And maybe i'm a little too skeptical here, but i figured i was probably in the company of the latter and the former in this forum over any of the others- But is anyone else skeptical about these people who post four hundred thousand, hell two hundred thousand words by the 30th? Some in the fantasy sect breaking 50k in the first three or four days? Is this real- are they really writing this ALL in November? Somebody, anybody back me up here, let me know i'm not inadequate- this is only my second go at it, after all. i understand this is all on the honor system but... It's just that I haven't seen ANYTHING on the forums questioning this. Do these people write while they're sleeping? Or do they just take a lot of ecstacy and mushrooms and write what they see for the whole month?
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Wait, what did I do? ...I signed up for what? ...Again?
50,224 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2007 - 12 56
I wrote 100k words in 2004. I could have written 200k or more (i'd considered it at one point), though I'd have had to give up any sort of coherency whatsoever. It can be done, although probably not by those who have a job, school, or other obligations to take much time out. Unless their job entails glancing out the window occasionally, anyway.
I actually wrote this year's nano only writing around two hours a day every day, sometimes three tops if the writing was going slower than usual.
50,064 / 50,000
Dec 2, 2007 - 08 02
Despite my wordcount, I wrote 70k this month (I started over), I have four children, all of which were ill during November. And I took a couple of days off.
3k a day is 90k for the month. 4k a day is 120k. I have quite a few 4k days and even a couple of 5k days. My first year, I wrote 17k in less than three days (including an overnighter). 5k a day - which, if you don't work, is entirely possible - would give you a final word count of 150k. So it's not impossible.
57,727 / 50,000
Dec 2, 2007 - 09 41
I reached 50K "without hardly trying" by the 19th, writing casually for an hour or two a day, sometimes more, picking it up whenever I had a few minutes (I'm also a very fast typist and own an AlphaSmart) and as soon as I realized I was going to make it, easy, I kind of slacked off, so I probably could have doubled that. In fact, the thought occurred to me on about the 12th--"Hey! I could finish by the 15th and start another novel and have 100K!" -- but I decided I didn't want to work that hard, so I'm a Lazy WriMo according to the WriMo Types thread.
I have a husband and three children living at home, several commitments outside the home, and a part-time job which I usually work on at home.
I also buried my Internal Editor on the 1st of the month, and a lot of what I wrote will never see the light of day because it Isn't Good Enough. My novel has very little plot; I just wrote, and wrote, and wrote, whatever came into my head that had anything to do with the MC's life.
There was one day when I got over 7K words. I think I really got involved in that particular day's episode and kept going, probably ignoring everything else I ought to have been doing at the time. Of course, this was more than just an hour or two of work.
It might well be possible for a single person with few other responsibilities, or a very determined attitude, to write 100 or 200K.
I too ask myself occasional questions about the 300-400K people. If they really are writing that much, I wonder what else they have time to do? If they aren't, and are just posting a bunch of nonsense (cut-and-paste?) then one must realize this: they are hurting no one but themselves. They aren't hurting ME.
And maybe they are really just very, very dedicated writers who had four to six hours a day to write, for 30 days straight, and did so. Perhaps this is the only time of the year they allow themselves such a luxury.
That's one thing I like about NaNoWriMo--even the very prolific writers don't get recognized ahead of those who barely reached 50K. I had wondered how the "winners" would be posted. Would they be listed according to sheer word count? When I went to the winners' section I began looking for my name and went through page after page after page and couldn't find "me." Finally I noticed that the winners are posted in order by when they signed up. I didn't sign up till October 16. When I found the page that had October 16 on it, there I was.
It really is quite a well designed self-rewarding system.