[anon491]

You're invited to the most exciting challenge of the year: National Novel Writing Month.

Have you ever wanted to write a novel? Do you keep putting it off as a task you hope to complete "one day" ?

Well, here's your chance to get it done in a month. NaNoWriMo is a challenge to complete a 50 000 word novel in 30 days. That's 1667 words a day. The goal is to focus on quantity rather than quality. Don't edit your work, just get it written. You can edit later!

You have to start from scratch with your writing on November 1st and end on November 30th (although outlining is allowed prior). Participants usually write fiction, although "rebel" categories exist for nonfiction, autobiographies etc.

What's in it for you, you ask? You'll be able to brag to all your friends and family that you've actually written a novel. In past years, CreateSpace has offered winners a chance to get a free proof copy (although last year that offer was altered, and we don't yet know the offer for this year), but the point is more about your personal achievement than anything else.

If you'd like more information on this adrenaline-packed, fun and entirely doable challenge, check out www.nanowrimo.org for more information. If you decide to sign up, make use of the forums-- they're filled with incredibly helpful and enthusiastic Wrimos who will encourage and help you along the way!

And, Writers Anonymous McMaster will be hosting write-ins and writing info sessions all through November as well as through the school year for anyone who is interested in editing/publishing their novel, or for anyone who is interested in writing a novel but not participating in nanowrimo. we encourage you to come out to our meetings! Our nanowrimo kickoff party will be held on November 1st at 7:00pm in MUSC 311, please RVSP on our facebook event page if you're interested in attending. Email us at wam @ mcmaster.ca if you have any questions!

or, feel free to PM either myself or Faer, or post in this thread.

"To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time." - Leonard Bernstein

Faer reporting in! Come on out and write with us, or just hang out with more awesome writer people! Any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

To those that have participated (whether successful or unsuccessful) in the past: Is it difficult to keep up with this and your school work? Any advice on how to keep up?

Is swearing allowed?

I've done it for a couple of years and the only difficulty I had to keep up with my writing was during the middle to the end of the month because of the school work that piled up and a lack of inspiration happening to me. However, I did manage to complete the word count each time. One trick I found useful (that was also suggested by the emails I got from the coordinators) was to tell people you were doing it, or do a daily update of how many words you have done so far. It sort of puts it out to people you're doing this and forces you to realize you've already said you're doing it, might as well finish it or end up being taunted by your friends.

I also found that having friends to do this with was a great motivator. You guys get a bit competitive and you can talk about your novels and ideas and get suggestions too.

The key is to write about something you can go on forever with, whether fantasy, mystery, it has to be something you really enjoy. Think about key scenes that make you excited to get to and write towards it, setting up important details that has to be there early on, introducing characters, etc. If you start lacking inspiration (like I usually do during the end of the month) and you need to force yourself to finish, take a day off and think about why you started this story in the first place and what inspired you in the first place. Was it the plot? The characters? The meaning behind the story? How ridiculous this is supposed to be? If you can't recall, try focusing on the ending. What has to happen? What is pivotal to getting to the end? If you can imagine how the ending is going to go, filling it in with whatever is necessary (or unnecessary) will come in.

When it comes to balancing school work and writing, I commute, so I usually wrote on the train. Set a goal for yourself to how many words a day you will write. Write when you can, whether it's eating, a study break, etc.

^Just my experience with it. Whether it helps or not, you'll find your own tricks

And yes, swearing is allowed.

^Great advice! I've really got nothing else to add, haha.

I've done it a couple times during the school year, and yes, it can be hard to keep up, but it's great fun when you're doing it with more people! You get to be competitive and race to the finish, or just try to keep ahead--that's generally enough motivation.

Also, you are allowed to write absolutely anything you wish; it's your novel. In the end, it's all about what you're getting out of the event!

Write a novel? In November?
I write my 50,000 words in July. Nice and easy...

Originally Posted by Zebedee

Write a novel? In November?
I write my 50,000 words in July. Nice and easy...

In my experience, it's actually harder to write a novel when you're stress-free xD I have yet to complete camp nanowrimo (that's a summer version of nanowrimo, for anyone who doesn't know) successfully, but I've won NaNoWriMo 5 years out of 6 despite it being in November.

Any word on whether the offer for the "proof copy" will carry through to this year or not?

Originally Posted by ooburii

In my experience, it's actually harder to write a novel when you're stress-free xD I have yet to complete camp nanowrimo (that's a summer version of nanowrimo, for anyone who doesn't know) successfully, but I've won NaNoWriMo 5 years out of 6 despite it being in November.

Originally Posted by J. Dorey

Any word on whether the offer for the "proof copy" will carry through to this year or not?

No word yet. It's posted in this forum when they have the info. We usually never hear during the first few days... not sure when they announced it last year.

Anyone have a rough estimate of the number of pages a 50,000 word novel contains? (I realize this depends on the publishing size, but any insight would be great).

Anyone with a completed novel? How many pages of an MSWord document is it?

I've never been into literature as much, but it's something I'd love to try out. I have some ideas, but I can see that padding them out will prove to be difficult.

Originally Posted by Incognitus

Anyone have a rough estimate of the number of pages a 50,000 word novel contains? (I realize this depends on the publishing size, but any insight would be great).

Anyone with a completed novel? How many pages of an MSWord document is it?

I've never been into literature as much, but it's something I'd love to try out. I have some ideas, but I can see that padding them out will prove to be difficult.

My 2011 novel was around 50 100 words, it came to about 95 pages because I use excessive spacing. The approximate average (according to faer) is 80 pages.

Of course, you're not limited to 50 000 words. You're welcome to do more than that. Some people set goals of 80k or 100k for themselves. You don't have to stop at 50k if your story is continuing further.

If you're interested in coming to our meetings, we or other members might be able to help give you more ideas to add on to your work if you're lacking in words Or you can check out the nanowrimo forums! they're incredibly helpful as well.

If you hit 20k or 30k or earlier and realize that the story isn't going to make 50k, you can always start a second story. or kill someone (in your novel lol).


P.S. just a reminder, our kickoff party is today at 7pm in musc 311. we'll also be having write-ins (writing sessions) throughout the month so you can always drop by and bounce ideas off others. email us at wam @ mcmaster.ca to be added to the mailing list for more info on dates!

Another quick question that I haven't found in the forums. Do we format this as if it were a legit manuscript, or can we just write (separating chapters, obviously)?

Originally Posted by J. Dorey

Another quick question that I haven't found in the forums. Do we format this as if it were a legit manuscript, or can we just write (separating chapters, obviously)?

It doesn't really matter how you format it in nanowrimo, no one is checking. in terms of updating your word count, you're just entering the actual number, not uploading your document.

Unless you mean formatting for publishing later on?