A month-long novel-planning challenge with prizes galore. |
Just signed up and am so excited to plan my next project alongside everyone! October promises to keep me super busy, but I can't say no to Prep. |
You can do it! GoT House Florent Preferred Author |
We know you can do it. Can't wait to start and see what you have! NJ 2023 Quill Finalist. 2023 Quill Nominee. Quill Finalist Logo 2022 . Quill Nominee Signature 2022 Preferred Author |
I'm retuning with a friend have you hugged your writer |
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I feel you, Roseille ā„! I just adore Prep, even though I'm not as talented as you, nor do I have any follow through after November. lol But still, it love Prep anyway. azrael, it's fabulous that you brought a friend along with you! Welcome to them and good job to you! Prep is amazing! Thank you so much for doing this for us, Brandiwynš¶! How would any of us get NaNo done without you?!? In my experience, without Prep, I can't finish NaNo and with it, I (almost) can't NOT finish NaNo. lol I'm sure there are other places around the web with prepping opportunities. But first, are they as good? I've not officially DONE the NaNo Prep on the NaNo site, but I've browsed it and didn't care for it. Second, would I have even figured out that not prepping was why I could never succeed at NaNo if I hadn't been on WdC and you hadn't been running Prep and I hadn't somehow gotten roped into it after failing all (only 1, but still counts as "all") previous NaNo attempts? Third, your Prep leads to the Sprinter's Forum, so that may be another reason I always succeed. IDK, but I do know that without you and Prep, I'd likely never have finished NaNo and I wouldn't love it as much as I do today. Oh, and my love for it lead to testing out a writing software every single year and buying several, so that's...uh...a lot of money spent, but also, great opportunities, thanks to you! You've changed my life and, if I ever publish anything and even get a couple of readers, you've changed my world! |
Okay, stahp, you're making me Cheers, Michelle Battywyn |
I think you're doing much better than me here, since you actually do NaNo! I've done NaNo a couple of times, but for the past several years, I just use October to plan and then I write the actual book much later (and much more slowly!) |
Oh, if we're going to have a competition, Roseille ā„, you're definitely the winner! lol Sure, I do NaNo and hit my 50k, but then I stop. Last year, I literally had 50,055 words. lol Okay, you don't write yours during NaNo, but at least you FINISH yours. lol Two years ago I decided to write a trilogy so at least I'd have 3 related unfinished stories. Yep, so I have an unfinished trilogy because I didn't even work on the 2nd book last year. Hahaha! |
That's still super cool! You've got all sorts of partially written stories you can return to if you'd like. You can even return to them for NaNo if you want. I know NaNo sets 50k as the goal word count, but it's so hard to finish a book during NaNo because most published adult books run ~75-100k or more. I know a bunch of people who will work on the same book twice with NaNoāone November to write the first half, and the next one to write the second half. No matter what, what you're doing is amazing. It's incredibly impressive that you're writing 50k in a month! |
Thank you, though I still think you're more awesome! I do know that 50k is generally too short to publish and that I could work on the same one again next year, but I think I lose interest? IDK. I SHOULD just go ahead and finish them in December/January, but I don't. IDK why. lol I'm lazy? I'm secretly afraid of finishing something no one wants to read? I don't want the hassle of having to have a writer's image with a fan site and whatnot? I'm burned out on the novel after NaNo? I really don't know. But I now wonder if NaNo's challenge wasn't to write 100k, would I actually finish my novels? Maybe. Hahaha! I just enjoy the challenge, I think. I had been considering creating a challenge in January for folks to actually finish a first draft. Surely, I'm not the only one who never finishes my NaNo projects... lol |
"I do know that 50k is generally too short to publish..." Do not sell yourself short. 50k is becoming more common for 2 reasons - it makes for a good length audiobook, and it does not take too long to read. Following the insane lengths of books in the 2010s, novellas and short novels are getting more traction as readers just want a quick read where they can remember all the characters at the end! So, so long as you finish a book, don't think it will live in perpetuity on your hard drive. That's for hacks like me with too many unpublished novels filling up data space. |
Oh, that's awesome! And it's so reasonable to hit a roadblock at the 50% mark! I do every time, and it's almost always because I've put so much effort in that I start worrying that maybe it wasn't worth itāmaybe I should just give up. It's hard to push through the second half of a draft. Another reason why a lot of folks stall at the halfway point is colloquially called the "muddled middle"āwhere writers have a clear image of how a book starts and a relatively clear idea of where they want it to go, but not as many ideas for how exactly it gets there/how to keep it exciting during the looooooooong stretch between beginning and end. There are a lot of ways to combat that feeling, but it can definitely be rough. It is absolutely not because you're lazy! (That's very clear from your dedication to prepping and your amazing progress in NaNo.) It's just that writing books is hard, and there are so many unexpected roadblocks along the path. If you ever decide to come back to a draft and finish it, you'll have a bunch of options to choose from, and I think that's amazing. You don't have to finish any of those books now. I wrote the first half of one of my projects in 2014 (during NaNo, actually!) and then stalled at the middle and worried that it was all nonsense and I shouldn't continue. I let that half-draft sit for over six years before I speed-wrote the second half in June/July of 2020! So it's never too late to finish a book. |
Thanks for the encouragement, Steven and Roseille ā„! Though how much I accomplish in writing here may be more a reflection of my expert procrastination skills. Hahaha I have a paper due Saturday, so what am I doing? Working on a review for Steven. When it's time to write my dissertation, you'll be SHOCKED at how much I'll accomplish here! Hahaha!!! Steven, thanks for saying shorter books are now more acceptable. That's definitely encouraging! Though technically, I have no idea how long my novels are, you know, since I never bother finishing them. lol I suspect they are around the 70k-90k mark? But I guess if I really want to know, I'll have to start finishing some. Lol Again, thanks! |
1,000 GPs were sent to Roseille ā„ with this post. Cheers, Michelle Image #1958063 over display limit. -?- |
1,000 GPs were sent to s with this post. The Cheerleading Fairies caught you BEING HELPFUL & ENCOURAGING OTHERS! You get a prize: {image:2305717 Cheers, Michelle {image:1958063} |
5,000 GPs were sent to Roseille ā„ with this post. Cheers, Michelle Image #1958063 over display limit. -?- |
Yeah, I've been wondering if anyone realised that December is supposed to be the editing month. It only makes sense since we have Prep in Oct, Writing in Nov, Dec really ought to be the Editing Month. It is a short month with Christmas and New Year... all that... and in December, year end, no one... I do mean NO ONE feels like working. Ever. |
Don't know. I get a lot written in December. December should be also for finishing what was started in November. Remember it's 50k words of a novel, not a 50k word novel. I tend to encourage putting it aside before editing, redrafting, rewriting, whatevering. Of course, it's individual, and everyine should do what is comfortable for themselves. |
I did know that, but agree with Steven in both cases. Though i think some folks count December as their time to finish. You know, those losers who actually DO finish their stories. Poor saps must have absolutely no life at all! Hahaha!! |
It makes me wonder. Why is NaNoWriMo in November? Because it starts with N? Anything coinciding with Christmas is not good. Nothing will get done. |
Well, it wasn't intended to be a worldwide event. It just started as a challenge among friends. I think November worked because they'd come up with the idea in October or September. Then as it grew, they were stuck with November. At least that's my theory. Lol But I know it started as just a challenge among friends. |
Camp dates are awesome, but the people, hype, and volume are not there. |
Yeah. I've tried to do Camp, but never do. Maybe it's the phenomenon where busy people get more done. Lol |