009 - 17 42
I'm lucky on that count; I'm fairly sure that the story I'm writing has enough legs for two or three full novels. But I don't want to shift directly from the first onto the second; my idea is to write the first, then set it to one side and write something completely different before making my primary draft edits, then once I'm happy with the language and story, work on the second.
Also, as I'm considering pitching this as something to publish, I want to get a distance into the second novel before finalizing the draft of the first, as I'd like to be able to layer some of the events of the second novel back into the first, so I develop a more coherent connection between the two, and leave the first one with a taste of foreshadowing the second.
----------"In the grim darkness of the far future, I still haven't finished my novel."
32,076 / 50,000
Oct 16, 2009 - 20 09
What you described as you creative writing class, sambgood, depresses me. My creative writing class almost completely shuts down in November. We stake claim on a computer lab the whole month and it is required to win. Of course this is the first time I've done NaNo in this context and for the past two years it's been on my own time. You should try and convert your class to NaNo.
As for the OP, I have two policies that I haven't had long enough for them to be tried and tested, but I still hope they work well:
1. Let the story go where it may.
2. NEVER WRITE A SEQUEL!
As a matter of fact, the first policy led to the second one. Last year, I couldn't think of an idea so I decided to write a sequel to my 2007 one and I felt so restricted due to the plot already in place. In your case, I would have to say that a continuation is a sequel. Let your current story on pause and start anew in november.
----------NaNoing from FOO!
8,120 / 50,000
Oct 17, 2009 - 10 16
I'm cheating by continuing a story. Hopefully I'll have about 30k by Halloween, and then I'll start a new file on November 1st, word count 0, but I'll be writing the same novel. My plan is to hit 50k by November 30th which would mean about 80k total. Revise over December. Done!
In my head, it's the Greatest Plan Ever, and I'm glad to be here with you fellow Rebels! Support will be necessary to pull off this insanity...
0 / 50,000
Oct 17, 2009 - 11 17
I'm also continuing an existing story.
It started last NaNo and I think I toyed with doing it the NaNo before that. Basically I've been at this story for a long time, so it's probably a really bad choice to write for NaNo, but I really want to finish it and NaNo is good motivation for that sort of thing, so here I am again (and I probably won't finish it or beat NaNo again lol).
I hadn't thought about finishing the story before I had 50K, but I guess since I'm cheating anyway I'll just start the next story in the series. I mean it's the same characters and set like 2 months down the line with a different MC, so it's still in the same family as my NaNo so that's how I'm justifying it.
Is it still okay to verify, yeah? Officially and technically if I do write 50K, I'm not a 'real winner', but I mean still wrote 50K, right?
1,620 / 50,000
Oct 17, 2009 - 11 23
Well I'll be verifying. I'm twisting NaNo to suit my own ends, and verifying my work done at the end is definitely part of it.
----------"In the grim darkness of the far future, I still haven't finished my novel."
1,620 / 50,000
Oct 17, 2009 - 11 25
I wonder how much that depends on the first story, though? There are some sequels that run for huge chains, but where the follow-up books feel hugely unrestricted by the earlier ones, because they're dependent more on its setting and only a handful of events, rather than bound to keep following one very narrow path to one very narrow goal in the same world. I'm pretty sure that SOME sequels would be just as easy, if not easier to write, than a whole new novel.
----------"In the grim darkness of the far future, I still haven't finished my novel."
50,089 / 50,000
Oct 17, 2009 - 17 37
I sort of agree with DoctorJest. Sometimes I think putting a whole story in just one book limits what you can do with the characters, or rushes you through the transitions you want to make with them. I don't worry about plot so much as it's the characters that interest me.
I can see what you mean about prior books setting a narrow course for the next book. But imagine if your character was the type that refused to go along with such a course just because it was expected? Then you could do whatever you wanted in a sequel. Then again, your readers might not like that too well if you didn't set it up properly in the first book, so you could still be stuck.
Back to my character thing though. I have a character I really want to see grow and develop, make terrible stupid mistakes and eventually wise, selfless ones. Through that I'll have to take him through some pretty dark places, on the path but trying to do all that in just 200-400 pages would feel more restricting than over 2-3 books.
1,620 / 50,000
Oct 17, 2009 - 19 27
That's how I feel about the WIP I'm working on at the moment; it's something that'll head towards 250k or beyond, which will probably divide nicely into two or three books, depending on what happens (which I have no idea about, as of yet; just little tendrils of ideas that haven't quite knotted themselves together into something solid). The environment of the story, also, would allow for other stories to follow after without necessarily being chained to the first by anything as restrictive as a plot-line, even if I stuck with the same characters.
On the other hand; I wrote a novel (quite a bad one!) back in 2001 and 2002, which - even if it was written well - would have been stretched if I was to have kept the same characters and followed it up. There were side characters in it who might naturally have followed into a sequel of their own, but the central character's important story was fully told by the end of that book. Anything after that would have been forced.
----------"In the grim darkness of the far future, I still haven't finished my novel."
1,781 / 50,000
Oct 19, 2009 - 11 41
I'm actually continuing a fan fiction that I haven't touched in three years. I write for fun, not for publication, and so I figured that this year is as good as any to finally get that pesky fanfic out of the way. It's already 70,000 words and I'm hoping that I can complete it with another 50,000 through NaNoWriMo. I'm very glad I'm not the only one who will be continuing their novel/story rather than starting from scratch.
10,958 / 50,000
Oct 19, 2009 - 15 45
So, I'm a total newbie and therefor need your input if this is considered continuation or not.
I wrote a first draft of my story two years ago or so, and have since plotted out a rather different story from the first one. Several times. And I just seem sort of stuck with it and the premise I have right now is very rough for that reason - I don't want to get too involved in the specifics because that's the part I always get stuck on.
So what I'm thinking for NaNo is basically taking the premise, taking the characters I like and the world I've created in my head, and writing as if I've never written anything about them before. I've decided to take all the information I have stored in my brain and use it, but not use any source material from anything, not even a drabble, about them before. I think I need to start all over and just use the ideas in my head.
Would this be considered rewriting a WIP, since I'm not going to use any of the existing material from the WIP in order to write the story?
----------1,620 / 50,000
Oct 19, 2009 - 18 27
I think this would be brand new. As far as I'm concerned, anyway, rewriting something over from scratch is the same as writing something completely new - it's just that the background for the story has been developed in a different way. With the WIP I'm working on, I'll be adding to an existing 50 to 60 thousand word draft that I'll already have, and that's what I'd think of as a work-in-progress. (Incidentally, this novel takes ideas from my '07 NaNo; but it's still completely new, and the storyline is completely different. In the end, it's not really a rewrite at all.)
----------"In the grim darkness of the far future, I still haven't finished my novel."
32,135 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2009 - 05 47
My WIP is close to 30K and I can't afford to ignore it for an entire month so I am continuing it. I'll only count what I write after November 1 in the word count and if I make 50K I have no guilt about claiming a win cuz "words iz words and 50K in one month iz a lot o' words" so we should get props for them. I have also donated to help run those word counting servers.
----------AssassinGrl
I used to rule the world...still do sometimes.
53,387 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2009 - 05 52
I wrote a first draft of my story two years ago or so, and have since plotted out a rather different story from the first one. Several times. And I just seem sort of stuck with it and the premise I have right now is very rough for that reason - I don't want to get too involved in the specifics because that's the part I always get stuck on.
So what I'm thinking for NaNo is basically taking the premise, taking the characters I like and the world I've created in my head, and writing as if I've never written anything about them before. I've decided to take all the information I have stored in my brain and use it, but not use any source material from anything, not even a drabble, about them before. I think I need to start all over and just use the ideas in my head.
Would this be considered rewriting a WIP, since I'm not going to use any of the existing material from the WIP in order to write the story?
Nope. As long as you're working from your brain, it's 100% kosher! (If you check in the Rules and Regs forum, you'll find you're not the first to ask this question.)
----------Heather Dudley
Forums Moderator
Liquid Story Binder, on sale for 50% off during November!
A Dragon Writes
1,620 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2009 - 09 07
Just a thought, about the technicalities of winning NaNoWriMo. Am I right in saying that:
a) If I continue this work-in-progress and add 50,000 new words, I don't technically win, but...
----------b) If I put my work-in-progress down as, say, Book 1 of a set, and declare that the work thereafter is actually a separate sequel TO the work-in-progress rather than a direct part of it, then technically I DO win, even though I'd probably write exactly the same 50,000 words either way?
"In the grim darkness of the far future, I still haven't finished my novel."
53,387 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2009 - 11 59
a) If I continue this work-in-progress and add 50,000 new words, I don't technically win, but...
b) If I put my work-in-progress down as, say, Book 1 of a set, and declare that the work thereafter is actually a separate sequel TO the work-in-progress rather than a direct part of it, then technically I DO win, even though I'd probably write exactly the same 50,000 words either way?
Trying to rationalize it in a challenge like this is silly; you're just arguing with yourself.
If you want to be a rebel, then be a rebel. If you want to validate, validate.
Splitting hairs where the rules aren't that clear is kinda pointless. It's a deliberately open-ended challenge. If YOU know that you're still writing the same book... why would you try to self-justify?
----------Heather Dudley
Forums Moderator
Liquid Story Binder, on sale for 50% off during November!
A Dragon Writes
1,620 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2009 - 12 53
Oh, that's easy. Because I'm like that. I just wonder about that specific rule, that's all.
I'm happy to be a rebel, and happy to validate; I just wondered about the rationale behind it. Don't mind me; my wife gets driven mad by the way I ask questions into a big circle until nobody ends up getting anywhere...
----------"In the grim darkness of the far future, I still haven't finished my novel."
53,387 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2009 - 12 55
I'm happy to be a rebel, and happy to validate; I just wondered about the rationale behind it. Don't mind me; my wife gets driven mad by the way I ask questions into a big circle until nobody ends up getting anywhere...
Are you going for the letter, or the spirit?
The *reason* behind it is the same for all our rules... because Chris said so. ;) He was asked for rules, so he made some. There's reasons behind those, but that's the main one.
The letter doesn't care. It's not specific for a reason.
The spirit, on the other hand, says no, that's not kosher, because you're just splitting hairs to try and justify something that's really just a continuation.
----------Heather Dudley
Forums Moderator
Liquid Story Binder, on sale for 50% off during November!
A Dragon Writes
1,620 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2009 - 14 51
Well, that does explain a lot of the rules, actually... :-) For the spirit of the rule, that makes sense; and at the same time, it seems like those who're continuing a work in progress are still very much in the spirit of NaNo. I suppose that's most of the point, when you boil it down.
I suspect I'm going to be a rebel most years from now on, though. I can't see me resting any project for a month if it's going well, and if I have a good project to work on, I'm going to want to write it. Which is, I guess, why I belong down here in the first place!
----------"In the grim darkness of the far future, I still haven't finished my novel."
13,243 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2009 - 15 21
I'm also planning on continuing last year's nano. I love nano for the motivational spirit of the whole thing, not really for all the rules, so i'm more than happy to be a rebel.
If I write 50K in a month tho I'm verifying, to hell with the rules ;) So long as it's a totally new 50K then it doesn't matter to me.
And I think the spirit of nano kinda boils down to: just write, to hell with everything else (like form, convention, being normal, sleep, normal life, etc etc etc.) haha.
10,958 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 09 07
Thanks so much for the clarification!
----------0 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 19 48
So if we do "rebel" by continuing a story we entered before by making it to our goal of 50,000 we won't win?
-Sam
----------26,989 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 20 21
-Sam
Hi Sam,
We've got a nifty new sticky at the top of this page: "Welcome to Rebellion: Am I a Rebel? Etiquette, and More" It should answer your questions.
^_^
----------~Mer
ML-Modesto Region, CA
Co-moderator: NaNo Rebels thread
"I'm Gonna Wave my nerd Flag High"
"Put 'em up! Put 'em uuuup!!"
48,689 / 50,000
Oct 22, 2009 - 14 08
I'm among friends! I'm so excited!
I am 9 days into the second book of a trilogy and plan to just keep going, but wanted the rush and networking thing of the NaNoWrMo. I THINK I will still have 50K in my work to write as of Nov. 1, but if not, I will keep going into book 3. My plan has always been to write all 3 before doing any editing anyway.
I have an extra rebel point though... I write LONG HAND, so I will be writing my second, but typing my first for the trilogy--word counts will be a little shifty because I am estimating (though I have enough of a notebook type that I know is typically 250 word per page)
----------www.waterytart23.blogspot.com
NaNo Newbie: Thought I was going to rebel, but as it turns out... I've got a fresh idea...
DENIABILITY: The mother of all conspiracies...
6,689 / 50,000
Oct 27, 2009 - 11 55
I am also continuing with a novel that I've already started writing. I've dreamed of being a published novelist since I was a child and I think that this one is The One, so I'd like to continue with it and NaNo is a great opportunity to get a large portion of it written.
----------"Put seatbelts on your ears, Roy, because I'm about to take them for a ride!" -Moss from The IT Crowd
zoot_justzoot aka Saraline