Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Is anyone doing it?

I just signed up. I must be losing my mind if I really think I'm going to do it, since I don't even know what to write about...but, hey, maybe! I may end up writing something that isn't really a novel. Who knows?

Have you ever done it before? I've been doing it for years and I LOVE it! It really kicks my asparagus into gear and forces me to write, whereas normally I'm way too insecure and I talk myself out of actually doing any writing. Plus the Boston region has an amazing community. You should check out the boards for your area to see if they host any events, because those are so much fun!

I love NaNoWriMo. I will never forget how it felt to finish a novel for the first time, and that was seven years ago.

Unfortunately, it falls in a really busy month for me at work and this year, I just don't have it in me to participate. But I highly recommend it to all.

Good luck and have fun!

Nope, I've never done it before. I always have friends who are doing it and it sounds like so much fun, and I really want to write something...I just don't know what I want to write!

My sister was talking about doing this, I'm not really a good writer and I'm way too busy with school, but it sounds like a cool idea.

This exactly. . .

I was all set to do it. I have a synopsis and everything, but my responsible adult self is preemptively finger wagging at my creative self that there's no way I'll have time to do this and work on the research I want to try to get published this winter. Booo.

I've tried for two years and failed both times. This year I'm determined to finish it! ... even though I haven't got a single idea yet. But I think I like that better. Last year I had every single chapter thought out and I was kind of bored writing it and just gave up (granted, I wasn't in a very good place at the time either). This year I think I'm just going to sit down and write. It'll be fantasy - it's always fantasy - and there'll probably be some political aspect, but I refused to plan this month. Which means I'll probably fail, but hey, at least I'll fail in a different way than I did last year!

Good luck to everyone else, I'm looking forward to it!

yay! this will be my second year - I say just sit down and write and see what comes out - I didn't even know people planned out chapters and stuff - daaaamn

Excellent! This is my fifth year doing it - this is my first year writing with a child though, so I'm worried about winning this year...

I'll be doing it for the first time this year. I've meant to do it every year since I was thirteen, but I always miss it for some reason.

I'm doing it. I'm hoping to win this year because last year was a miserable fail. I feel insane for attempting this and MoFo among other things.

I'm doing it. I failed last year because I was sick, but I'm so going to make it this time.
In case anyone wants to add me as their writing buddy, my NaNo name is Anathema Device (after the young witch in Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, and also my BookCrossing name). :)

The only thing that worries me about this is the fact that you have to upload your novel after it is done, to prove that you've done it. I'm really paranoid it will get stolen, even if it turns out to be utter crepe.

I'm starting to be a little nervous. I have an idea... but fork me sideways, it's NOT a fantasy story! It takes place in the real world, and there's no magic, no alternate dimensions, no made up anything. Actual people. This is a problem for me! The one thing I could always rely on is that if I needed something to be possible, I could just decide that in that world, it was possible! I've finished six (almost seven) really awful stories with that logic! How am I going to bullshiitake my way out of plotholes when it takes place in the real world?!

Anyway, good luck all. It's sunday evening here at the moment, so I have one more night and then it's on, baby.

I don't write, but I know several professional writers, and given how much time they put into writing a novel I do not understand how anyone could write anything substantial (and good) in a month!

Whenever I need a way out of a plothole, I play ideas ping pong with a friend. Talk it back and forth over a beer (or coffee or chai latte or whatever) until it's resolved! It totally works, and I've come up with some really crazy (but working and plausible) ideas that way. All it needed was the right sort of nudge from a like-minded friend.

They address this somewhere in the FAQ--it essentially just goes into server RAM to get counted, and then gets deleted.

However, something they suggest if you are worried about that is to save a copy of your novel and do a find and replace where you go through and replace letters with another letter (IE change every A to a J and every S to a W or something) or replace real words with made-up ones. The computer that does the word count validation isn't checking if your words are REAL, just if they're there.

Also, you don't HAVE to upload and show you did it. That's just how you get the big winner badge on your forum page and that kind of stuff. If you don't care about that, then no worries!

I didn't see this in the FAQ. I actually feel a lot better now. The replacement letter thing is great idea. Thank you.

I think the website even talks about the fact that it's probably going to be crepe, but I guess it's about proving that you can write so many words in 30 days.

Also, the NaNo page tells you somewhere that you shouldn't expect having written a finished novel at the end of November. It's good practice, and you may have a finished rough draft. If it's good, you can spend more time revising it, and...voilà.

Ok, I changed my mind for the time being. I'm in. Again.

Oh, NaNoWriMo, I can't quit you.

Yeah, the idea is to bypass the internal critical editor and all the excuses so that you finish something, and that that success will begat more success.

I was planning to do it, but I a, too far behind on school work. I will do it on my own I. January.

That makes more sense! I've never read up on it (seriously, when I say "I don't write" what I really mean is "I am the least creative person ever, so I couldn't write fiction even if I wanted to"), but the notion of writing a novel in 30 days has always blown my mind.

I spilled half a liter of coke on my MacBook during the first day of Nanowrimo. I had almost 700 words and now I have to start over. I'm so pissed off. (And I'm not even mentioning the fact that my MacBook is dead, which is seriously... so painful.) I'm trying to get it back together, I'm at 300 words now, but it feels like it's not going to happen for me this year.

I must pick it up tomorrow!