NaNoWriMo is a-coming!

NaNoWriMo is coming up.


For those of you who don't know, National Novel Writing Month is a project that some guy, Chris Baty, and his friends just started doing one year.  Like all writers at one time or another, they decided to bite off more than they could chew.


"Hey! Let's write a novel in one month!  Fifty thousand words!  YAHHHH!"


Could it be done?  Should it be done?  Much like aficionados in any extreme sport, they ignored their internal editors and forged forth, writing and delighting themselves and despairing of ever being writers.  Ever.  And either finishing or not finishing their novels.


Some people dropped out.


Some people decided to do it again the next year.  And the next.  The word spread, and the NaNoWriMo format of extreme writing became more popular.  There are more extreme ways to do it–writing a novel in a week, for example–but NaNoWriMo happens to be a fairly reasonable way to do it.


This year, I'm going to help at the Pikes Peak Writers NaNoTryMo, in which you can set yourself any goal, hang out at the Citadel Mall Imagination Center on Tuesdays from 6:30-8:30 p.m., and write with other like-minded (insert hand gesture of spiral next to skull here) writers for a couple of hours.  We'll also have a full day write-in on November 19th, but I'm not sure what the exact hours are yet.  By "help" I mean set up chairs and egg people on.


Because PPW membership is free, if you feel like joining us, just show up.  There's a Starbuck's down the hall and shopping therapy if your characters break your heart.


Me, I'm going to be working on Alice's Adventures in Underland (finally!).  Life is good.  How about you?


 

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Published on October 11, 2011 06:07
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Commit Purple Prose 20 days to Nano :)


message 2: by DeAnna (new)

DeAnna Knippling Are we there yet?


Commit Purple Prose Not yet. ;) I'm going to be teaching a class in conjuction with Nano. 6, and counting, are going to be making the trip into literary abandon.


message 4: by DeAnna (new)

DeAnna Knippling Ooh, what class?


Commit Purple Prose Write 50K words in November. It's really just to get folks off the "I'm going to write" to "I'm writing" mark. 4 (that I know of) are published and are joining because their fans and friends are asking when their next book is coming out.

On the nano site there is a section for Nano University, that's where I got the idea. ;)


message 6: by DeAnna (new)

DeAnna Knippling Good thinking.


Commit Purple Prose Have to have money to buy books and pay bills...


message 8: by DeAnna (new)

DeAnna Knippling And tea and chocolate.


Commit Purple Prose Hmmm,decisions, decisions... ;) 13 days to go...


message 10: by DeAnna (new)

DeAnna Knippling Three days and counting...

I finished my outline and am back to feeling confident that I can do this.


Commit Purple Prose Excellent! 13 students in class tomorrow... going to be interesting.

I've acutally been outlining (I'm a pantster usually) the story I want to work on. I downloaded Scrivener, sweet program, and it's acutally encouraging me to organize my ideas better. ;)


message 12: by DeAnna (new)

DeAnna Knippling I use something similar, and I think you're right about the need to organize. It's also handy for keeping notes organized, which has actually been more of a problem.


Commit Purple Prose Class went well today--nice range of students from published authors to "I have no idea what I'm going to write, I just want to write" folks.

What I'm enjoying about Scrivener is the notecards...I love using index cards when I'm planning so this feels familiar.


message 14: by DeAnna (new)

DeAnna Knippling Hee! Did the "I just want to write" people figure out something? I've been in that mood before...oh, it's just painful.

I used notecards once and scattered them accidentally...replot! Never again...

I've been making a calendar and filling it in with plot-per-chapter descriptions lately. A grid. I like it: it keeps things short and sweet.


Commit Purple Prose The just want to writers had done some thinking and had some ideas about what they wanted to write. ;)

::snirk:: I've scattered notecards on purpose just to see if some new connections appeared. The cats love it.

I like the calendar idea. I'm all about finding different ways to look at problems.

A FB friend shared this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCX6z0... I've got to show my students Saturday! :)


message 16: by DeAnna (new)

DeAnna Knippling Plotting by cats. I love it.

I shared the video with Pikes Peak Writers. Go Peter!


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