Hey, everyone! I have a problem. I'm already 50,000 words into my novel (NOT from this month, thank goodness), and it's nowhere near done. Would you consider it an acceptable us of NaNoWriMo to write the NEXT 50,000 words this month? That's faster than I've ever written before, but I'm not a plotter at all, so everything I've done so far is basically a free write.
I have no idea where my plot is going and am hoping that by churning out a beginning, middle, and end, I'll have something to work with. But first, we need plots, right? Then comes good writing? That's the philosophy of NaNoWriMo, as far as I can tell...
Thanks for being motivated future novelists! I'm excited!
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36,005 / 50,000
nov. 6, 2009 - 03 56
I don't see why that would be a problem from my mind, But I wouldn't (if I were you) post any of the words that you wrote before the beginning of November. The word count doesn't know how to distinguish old from new text so you would appear to have "completed" the challange before it even started.
Strictly speaking I know that it is supposed to be a new work for the month, but I don't think any rule is hard and fast except the 50,000 words in 30 days bit..
Good luck
42,386 / 50,000
nov. 6, 2009 - 04 39
Markath,
The infamous rebel that started this madness 11 years ago actually wrote a book that you can get at various places, even this web site. Its title is rather telling. It is " No Plot? ... No Problem! " The title pretty much sums up the situation. You don't have to have a plot worked out. You just have to be willing to put your critical, tyrannical, overly meticulous internal editor in a kennel somewhere for the month of November while you go out and WRITE.
The plot will develop as you allow the characters you describe interact. The quality will, maybe, improve. Then, again, maybe not. The point is, regardless of plot and/or quality, you need to WRITE! The other parts will take care of themselves as you get the words on the page.
Strive as hard as you can to make the word count goal of averaging 1,700 words a day. Some days you will get more. GO FOR IT! ! ! ... Other days you will get less. Make up for it by writing more the next day. ... Some days you will get none. ... Regardless, keep writing and writing lots to force yourself to average at least 1,700 words a day. The mere act of writing every day like that will cause you to adapt to writing in ways that will bring a plot. It will cause you to improve in the quality of your writing. The important thing, however, is that you WRITE!
In the past I have had a story well worked out in my head before November 1st. The first story reached 50,000 words before the end of the story, so I wrapped up what I had with an ending of sorts, and that was my NaNo Novel that year. The next year, I picked up where I had left off and I finished the story in a little over 50,000 words. The third year, I had an idea that I thought would work. It had a story line, of sorts, with an ending, the details I had yet to figure out, and it worked. There are lots of chapters in the book that I never knew about until they came out of my fingers and onto the keyboard. But still I had a rough idea of the story before I started.
This year I know what the Main Character ( MC ) is going to get involved in, a few interesting characters the MC is going to meet along the way, exactly how I don't know but it will work out, and I know the ' Life Lesson ' the MC is going to learn, but I don't know how he's going to learn it. That will come as I get the words on the page. The stream of words will make the nuggets of characters and plot flow onto the page. I know NOT where they currently hide or what they look like, I just know that they are there. The only way to get to them is for me to dig through 50,000 words. They wil get dug up in the process.
The thing is I have to write. Good, bad, or indifferent I HAVE TO WRITE. ... So do you. ... So take what little you have to go on, be it character name, situation, locale, or song that you keep remembering for no reason, and start writing about it. The rest will come. And 24 days from now you will have a 50,000 word novel to show us.
BeaJay -- The Wordsmith Wannabe
----------BeaJay -- The WordSmith Wannabe
2006 - "The Vision of Second Samuel"
2007 - "Second Samuel's Vision Revealed"
2008 - "Perry Normel fun with Liu Syd Dreaming"
2009 - "Winning by Way of Losing"
50,188 / 50,000
nov. 8, 2009 - 14 18
You've got a lot of wordy replies, but really they cover it. You can write the next part for NaNo if you want.
Some may think it's cheating, but really, NaNo is about writing, as long as it's fiction. Some may frown on continuing an idea, but many do the same as you, trying to work out something that has begun to fade out.
So go for it, and good luck!
----------WTF, Zamboni isn't in my spellchecker.
Keystrokes and Caffeine, my blog <3
43,839 / 50,000
nov. 9, 2009 - 20 47
The only caveat is that some people find it harder to lock up their inner editor and just let the words fly when they're working on a story they'd already invested a lot in before the start of the month. That's the real reason why participants are encouraged to start a whole new story for the month; it's not because it's 'cheating' so much as because most people tend to get better results by starting fresh. But just keep telling yourself 'I can delete any or all of it when I'm done if I want, I'm not hurting the story by spending the remaining 700 words I need to get today's quota talking about cell phone plans' and you should be fine. :-)