NaNoWriMo 2009, FFFFFFFFF-

Bugger me, is it really this late in the year again? Good grief, I turn 21 soon. But I digress. It's October, the month before November! And November for all of us aspiring writers is the month where we go all out in word count spam and produce arguably the most we do all year in our efforts to start and finish a massive story. This'll be my fifth no, sixth year. I'm hoping to make it past half way this time.

So this topic is to remind everyone that NaNo is on again and to sign up for it, and also a place to discuss our various ideas and brainstorm up some cool stuff with the other writers in the crowd. I for one have a pretty good setting and plotline about ready to go, though it could definitely use some refining.

For the rest of you sorry losers who don't know what this NaNo thing is, here's the website.

I'm so doing it! I'm gonna rework my concept from last year, the same concept I'm also currently adapting into a video game for my independent study. It's gonna be a total mindscrew. A girl is trapped in a dream world inside her own head, trying to find her way out of her school, which slowly morphs into a Gothic castle as designed by M.C. Escher. Along the way, she battles personifications of her inner demons and learns things about herself.

Not that I plan to participate, due to the fact that I always get stuck/bored of my own writing, but I find it ironic that a lot of people's midterms also happen to be around this month. I mean, talk about inconvenient timing.

Lucky for me, my midterms are this month, not November. Although last year, in Italy, my bloody finals were right during the end of NaNo. Talk about stress! I pulled a bloody allnighter at one point to get caught up on words. Fun times. But, ah, yeah, November isn't the most convenient of months.

Ah, if only I had a greater attention span. And if only I wasn't lazy. Oh well. Maybe next year.

Due to the struggle I had last year, I'm in two minds. I dabbled with ideas here and there over the summer, but there's this whole big other project I've got planned, and I figured; why not do it over NaNoWriMo?

I'm gonna set it down to 25k, then build it up slower and slower until I can reach 50k. I'm unsure of whether to use this project I've got planned; I don't want to repeat last year and have it become something where I HAVE to do it, like schoolwork. I want to ENJOY doing it.

tldr: We'll see.

Unfortunately, taking 17 credits has not agreed with my scheduling, and I hardly get so much as half an hour a day to sit down and relax, much less write. I'm not in the mood for the story I started last NaNo, so I don't know if I'll be able to give it a shot this year, regrettably.

This year, I mean to try writing the story I meant to do last year but never did.

Still, I have slightly more faith in myself this time around - not because of any perceived increase in my writing skills, though, but because I've developed my ideas more.

Explain this to me again, as you people do every year. How, exactly does anyone know that what's written in NaNoWri submission is actually WRITTEN during the month of November and not just worked on steadily all year?

And if it's not all expected to be written in November, why do you guys wait UNTIL November? <_<


Not doing it, I don't write well under those sorts of conditions.

It's an honor system thing. Yeah, you can work on something all year and then use those words as part of your word count, but you're doing this for yourself and for your own sense of accomplishment. It's lying to yourself, basically. YOU know you haven't followed the rules of NaNo, so you feel guilty.

I mean, basically, NaNo is for those of us who need the pressure of a deadline to really get motivated to write. So if you need that sort of kick in the butt, you're willing to follow the rules and have them be your incentive.

Ahh... I was pretty sure it was the honour-system, but not sure. I've never actually participated in NaNo 'cause of the conditions. I can write to a deadline once I have the story and plot, but there's no way I can put together something from scratch come the middle-end of october and go from first-drafts to finished product by the 30th. Or, at least not do that and feel proud of what I've accomplished X_X

Upon reflection, doing a GS themed Wuxia seems simultaneously pretentious (even though Wuxia is basically asian pulp fiction), arrogant (I've seen the movies, but I've never read the books in the style) and lulzy (it requires Garet to be accomplished at not one, but several things)

... I really should do NaNo sometime. If only I could come up with plots, not just settings and characters.

Ahhh, but Sunny, it doesn't have to be final version ready. It could just be a half-finished draft that you can pad out and edit once the timeline is up - in fact, that's recommended. NaNo is just about churning out as many words as possible, and the editing comes later. If it had to be publishable material by the end of the month, well, I'd never have a hope in hell of finishing considering how many times I reread and edit.

Not gonna participate. Maybe I'll use it for inspiration to write my own short story or something, though. Good luck to all writers who are writing!

I'm participating this year, and aiming for the full 50k rather than the 25k I did this year. I've had a general idea since friggin' January, and thought up random scenes and characters as the months passed. >_> I'm only just starting worldbuilding and history and whatever other facts that are actually important -now-, though, and that's coming along slower than I had hoped. I keep telling myself I'll work on it, then homework or practice for whatever musical instrument comes up. T_T I want to get my plot and facts and everything done, mruuw...

So my idea switched on me at the last moment to something with a bit more of a clear antagonist. I don't know how many of you guys read soft sci-fi, though.

*raises hand* Yo.

Don't know what the story's about, but I'm so in. First Nano. So excited.

<3

This year, I will do it! Last year, I didn't even start. But this year, I plan to get past 20k. An who knows, even 50!