NaNoWriMo

[Birol]

Okay, all you novelists who participated in NaNoWriMo this year, tomorrow is it. The last day. The big deadline. How'd you do? Are you going to make it? And why are you logged on here instead of writing?

[K.L. Townsend]

I failed! Go me!

I shouldn't even try. November is like my Doomsday month. This year I became very ill. I still am not quite right. Last year my dog almost died.

I am going to do my own in December, I think.

I hope you all did better than me!

[Maxinquaye]

It's a US thing, isn't it?

Haven't really thought about NaMoWriMo. :)

[Toothpaste]

Not really. It's more of an internet thing, which makes it international. I know a lot of Canadians who are doing it for example.

[Ellefire]

On course to win in the next hour or two, yes, I'm going to make it and I'm here whilst stewing on the next scene and the final 900 words of the challenge (although not the novel).

It's a sex scene. I'm crap at them.

[Bookdragonette]

And why are you logged on here instead of writing?
Because it's gone half ten over here, and I still have tomorrow to write slightly over 900 words. ;)

[Thump]

I'm about 5K away from winning and have two other Wrimos at my place :D We're all writing together even though one's already won *hmph*
I'm here because I've written about 1K words in over 5 hours >_< I can't seem to be able to write! I want to finish today so I can enjoy a bit of that "I won!" fun in the forums... I might do some more at work tomorrow ;) It's boring and doesn't pay well so I don't feel too guilty.

[bsolah]

I finished NaNoWriMo, got over the 50,000 word mark on Day 21, felt freaking great, printed off the first 50,000 and felt even better. Now I'm trying to finish the damn story but finding it hard to stay motivated.

[Birol]

I failed! Go me!

I shouldn't even try. November is like my Doomsday month. This year I became very ill. I still am not quite right. Last year my dog almost died.

I am going to do my own in December, I think.

I hope you all did better than me!

Ah, but that's the real lesson of WriMo, isn't it? How to sit down and write even when life is happening?

[K.L. Townsend]

Ah, but that's the real lesson of WriMo, isn't it? How to sit down and write even when life is happening?

It is. I'm not denying that, that's for sure ;)

But I've had so many things happen this month that I had to make some decisions. Writing is important to me, but other things had to take priority. Trying to get back on track now, though I know I won't make NaNo :)

[bearilou]

I failed like a failing thing what failed on the failingist day of fail. :flag:

Strangely, I'm okey with it. I've still gotten quite a bit written and I'm pleased with the direction of the story and while my pace wasn't breakneck, it was consistent so I'll just carry on with my fail-self and keep writing even though "NaNo" is over.

[Cassiopeia]

I finished it 6 days early. I'm very happy, having never attempted it before, as I thought people who did were nuts. And I was right about that, it's a crazy ride and to take it on when I'm in school and still job hunting was like..wow, crazy but it did get me to writing every day and I actually finished a story for the first time ever. When time allows I'll go back and fill in the empty spaces and polish it.

A very good experience for me.

[BenPanced]

Got the 50,000 words. Need to find the ending.

[spectrefox]

I've gotten to around 35k words total, because of school and such sucking up my time. That, and I tend to get distracted, especially by forums like this!

But all in all, all my friends and family (and myself) are proud of me, so it all works out :D

[Horserider]

I finished on the 17th. *is shot*

[Aggy B.]

Current word count is 52,325. Still have some bits to finish up to actually finish the novel but I'm not worried so much about that. I have the end written, it's just filling in a few scenes in the middle.

It was a lot easier this year. Which can only mean I'm getting better at working hard. :)

[thethinker42]

Won on the 13th, finished the book a week or so ago, then hit my goal of 100K after I started another book.

I heart NaNo. It's what got me writing consistently - and consistently fast - last year, and I'm still riding that momentum. Great discipline-builder.

[Bubastes]

A fail for me this year, which is a first (I won the previous two times I did it) and despite a strong first week because I was on furlough. I learned that day jobs can mess up the best of plans. But it did make me realize that I have to make some more drastic changes in other areas of my life to work on my writing goals. NaNo was the wake-up call I needed.

[Sandy Shin]

I failed. Gave up pretty early on because I hadn't planned well enough and just couldn't go on aimlessly. I've learned now to at least have the first few chapters outlined before charging headlong into a novel. :)

[CheekyWench]

Won on the 19th. Now I'm going back through it and filling it in and editing. I had so much fun.

[Cliff Face]

Finished on day 11, then took another 18 days to get the other 50k. 100k with 1 day to spare, but going to write some more today to try and keep the momentum going. I figure if I hit 105k then that's 3.5k a day exactly.

It's 1.10pm on the last day, here in South Australia.

Book looking to be about 130k before edits, where I'll finally feel confident in removing unneccesary things. Previous books were 65k so I didn't want to chop anything, even though I could tell they needed it. Not sure what I'm going to do about those books, but current one is more or less ideal for me (apart from needing to be edited a bit...).

My best day this year was 7k, and my best sprint (15 minutes) was 858. Very shocked to have achieved that, and very happy. :D

[AnnieColleen]

Won on the 9th (impromptu dare from someone in my region), 100k on the 26th, THE END yesterday. I really like my ending, and I finally think I have an editable draft to go forward with.

[Rushie]

I finished it a couple days ago. Amazed that 1) I actually finished a novel draft for the first time in my life and 2) how utterly horrible it is. But I am ecstatic. Getting ready to revise and rewrite and then I'm gonna submit it somewhere.

[Rhoda Nightingale]

I made it! Finished on Friday, printed a hard cover at Kinko's this afternoon. (For revisions, etc.) I'm pretty astonished at the fact that I actually got it done. Just goes to show what you can do if you really put your mind to it.

[Melenka]

Started on 11/3 and passed the finish line today. For NaNo, anyway. The book just under 2/3 done, I think. Last year, I did 90k in a month, but I had to reintroduce myself to friends and family afterward. This year, I went in with a definite plan, established characters and the knowledge that I can finish writing novels (this will be my fourth and the fifth shall be the one I set aside to do NaNo). It is a fine motivator, and I've enjoyed the heck out of it, but I don't know if I'll do it again. There's nothing wrong with writing slowly. :)

[Karen Mathis]

Congratulations, everyone who won! And everyone who didn't. Even if you didn't win, you deserve huge props for even attempting this ridiculous challenge.

I won! It felt like more of an uphill climb to me this year, from some reason, perhaps because I got a slow start due to being sick the first week. But I did make it.

[erinbee]

'nother failure here, but seeing as I had bronchitis, was grieving a death in the family, and had to turn in my contracted book on an expedited schedule by the 15th, I don't feel so bad about it.

Still, the novel voices are starting to come back...*looks at calendar*

[Snowstorm]

Congrats to all the winners and a big congrats for those who at least tried!

I got my win on the 19th, but kept at since my goal is the whole novel up to 75,000 words. So I've been pushing all along. I think I have my last subplot to work in, which is the job tomorrow. I hope to hit the 75,000, but if it's shorter than that, well okay. The novel will be very close to complete novel length. I have tidbits to research and add and a long list of little things to add, so the complete length after a good editing should be around 75,000.

Tomorrow. is it :cry: :e2bummed:

But I'm READY for it to be over!

[BenPanced]

For the first time ever since I first signed up for NaNo in 2004?

I actually did the magic 1667 words. Exactly. Even though I don't really need the word count, hitting 50,000 back on the 22nd, I still try to do 1667 or more each day just to keep up the pace.
But I'm READY for it to be over!
Can I get an "amen" in the house? I just have not been feeling this year's work, wavering back and forth on going ahead until I finish it or abandoning it on Dec. 1 for the WIP I was rewriting and editing back on Oct. 31.

[GeorgieB]

I managed to eke out something over 50K words a couple of days early, and therefore "won" the NaNo.

But, after downloading the certificate and the winners badges, I deleted the whole stinking thing. It was absolutely the worst thing I've ever written, even worse than the computer user manuals in my previous working life.

Still, it was a good exercise in FOC/BIC---writing to keep pace to finish in the month, even though the story that I thought I had was falling apart as I wrote it. Who would have thought that a mystery/suspense story with 3 men, 2 women, murder, sex and money would be hard to write?

I mentioned in another thread that the one good thing that happened during the writing is that an idea popped into my head for another story. Hope that one turns out better.

[rosiroo]

I got to 50K in the second week, and then got another 10K out. Next year I'm going for 100K in a month. Had no idea it was going to be so easy. Still have at least another 30K to go before I'm done, though...

[Phaeal]

I used it this year to motivate me to finish a rough first draft. Said rough first draft was finished after 36,000 words. So I stopped short of the 50,000. ;)

[fov]

I finished on Saturday. This was my first NaNoWriMo and after spending about six years writing and revising my novel (revisions are almost done!!), writing a manuscript in a month was hugely satisfying. On Saturday after I did the verification I was walking around the house grinning -- what a great feeling.

In January I plan to read it over and decide if it's worth continuing to work on. Hard to say at this point. It's a pretty crappy first draft. :D

(And I'm also glad it's over. Working on this every day was great from a discipline and productivity perspective, but after 28 straight days I need a break!)

[Aidan Watson-Morris]

I WON! So, next up is...NaNoEdMo. Query agents, but still use CreateSpace offer anyway. Query more agents. Query more agents. Submit to publishers who don't require agented submissions. Query more agents. Start on sequel. Query even more agents. Sleep. Query.

[year90ninezero]

Won't win. Have 32000 words on the month, maybe have a little closer to 35000 by midnight. S'okay though, had a super busy thxgiving week/end.

[Blondchen]

This was my first - and last - NaNo. I won but MAN it was tough. I'm not cut out for that kind of insanity!

[benbradley]

I made it yesterday, and fairly much amazed myself. Two weeks ago I was a much as 10k or 14k behind schedule. I was already going to about four write-ins a week and doing almost all my writing at those, so I decided to go to every write-in I could. That "paid off."

The whole thing has been rather expensive for me (Okay, i get to keep the material things I bought, but I probably wouldn't have bought them without having decided to "get serious" about winning this year's nanowrimo):

Toshiba netbook/laptop: brand new $349+tax

IBM Model M "Space Saver" keyboard (old PS/2 clicky computer keyboard without numeric pad, about 3 or 4 inches less wide than a "standard" desktop computer keyboard): $80 on ebay

PS/2-keyboard-and-mouse to USB interface: $8.99

"nanolanta 09" jersey shirt (see pic about halfway down the page: http://nanolanta.org/): $25

"SPACE SAVER" t-shirt I finally bought only last week, found weeks earlier when looking for The Keyboard: $25 with shipping, and it hasn't even arrived yet. I was wanting to wear it to a write-in, but maybe I'll get to wear it to a TGIO party.

Gas to get to write-ins: Several hundred dollars. Each write-in is probably 50 miles each way average, and even at 30+ miles per gallon,

It also cost me whatever else I could have or would have done with the time, which most likely would have been making more snarky posts here on AW.

But now I can say "I did it," and that and $2 and change will get me the most basic "brewed coffee" at any of these Starbucks and other fancy coffee places I wrote at. Woops, I didn't add coffee and food (Atlanta Bread Company has great food!), another expense...at least the WiFi was "free."

I had a fleeting thought near the end of getting to 50,000 words of being a "modern renaissance man" (darn it, domain is already taken (http://modernrenaissanceman.com/)) - I've built two guitars from scratch, I've run races, sprint triathlons and an Olympic distance tri and a half marathon, and now I've "written a novel" (using extremely exaggerated fingers as double quotemarks). All that, combined with $2 and change, will get me...


ETA: And I have two patents in my name (as inventor, not assignee). That also makes about the same contribution to a cup of coffee.

[benbradley]

It's a US thing, isn't it?

Haven't really thought about NaMoWriMo. :)
I suppose it started as US only, but as I'm sure the people who run it will tell you, it "quickly spread around the world" and they have local-regions discussion boards for not only every region in the USA, but for most other countries.

I suppose they started out with the nanowrimo.org website and didn't want to change over to intmowrimo.org.

And even within the genres forums, there's a new "rebels" forum this year for those writing something other than a novel (non-fiction, memoir or whatever). Once you make a forum for those who are breaking the rules, are they really breaking the rules anymore?

[Cliff Face]

Yeah, it's International, otherwise I wouldn't be in the South Australia forum. :)

Meanwhile, NaNo is now 9 hours over for me, and I reached 102k, which was 4th highest in my region.

I beat both of my MLs :D. Of course, the highest in region is a contentious point, being someone who didn't start until day 9, then had a 40k day, and went on and on like that, first having a 60k day, then losing 80k, then having a 20k day... so yeah, in the last week she doubled her word count from 112k to 224k... methinks she's a liar, and so do the MLs...

[Aidan Watson-Morris]

I come back to this now and I have to ask -

What is this doing in the Novels forum?

[bettielee]

I made it! 50k + in 22 days. I am giving myself until Dec 22nd to finish the whole novel.

:)

[t.c.laing]

I didn't make it :cry: Started late, then life took over. Was sick last week --- and still had to cook for Turkey Day.

BUT - I did end up with the start of an interesting (middle grade?) book, so I think I'm going to keep going with it.

[NicoleMD]

I reached 50k yesterday (with a little help from padding) :D
I've got 15k of story left, and can't wait until I get to the climax. I think this is my favorite story so far and it's hard to believe I didn't have the idea for it until October 31st!

Nicole

[eveningstar]

Hit 50k on the 17th, finished actual draft yesterday at just over 80k.

Will likely put it away and take it out to revise in January.

[katiemac]

Didn't make it. Didn't even get close. December, though, will be my make up NaNo, just in time to fit in with 2010 goals.

[scarletpeaches]

Made it with 45 minutes to spare. Excel says I'm 63% through my novel with just under 80k expected.

[Cliff Face]

I come back to this now and I have to ask -

What is this doing in the Novels forum?

It's in the Novels forum to gently ease us nutjobs back into civilised society. :D

[scarletpeaches]

National Novel Writing Month.

The clue is in the title.

[bsolah]

I guess Aidan is asking this because we do have a dedicated NaNoWriMo forum, but I guess we do have to rejoin our non-NaNoing novelists, report back on how our quest went, and it's nice to get some feedback and back patting from our peers.

Oh and a kick up the ass to finish the thing.

[Cliff Face]

"Oh and a kick up the ass to finish the thing."

I totally need that. I've spent all morning fantasising about opinion-writing - like, a non-fiction to go alongside all those global warming books that seem to be taking over the science section of my local bookshop.

I still have 30k to write on this behemoth! *cries* I can't write about political issues just yet, no matter how opinionated I am right now after having been at the shopping centre... long story, never mind.

Meanwhile, the morning had a silver lining. Sort of. I went to my coffee shop, and ordered my super tasty iced coffee (seriously, the things are great) - but this coffee shop uses a computer screen system, so your first name appears next to your order in a big list down by the espresso machines.

Well, my name got bumped accidentally, so I was waiting for twenty minutes while it was busy, until I realised two people who came in well after me just got their drinks. I spoke to the boss, who knows me sort of (I'm a regular) and he said he must've bumped my order by accident, so he got my drink made up straight away instead of putting me back on the list, which was good, but it gets better. He gave me a free upgrade to a large because of my hassles. Now that's service! Silver... lining...

I'm still feeling opinionated though, which is bad. :(

[bsolah]

I let myself get opinionated and blogged this morning, to get it off my chest and it felt good.

And kind of allowed me to get back to the novel. 200 reasonably quick flowing words on the current chapter which isn't too bad considering the last couple of days.

[Cliff Face]

Hmm, maybe I should write my article... but I think if I do I'm just going to want to write a different book...

[BigWords]

As far as wordcount goes, which is the point of NaNoWriMo, I won.

The quality threshold however...

[bsolah]

The quality threshold however...

You and most of us.

I'm not sure about the quality of mine, but the story is ok, if messy and there's some raw scenes in there to work with.

[DamaNegra]

Well, today I hit my 150k wordcount, and I'm so happy I don't even know what to do. I already made myself a huge bowl of delicious oatmeal as a treat, and now I guess I'll get the first full night sleep in the month. Yay for NaNo! :D

Also, I'm in Mexico, and there are many more of us. I've seen people from Japan, Phillipines, South Africa, China, Russia, Brazil, Chile etc. so it's definitely not a US thing.

[Katrina S. Forest]

For the first time ever since I first signed up for NaNo in 2004?

Yea, another '04 person! I felt like an old veteran this year. Everyone seemed to be NaNoing for their first, second, or third year, but I did see many 6-year people on the forums. Congrats!

[Thump]

I signed up in 2004 but this year is the first time I've won. It's not very good but it's something to work with and I've figured out something plot points and noticed where there were some mistakes and problems I need to work on to make it into a stronger story :) I still have to write more than half the story but it's a beginning.

I'm so sleepy though, I'm considering hiding under my dess (at work now) and having a nap. Also, my left wrist is in really bad pain :( I love NaNo :D

[Me&BacchusGoIntoABar]

Did it.

[GeorgieB]

National Novel Writing Month.

The clue is in the title.


Party pooper!

I just typed "The End" and that was that.

[bsolah]

My first attempt was in 2004 too.

[Bubastes]

My first NaNo was in 2001. Then I didn't write another one until 2008.

[DamaNegra]

My first attempt was in 2006 and I lost. I've come a long way since then.

[Cliff Face]

This was my first NaNo... I didn't even know about NaNo until I came to this site, and I only signed up for this one about 3 days before it started. Still, it was a lot of fun, and I was about 8 times more productive than usual...

My previous best was 25k in 10 days, which I thought was really good, and then I did 50k in 11 days for this. I've set new highs all along the way, and damn it feels good.

If only I had managed to finish the first draft... sigh.

[Karen Mathis]

I'm a sixth-year, too. Practically an old hat at this by now. :-)

[AuburnAssassin]

My first attempt and my first win and I couldn't be happier. I hit the word count on the 17th and finished the same date. I will be doing this again next year.

[Rose English]

I wrote just over the 50K on about the 22nd, got it verified and stopped. I didn't want to spend any more time on something which I can rip apart for bits but clearly will never make a coherent 'whole'.

Very useful exercise though. In this, my second year, I have discovered that I need to plan and mull over and outline, pantsing generates lots of 'where did that come from' stuff. I also discovered that I don't like writing 2350 words per day, and nor do my wrists.

[AnnieColleen]

In this, my second year, I have discovered that I need to plan and mull over and outline, pantsing generates lots of 'where did that come from' stuff.

Yep, this is me, too. Or else I just block up entirely. This year's NaNo was a lot better for me, though, since I went into it with most of an outline, and plot points all the way through the end. Now to re-outline and see what I have...

[benbradley]

National Novel Writing Month.

The clue is in the title.
Yeah - the title "AW Supermod" of the OP. This thread can be anywhere it wants to be.