Every year is different and the challenges are different.
Last year my challenge was that my Father died very suddenly at the end of September. I really didn't feel like writing but I didn't feel like doing anything and at least when I was writing I wasn't thinking about my Father, except that I was and it came out in the writing.
This year the challenge is that I've had gastric surgery and for the next six months I can't have any caffeine, anything fizzy or any chocolate.
ARRRRRRRGH! No Beer. No Chocolate. No Coffee!!!!!!!!
So what's your challenge this year? Is it enforced or is it something you've chosen to take on?
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105,240 / 50,000
Sep 29, 2008 - 13 56
No Coffee?!?! No Chocolate?!?!! Holy fright girl. You aren't only taking on the ML hat for Aberdeen but doing it cold turkey. My hat is off to you.
My challenge this year was to get Scotland enough ML's to have regions. I would love to get a 50% or more finish rate.
Don't know, I'll have to think about it. I'm not taking on 5K a day again, that was just madness.
----------Important things to remember during NaNoWriMo:
You can still do this! Trust me, I know you can.
You don’t have to spell check
Grammar is optional
Editing comes later
And a plot is used for gardening
170,061 / 50,000
Sep 29, 2008 - 14 08
My challenge this year will be that I'll be living in a hostel in Edinburgh, will actually have a job this year (at least I hope) and will be writing on a laptop for the first time
But 'challenge' is just a different word for what makes Nano special this year :D
50,463 / 50,000
Sep 29, 2008 - 14 59
I'll also be starting a new job in the same week NaNo starts and with a 6 week training schedule.
That's as long as the banking sector doesn't totally collapse between now and then and they don't find out about that string of bank robberies I committed a few years ago :-0
4,300 / 50,000
Sep 29, 2008 - 15 15
An evil, evil student of my aquaintence has taken it upon herself to do something about ym unhealthy diet that will no doubt send me to an early grave, and as part of this has banned me from caffiene. As anybody who's seen the amount of coffee and energy drinks I consume in a day will realise, this is liek cutting off my lifeblood. So yeah, if I can't find a dodge out of it, this shall be my challenge.
Not quite as bad as last year, when I got totally distracted by some serious problems with a friend, then...
15,172 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 07 57
Hmm...
I think my challenge this year is that I'm doing 2 Advanced Highers, one of which is French, which means a huge amount of work. I've also got a job for the first time, which takes up roughly 15 hours a week, depending on how many shifts I have.
I'm hoping to actually finish this year - last year I didn't, but it was my first time doing nano.
----------Second attempt at Nano, lets see if I can get it to work this time!
1,817 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 09 32
I think my challenge this year (since it's my first year) is to see what happens and not try and correct everything I write!
41,451 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 11 16
My challenge will be to hold down my first - very physically demanding - full time job, keep going to college and do my English Higher on my days off from work and try not to fall apart with exhaustion. And try not to lose internet while I'm at it.
3,000 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 13 01
My challenge this year is doing a better job as an ML, as my Dad got diagnosed with cancer last year just before the nano then got told it could be terminal just into the nano. So understandably my head wasn't in it last year, good news is dads fought off the cancer with chemo and has shocked the doctor dealing with it by getting rid of it entirely from his lungs :D
Second challenge is finishing as i hit 6000 odd words before the news hit so got to improve on that this year as well.
SCM
----------Regional ML for Scotland
2005 - Unsucessful
2006 - Successful but still no title
2007 - tba
38,030 / 50,000
Oct 4, 2008 - 12 42
My challenge...well, I'm currently doing 4 Advanced Highers with an aim for at the very least AAB, since I'm aiming for Cambridge University. Over the next few months will be a lot of intensive schoolwork, essays, investigations, commentaries, insanely hard calculus plus far too many extracurricular activities and work as a programmer in the little spare time I have left.
And on top of that, I am going to write as many of 50000 words as I possibly can.
Thankfully I can still eat chocolate and drink coffee, I can type 50wpm and am basing my story off historical events instead of start-from-scratch fantasy (what I did last year) which takes the plot burden off slightly.
I am freaking insane.
15,172 / 50,000
Oct 4, 2008 - 14 27
Triss - what AHs are you doing?
Mine are English and French. I was doing History for a wee while, but stopped.
----------Second attempt at Nano, lets see if I can get it to work this time!
51,609 / 50,000
Oct 5, 2008 - 01 02
My challange this year to keep my B?F off the computer long enough for me to reach my targets each day WITHOUT getting annoyed at him.... What I wouldn't give to be able to affort a spare laptop......
----------We fight for the right to surrive. Surrender is not an option! (Tamra Dragonstar. Lord Commander of the Dnulian Army!)
55,098 / 50,000
Oct 5, 2008 - 01 25
I just want to finish.
Now that i've bought the t-shirt the pressure is on.
----------Aiyla
nano 2007: Best Kept Secret
nano 2008: The Willow Basket
50,101 / 50,000
Oct 5, 2008 - 06 45
My challenge is to get through NaNoWriMo whilst working doing my first of two years actually going towards my degree. I'm very glad there are no exams in December this time around. I also don't want to drop any of my societies at uni while I write. I have a concert at the end of Nov too.
----------NaNo Winner: 2005, 2006, 2007
2005 - The Way
2006 - Cutlery in Foil
2007 - Gan's Quest
2008 - Ananias
6,841 / 50,000
Oct 6, 2008 - 02 48
My challenge is to be regional ML, which will be great, but also rewarding.
12,342 / 50,000
Oct 6, 2008 - 06 53
Erm... six 2,500 word History essays due just before, during and just after November.
----------And my grades have to be good this year if I want to be on my way for a 2-anything class Honours for my degree (I'm not ambitious enough to try for a First Class).
Thankfully no exams to study for this year, but organisation has never been my strong point and each essay has a required minimum reading of 6 books inc. at least 2 specialist sources. I'm already having trouble finding books for the essays due THIS month... disaster...
So combining that stress with attempting to write a 50,000 word novel?
Uh oh.
'Hey, if you think eating carpet lint is fun, wait till you fall in love!'
- Chuckie Finster, The Rugrats
0 / 50,000
Oct 6, 2008 - 11 22
Ouch! Four? Wow... I thought mine was bad: three AHs, applying to Cambridge and part of school production which is in the last week of November. What're you applying for? Picked a college? (Sorry am nosy) I'm applying for languages but undecided on a college, don't know which one to pick :S
We'll all have to draw comfort from the thought that there is a thin line between genius and insanity - the line is just very blurry :P
24,024 / 50,000
Oct 6, 2008 - 16 08
Well, I've got two - possibly three - essays to write in November, and exams in December, and I'm the sort of person who's constantly getting colds and flu. What could possibly go wrong next month? :)
23,087 / 50,000
Oct 8, 2008 - 12 30
By the way I am pleased your father has made a great recovery SCM :)
----------'Don't get it right, just get it written!'
James Thurber
23,087 / 50,000
Oct 8, 2008 - 12 27
My challenge is to reach my target despite fibromyalgia, which last year forced me to write the whole 50,000 in two weeks last year :)
----------'Don't get it right, just get it written!'
James Thurber
55,835 / 50,000
Oct 8, 2008 - 12 47
I have fibromylagia too. I recommend that you have a good look at your writing-set-up if you are hunching over or twisting it can set up nasty muscle spasms in the neck and shoulders. Not last NaNo but the previous one I spent most of December unable to use my left hand because of a spasm in my neck that was putting pressure on the nerves. The physiotherapist tracked it down to typing up my notes with my head turned slightly to look at the notebook.
In fact that goes for all of you. You're going to be spending a lot of time writing so get comfortable.
H
3,000 / 50,000
Oct 10, 2008 - 07 06
Thanks :)
----------Regional ML for Scotland
2005 - Unsucessful
2006 - Successful but still no title
2007 - tba
50,051 / 50,000
Oct 13, 2008 - 04 14
hi everybody! my challenge is that this year i'm going to spend the first half of november travelling and trips always, always mess up my nano schedule (it totally ruined it on 2004 and it was only a 3 days trip!). but since the first week will be spent in edinburgh (visiting for holidays!), and my story this year is set there, i hope the effect is quite the contrary :)
(may be off topic but i'd also love to go to some start meet up, any news about it? -> forget about it, i just found my way around the forums and found the edinburgh thread, sorry!)
----------Municipal Liaison for Spain
NaNo'04: Jylian's Shadow
NaNo'05: Jylian's Shadow (won)
NaNo'06: 20millions3 (won)
NaNo'07: Jylian's Shadow (won)
NaNo'08: Gallery of Bones
50,150 / 50,000
Oct 14, 2008 - 08 16
My challange this year is doing 5 highers in school (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Maths, English).
Not drinking coffee or playing those damned addictive video games which I find myself playing more oftenly than I would like.
Also keeping on top of mounting homework and the NAB's I will be having around in during November.
And last of all it's my first year doing NaNo and I hate failing, so will be pushing myself to finish it as quick as possible with minimal procastinaing. Now to quit procrastinating and get back to my plan.
575 / 50,000
Oct 22, 2008 - 13 21
Well, personally it's going to be challenging for me because it'll be my first NaNo while holding down a fulltime job, as well as the fact a certain MMO expansion that consumes a LOT of my free time will also be coming out. I've told myself I'm going cold-turkey from the game for November, but I dunno if it's going to happen. Might have to have a few crazy days to make up for it! =)
3,000 / 50,000
Oct 22, 2008 - 14 15
Mines of Moria by any chance?
Regional ML for Scotland
2005 - Unsucessful
2006 - Successful but still no title
2007 - tba
----------Regional ML for Scotland
2005 - Unsucessful
2006 - Successful but still no title
2007 - tba
575 / 50,000
Oct 22, 2008 - 23 45
World of Warcraft ;)
13,097 / 50,000
Oct 24, 2008 - 07 00
Not drinking coffee or playing those damned addictive video games which I find myself playing more oftenly than I would like.
Also keeping on top of mounting homework and the NAB's I will be having around in during November.
And last of all it's my first year doing NaNo and I hate failing, so will be pushing myself to finish it as quick as possible with minimal procastinaing. Now to quit procrastinating and get back to my plan.
Same for me, except different Highers (English, Maths, Computing, Art and History :3). I have no idea why I'm even still seriously considering doing it.
Oh right, I'm mental.
Instead of even thinking about what I just wrote I'll be busy doing homework, though, so I suppose it's a massive change from last year (where I crashed and burned miserably because my inner editor took over).
50,148 / 50,000
Oct 29, 2008 - 08 29
My challenge this year is University! It's my first year and I have so much work to do - I suppose I can catch up on reading after November, though...