how do you write a completed novel in 1 month?

Look for Nano in November but there are some less formal Nano followers that do it at differant times all year round.

Script frenzy is ending on wednsday at mid night (that's where you write a 100 page script in a month).

You'd be surprised what you can do for writing in a month if you just commit two hours a day everyday to write like the wind and don't ever use the back space of worry about spelling and grammer.

You increase your editing work that way but you also end up getting more works completed because you bypass the inner critic.

I'm working five scripts for this month and so am proud to say that by wednsday night if all is as Planned I should have over 100,000 words for the month of april and still have taken a few nights off. They are fairly decent stories too. The need a lot of cleaning up but the story is pretty much done on each.

I only work part time, but I have to work around using public access computers that are only available certain times. That and a chronic ailment.

I won't lie, it's work, and to push like I have can make your brain feel like playdough some nights but it's empowering and can get your creativity going even more to try and succeed.

MOving to the Reaching 50k forum.

Heather
Forums Moderator

You can't start writing now. It must be a new novel that you start writing no earlier than November 1.

But you can start planning now. Character sketches, plot ideas, a complete scene-by-scene outline if you like. Just don't start writing the text of the novel.

Also, it isn't strictly necessary that your novel be "completed" in 1 month. What's necessary is that you write at least 50,000 words of it in one month. This may end up being only half of your story, or a third. And it can be the crappiest first draft imaginable.

50,000 words in November breaks down to an average of 1,667 words per day.

Dale

  2007: Many Happy Returns (winner)
  2006: Jeremy Comes Home (winner)

You just write. There's nothing else for it. Plan, if you need to, but I find it more helpful to have a plot helpline--some friends you can call for ideas. Me, I actually finished my novel on November 30, though only 43,000 words or so.

and in the snowy graveyard
white roses still can grow

It will be really hard to get a novel done in a month but the thing is, it doesn't have to be done, as long as it's over 50,000 words. Your story could be total crap but as long as its 50k, you can sumbit it and get a certificate through the mail.
I personally will refuse to submit if its crap. I'd be too ashamed to submit. For me, its gotta be great, finished or not. Also, even after you submit, NaNo doesn't contain rights. You can continue writing on it and try to publish it elsewhere.
I guess this website is to just get ppl writing and using their thinking and reasoning skills. It's suppose to be fun. If I have time, I'll try to do soemthing this Nov. Good luck.

That's just it ...If I have time I would love to try this writing for a month thing. No one will read it or proofread it, or steal it? I have a notebook full of ideas for novels, or stories so I just might make notes this summer during vacation time. I love writing so it is not a chore or hard work to write and keep writing.
Has anyone had a novel published from NoNoWriMo?? Where can I buy these novels?

"And when you search for Me with all your heart, you will find Me." Jeremiah 29:13 NCV

Nobody will be able to see your novel unless you decide to share with other people for proofreading/ comments/ etc.

As far as I know, LuLu gave free copies of their novels to all the writers who won NaNo one year, but they don't do that now, so basically if you want to publish your novel, you'll still have to go through the edit-query-agent-publisher route.

Just a quick note on the submiting and claiming your certificate thing:

The folks at NaNo HQ don't see a single word of your novel. You submit it online to the site's computer word-counter(which will show up around the 25th of Nov.), it counts the words, and gives you your word count. Then it automatically deletes their computer's copy of your novel so that they can't read it. You then get taken to a Winner's Page, and there you can download a sweet certificate PDF and winner's icons. :)

And yep, you don't have to finish your novel, and it most certianly doesn't have to be good. The goal is just 50k words, and this is just the first draft. Editing is for December. (Or March, which is when National Novel Editing Month, NaNoEdMo, takes place.)

Good luck this November! :)

"A room without a book is like a body without a soul."

ScriptFrenzy 2008: 000/100 pages
Author Sanity 22% and dropping.
Vampires for the WIN!

Nobody reads it unless you want them to. Some folks do swaps at the end, or share with their fellow Nanoers locally. No one can steal it because it's not posted anywhere on the site.

If you want a 'finished' novel, I'd suggest creating an outline ahead of time, but pretty much anything goes. I'd definitely plan on some back-up ideas for filler when your brain gets stuck. :)

50K in a month averages out to about 1667 words a day, which isn't bad at all.

If things go true to past years, sometime around September they'll take the forums down for a few days and freshen them up for next year ... but then this is the first year they've had year-round signups so they might not. Anyway, come October the forums REALLY pick back up. You'll find people doing challenges like Word Wars, where you set a time goal and see who can write the most words, or Sprints, where you set a word goal and see who gets there fastest. People will be posting Dares for silly extra ideas, and giving each other feedback on sticky plot points.

Some folks have managed to get Nano novels published, I think there's another part of the forum that people advertise such things in. And I'm thinking there's a part of the FAQ or the press release or something (or maybe it's in the book No Plot No Problem) that has a list of some of those authors. Probably more of them by now.

If you want to find some of the self-published ones, you might browse Lulu.com and see if anyone used Nano or Nanowrimo as a keyword.

Good luck! Nano is a blast.

Quite a few authors who have done NaNoWriMo have been published! (We don't do the publishing, but they are participants!) You can find a list of them here:

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/mediakit

Heather
Forums Moderator

It's actually not too hard to write 50, 000 words in a month. It breaks down to 1, 667 words a day which is such an achievable goal it's ridiculous. If you write for two hours a day, you could get 2, 000 words a day and finish a bit early. Or you can write more, and stock up on words for any crises of the writer's block variety or the life variety. You don't have to finish the novel during November, or at all really (though that kind of defeats the purpose), and no one ever has to read it.

You might want to try setting your own goal for yourself during a summer month or something, sort of as a NaNo test run.

It does sound like madness, but the thousands of people who've now written novels through this challenge are proof that it's achievable madness. Highly organised people do it and totally chaotic people do it. Almost anyone can find the time if they really look for that time.

Just keep in mind that people have different goals for NaNoWriMo. Some want to produce a novel that they can go on and polish up and submit for publishing, and others just want to enjoy the madness of it all and write 50 thousand words of crazy characters doing nutty things and will probably never edit a word of it. It doesn't matter, it's about getting 50k words and having fun. It's not specifically about producing amazing novels, it's about creativity, which in most people hasn't got an outlet the rest of the time.

It's good for people who "always wanted to write a novel" and never quite got around to it. For one month that's what you do, get around to it. There's no obligation to continue after November. If the novel is horrible and unsalvageable, big deal, it only took a month. If it took a year and was horrible, you'd feel you wasted a year writing it. A month? Big deal, blow it off, you had a laugh and learnt some new things.

And whatever quality your novel is at the end, it exists. It's 50, or however many thousands of words, and that means if you want to, you can work on it and turn it into something better. Isn't it better to have a not very good novel that you can try and turn into a good one, than not have one at all? You can edit everything except a blank page.

How?

Well...

You sit down and you write. Unless you prefer to write standing up or lying down, of course.

Seriously, it's really strange how easy it is when you have external encouragement (this site and anyone else you tell about your goal), an excuse to be really crazy, and a way of dealing with the issues of fear/doubt/etc., often found in the inner editor, but also other types of fear that are addressed in the book [i]The Courage to Write[/i] by Ralph Keyes.

Different people have different tricks for the inner editor. Some make it so they can't see what they are typing, others make the backspace key stop working in some manner, and so on. I have a good working relationship with my inner editor. She's terrified that I will leave in some truly awful things, so I appease her by making notes like (This sentence is crap. Fix later). Then, I move on, pretending that it's already fixed. I also do tend to fix grammatical and spelling mistakes. Some people think any pausing/correcting is working against them. But if I do a word war, and everything I write is just barely legible -- am I going to remember what I was trying to say when I go back to revise? If you're not planning on ever revising, then go ahead.

I also don't just stop at 50,000 words. I need to finish the novel. Otherwise, I don't know that I would finish it or ever get back to it. These days, I probably would, but the number of my started-not-finished novels far exceed my finished novels. Also, I think it's truer to the spirit of the rules: if we are allowed to start, but not finish, why aren't we allowed to finish, but not start? It's okay to have half/third/quarter of a novel, but only if it's the [i]first[/i] part of the book, not the middle third or last quarter. I figure if I can't start AND finish the novel, I didn't really win, even if I did write 50,000 words. This is especially important to me, since it's *finishing* the novel that's the hard part, and the part that I most need the external motivation for. If I don't finish the novel during NaNo, I probably never will.

There's nothing like this site and the sheer mass numbers of excited lunatics bemoaning their lost plots or celebrating their victories. Nothing at all. During November, I average around 2,000-3,000 words a day. The rest of the year, I'm delighted if I manage 2,000 a day, as it's usually closer to 800.

So for the most serious answer to the question: How? By embracing the madness. How that actually works, though... I think it's magic ;)

The Mirror Crack'd: Literary Dark Fantasy? Symbolism, Archetypal Plots, and Insanity, oh my! And, psst... what's with all the dwarves?

Not easily, I promise you. It takes hard determination, support of actual human beings in your life, the ability to function without sleep, and looooooooooooooottts of caffeine :D

NaNoWriMo 2006: A Raven's Song — Miserable failure. We don't talk about it.
NaNoWriMo 2007: Karina — WINNER! (51K)

Writing Blog: http://xxdaqu.blogspot.com

I just signed up today but I've heard of this challenge for the past year or so. I have a few questions and hopefully someone could answer them?

1. I thought I read somewhere that there's some writing formula using index cards and having yourself write a certain amount on each of them...was this an old part of NaNoWriMo or another writing challenge?

2. Outlines are allowed I've read...so basically anything that isn't prose is alright?

3. I'm not quite sure how to subscribe to these forums...help please?

4. Erm, I think that's everything. Sorry to butt in, but this was the first thread I checked out!

-Kore

A spin on Descartes (taken from Lexie-H): 'I write, therefore I am.'

1. Yes you can outline and plan all you'd like, but the rules say you can't use any material written before November. This is just outlining. I don't think it's a separate challenge. 0.o

2. Same as above really. You can't begin writing your story before November, but you can create an outline.

3. At the bottom of the initial post of the thread (the one with the subject) there is a button that says "subscribe." Click on that and you should get e-mail alerts. You'll know you're subscribed because after you press "subscribe" it changes to "unsubscribe."

4. Welcome to the NaNoWriMo forums! :) We are a vivacious, friendly community here. Feel free to post any writing samples and such you need critiqued on the critiques forum. I'm sure someone will give you thorough, helpful advice. : ) Hope to see you in November. : )

Thanks! I'm excited to be a part though It may take some tweaking...I just was told I have a road trip in November *bangs head against wall*

A spin on Descartes (taken from Lexie-H): 'I write, therefore I am.'

You can handwrite 50,000 words as well. You may not be able to get the official winner's certificate, but this challenge is more for the satisfaction of writing a lengthy piece of fiction in a month. : ) It's a blast. Also, I'll refer you to the "Newbies" forum. There are a lot of helpful people there that will welcome you with open arms and answer any questions you have! : )

I recently heard a published author say that it took a year to write a novel...I geuss it's not for everyone!

"Can History then be said to have an architecture, Hinton? The notion is most glorious and most horrible."

Yeah, but the goal of nano isn't to come out with something that can go straight to the publisher. It's to make a first draft in a month, which may take several months of rewriting and polish before it's a "finished" product.

----
2005: won!
2006: won!
2007: won!

http://kateness.wordpress.com

Last year was my first year to do NaNo and I wasn't sure if I could do it, either!

Really, you just have to sit down and do it. I came up with a pretty detailed outline last year - did one point per day (or tried... I think I ended up at 22-something points). Anyhow, each point was a next step on my outline. That way, I had something to write each day and some way to get the plot going.

You have to write 50,000 words in one month, and they're not always the best words! My first draft is going through it's first round of re-writing this summer and it's difficult for me. However, the point of NaNo is to prove to yourself that you can write it.

Good luck! I'll be eagerly doing it again this November!

Your friends will hopefully be supportive. My roommate is great about letting me have time and mania about my writing, which is awesome. Just be prepared (if you do it) that the only stuff coming out of your mouth during November will start with "In my novel..."

Unnamed Sequel - 2008
Aldys, Knight of the Third Age - 2007 - Winner!

It's not, but "writing a novel" and writing a first draft of a novel can mean two different things. Writing the first draft is just sitting down and pounding out the words. And doing 50,000 such words in one month is totally do-able.

The full process of writing a novel from getting the idea, to planning it, making an outline, researching it, writing the first draft, leaving it to settle for a little while, then editing and rewriting - that's what takes a year, or two or twenty.

Of course a person could take a year to write a first draft, it depends on the person, it depends on the time they have. You can write a novel if the only time you have to write is the two hours on Saturday the kids are out of the house, or the fifteen minutes each way on the train to work. As long as you keep slogging you'll get there in the end.

Don't think about writing a whole novel in a month. Instead, think of writing 50,000 words in a month--coherent words that have a main plot, a subplot and characters that carry out said plot. It's all about sitting down and just writing.

And when they say that it takes a year to write a novel, they probably mean that it takes a year to write a GOOD novel. In a month, you're just supposed to lay down your basics and flesh out ideas. At the end of the month, you may not like what you wrote, but you still did it.

"If everyone is thinking alike, then someone isn't thinking." - General George S. Patton, Jr.

First, you get your butt in a chair and a writing utensil like a computer or a piece of paper and a pencil. NO eraser. Then, you start. If you can do 2000 unedited crappy words a day for 30 days you get about 60,000 words. Viola! Success.

If you find yourself at 60,000 words on Nov. 30 but your novel isn't finished, submit it anyway and win the prize - a nifty icon for your blog.

For my last Nano novel I managed to type about 10,000 words in four different sessions and then limped in with the final 10,000 in a couple of weeks - fifteen minutes here, ten minutes there. It adds up. And, Most importantly, it's a blast! Great fun and if you haunt these forums like a vampire you can meet and read some fascinating people.

Enjoy!

Hokudai/Cast: - A Tri-lingual Podcast

Hokudai/Cast: - A Tri-lingual Podcast