NaNoWriMo
Ever heard of NaNoWriMo and wondered what it was? To quote the site,
“National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.
Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.”
NaNoWriMo is something that has always interested me. After starting my second novel in May (it’s almost done!) I’m ready for another big project. I’ve got an outline started and this November, I’m taking part in NaNoWriMo for the first time. I’m signed up and my penname there is SarahBella
The website is incredibly easy to use and includes helpful tips, forums for support, widgets you can grab, a word counter to validate your total at the end of the month and so much more.
The standard accepted length for a first time novelist is 80,000 to 100,000 words. So completing NaNoWriMo gets you over halfway done in thirty days. Many people spend a year or more writing a novel.
MVF wants to get involved with NaNoWriMo. How are we going to do that? We’re setting up Team MVF NaNoWriMo. What do you have to do? Sign up for NaNoWriMo. We’re posting word count battle widgets on the main page of the blog. We’re hosting NaNoWriMo write-ins in our chatzy room, complete with mini word count battles.
Wanna participate in the word count battle? Just send your NaNoWriMo participant ID number to susan@myvampfiction.com and we’ll get you up on the blog. The write-ins in chatzy will be every Monday night from 8-11 central. One of us will always be present to answer questions.
In the month of September, we started posting a monthly Writing Prompt column with different kinds of prompts to help break through that writer’s block and expand your horizons. In November, we’ll be posting it weekly. They’ll all be archived under Writing Prompts so you’ll never have to suffer from lack of inspiration.
So join us in NaNoWriMo. You’ll never write the greatest novel of a generation if you don’t try.
♥SB
I doing it. I’m all set to go on a vampire story set in Dublin.
Yay! I’m excited about our Team MVF NaNoWriMo! It’s going to be a great time.
Nah, it’s never too much to join more than one NaNoWriMo group, I’m in 5 :)
I think it may be too much to join another NaNoWriMo group, I don’t know.
It’s an awesome idea, though!
I’m really psyched for NaNoWriMo this year! Last year was my first time participating, but I didn’t have a solid idea in my head. More like a general guideline. lol
This year, I’ve got what I think is a potentially amazing plot. My hubby is helping me map it out, because I’m venturing out of my usual genre into a mystery/thriller/political twisty plot. Nervous and excited all at once!
I did NaNoWriMo last month and didn’t reach my goal, but got incredibly close so I’m all for doing it this year! I’ll be emailing my ID #shortly!
I did NaNoWriMo last year, and am so totally psyched for this year as well. :)
I just added you as a writing buddy, SarahBella <3
That’s so great Bill! I can’t wait to read all the entries for the contest! And I’ll see you at the write-ins!
Sorry, that sentence should read “Right now I am focused on the original vamp fiction contest here.”
I did NaNoWriMo last year and it was a blast. Just a little history; When I first decided I had a novel in me that needed to come out, I would work on it a few days and then put it away, and a month later I would drag it out and continue for a little, then put it away again. Long story short, it took well over two years to complete my first novel and it was terrible, so I never even tried to get it published.
So imagine last November. I made a commitment to write just 1,667 words each day, every single day in November. By mathematical magic I had 50,000 words by November 30. YEA!!!
O.K. Some days were harder than others. I had to get ahead so that I could take Thanksgiving day off. But some days went really well and I could type out 2,500 or 2,700 words.
I had joined a NaNoWriMo group like the one being proposed here and all my friends in that group were very supportive.
Will I do it again this year? Well, it is too early to promise. right now I am focused on the OP contest here. If I do well, perhaps those characters might want to become a novel in November.
Good luck to all who sign up and try.
Bill
Such a great idea, Sarah! I know so many people who want to write OF, but aren’t sure how to start. This is such a great way, and I’m so glad MVF is going to be a part of helping authors as they go through the writing process.
I’ve heard about this for a few years now and have just never buckled down and committed myself to it. Maybe this is the year I should do exactly that. I’m going to check it out.
Thanks for posting this!
~Lisa