Welcome to NaNoWriMo! If this is your first year, please don't be overwhelmed. You don't have to attend every event, nor compete in every word war, nor read every posting. Remember, all of this support is to help you write 50,000 words during the month of November, so use what works for you.
As November approaches, I hope you're getting ready for write-ins, word wars and writing, writing, and more writing.
There are three Municipal Liaisons (MLs) for the Naperville Region (Two of us live outside Naperville, by the way.) Please don't hesitate to ask us any quesitons that you may have... we're here to help.
What did you do in the last ten months? Did you take breaks from writing, or did you work on draft after draft after draft? Have you plotted out this year's novel, or are you still wondering where to start?
If you succeeded last year, what worked well for you? If you didn't make it to 50,000, any thoughts on what might make a difference this year?
What are you most looking forward to?
For myself, I can't wait to get rid of that very annoying 0 in the wordcount box. Seriously, I want it gone!
Katherine
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11,000 / 50,000
Okt 6, 2009 - 18 51
If you succeeded last year, what worked well for you? If you didn't make it to 50,000, any thoughts on what might make a difference this year?
What are you most looking forward to?
For myself, I can't wait to get rid of that very annoying 0 in the wordcount box. Seriously, I want it gone!
Katherine
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I know the feeling! Everyday I get on and see the little '0' up there, it just seems to be taunting me! But, alas, I shall over coming the taunting and make it to November without writing a single word for my book! (Lord willing, haha ;D)
All I know if that last year, I made it to 50,006 words with about.. two hours to go until the deadline? This year, I hope to sit myself down more and WRITE! I did miss quite a few write-ins (I only made it to one) and I think that impacted me a lot. I didn't have anyone else around to really encourage me to write more!
If you're going to do NaNo, find a writing buddy! Even if you have to use the forums on here to do it. ;D It'll help a lot more.
----------Send the Troops Your Love
"To shrug." - Ayn Rand
69,844 / 50,000
Okt 8, 2009 - 10 41
All of my life people have been telling me that I need to write, but so far I have only diddled at it. I'm one of those "someday I'll write a novel" people that NaNo had in mind.
I will be writing with my 10 and 7 yo daughters. Their writing is scheduled into their school curriculum, which should make it work for them. We've done practice word count days and they love it.
I, on the other hand, expect to find myself locked in the laundry room writing frantically with the green crayon that I found in the junk drawer at O'dark thirty on November 29th. In spite of spending the last 2 months on plot and character development, I anticipate that my inner editor will need to be incarcerated in a maximum security facility in order for me to get past page 6. I also suspect that my preference for pencils and spiral notebooks over Word Perfect might be a hang up.
I've never been part of a writing group, much less done a write-in or word war. But NaNo might just be insane enough to work for me.
S
161,790 / 50,000
Okt 8, 2009 - 12 41
I've been kicking around two novel ideas for over half a year. I *think* I'm going to work on the mainstream novel about a group in Edinburgh who are performing an improv show. It's not quite a sequeal to last year's--more of another in a similar vein with a couple of the same characters and the same setting, but lots that's new and different including that it does not take place in 24 hours like I wrote it last year. (Which was an interesting challenge and I'm torn about that as well.)
At least, that's been the plan. But, right now, I'm wondering if I should be plotting out the SF one about a woman who is chasing a shape-shifting alien. I jotted down ideas and setting for that back in early summer and there are aspects of the story that intrique me, but the more I read about having a SF universe and reasons for aliens acting the way they do, the less it interests me. Then again, I could quite worrying about the motivations and write and see what happens.
I'm torn, with my biggest worry that I'll dither between the two and not buckle down and scope out the scenes for at least one of them like I've done before--which has worked well for me in the past. I find it very useful to come up with at least 20 scenes and the order of them--even the timing. Little stuff like 'this happens on Tuesday.' 'and this'. Two days later, this.... I find when I'm writing, then, I can write the scene and not worry about what day it is, how much time has passed, etc. I can check all that quickly. I usually write a few words on a calendar to help track what happens when. (Like - Main chars meet. Fight about X. etc.)
I think part of what's going on is I need to make some decisions and move on them. It's probably time to stop dithering.
161,790 / 50,000
Okt 29, 2009 - 03 56
Is anyone else considering being awake at 2:00 a.m. on the 1st, write for an hour, then have the clocks set back--so you can write for the same hour twice? Or is that just my daughter's notion of a good time? (Then again, my idea of a good time is to wake up at 4 or so, start writing, and stay up for the day. )
Who is staying up past midnight to start writing?
Katherine