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NaNoWriMo - Who is in?


Robin M
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November will be here faster than expected and I've got a shiny new idea percolating in my brain.  Currently working on editing a wip from past session but the bug is biting me.  So, going to start working on an outline, write up some ideas and get to know the character who is tapping for attention.

 

National Novel Writing Month for those who aren't familiar is a writing challenge in which you write 50,000 words in 30 days. No editing. Just write. They also offer a young writer's program along with workbooks to prepare for kids. Plus the kids get to set their own goal.

 

So are you in?

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Yep!! I love NaNoWriMo!!

 

I think my dc are planning on it again also. So much fun!!!

 

I usually have an idea by now even though I'm more of a "pantser". My problem this year is that I'm halfway through my current story and there's not room in my brain for more than one story at a time! I hope to get that story out of me before November.

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Yep!! I love NaNoWriMo!!

 

I think my dc are planning on it again also. So much fun!!!

 

I usually have an idea by now even though I'm more of a "pantser". My problem this year is that I'm halfway through my current story and there's not room in my brain for more than one story at a time! I hope to get that story out of me before November.

 

My son is planning on joining in as well.

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I think I've done it 5 years straight now and I added camp NaNoWriMo one summer. I'm trying to decide if I'm in for this year or not though. I'm really busy and I just don't know if I can get it done.

 

Ds had won all those years and did Camp NaNo too. Dd did it for 4 years and stopped. Ds really wants to write this year, but he is buried in APs. I wish I could magically make his schedule lighter for the month of November, but I don't have as much control as I have in the past. I think he is going to do YWP though and set a goal so he doesn't have to make the full 50,000.

 

My ID there is the same as here, except 'to' is replace with the number 2 there. If anyone wants to add me as a writing buddy, I love having other WTMers along. 

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DD is going to do it this year.  We have never done it before!  Any tips or advice?

 

Be prepared! The easiest NaNoWriMos for me have been those where I had characters and a plot pretty well thought out. I novel in Scrivener and I like having the chapters titled too... it gives me goal posts along the way.

 

The more ideas you have in advance, the less likely you are to get stuck. You don't have to follow them, they are just there if you need them.

 

Is your dd going to do the full 50,000 words or are you going to set her up through the YWP and let her set her own goal? My kids started in middle school and set their own goals. Ds has done 50,000 words once, but will probably do his own goal this year for lack of time.

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Guest kitkatmom

I love the idea of Nanowrimo! But I'm here as a parent to make a public service announcement regarding their forum. It is allegedly monitored for inappropriate content - well a good bit is getting past their radar. My daughter likes to get on their often and so I like to monitor her online activity. I was really disturbed to see someone on that site trying to engage her in an inappropriate conversation and upon further investigation, I found a lot of content I was extremely uncomfortable with, especially considering this site is marketed as being for kids as young as 8 years old. If you would like more detail about what I found on the site, feel free to PM me. Not bashing Nanowrimo - I think it has been great for getting my daughter to love writing and reading even more but just warning parents not to let their kids wander/post to the forums without very careful monitoring. 

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I was wondering about you. Speaking of busy people. Ok, if you're in, I should be too.

 

Ironically, I find the busier I am, the more I write. I try to do to do camp in June when not so much is going on, and I find it harder to write regularly then. I also pretty much forego sleeping well and cooking much in November. This year I may be hosting Thanksgiving, so that should add a nice flavor to it? 

 

I love the idea of Nanowrimo! But I'm here as a parent to make a public service announcement regarding their forum. It is allegedly monitored for inappropriate content - well a good bit is getting past their radar. My daughter likes to get on their often and so I like to monitor her online activity. I was really disturbed to see someone on that site trying to engage her in an inappropriate conversation and upon further investigation, I found a lot of content I was extremely uncomfortable with, especially considering this site is marketed as being for kids as young as 8 years old. If you would like more detail about what I found on the site, feel free to PM me. Not bashing Nanowrimo - I think it has been great for getting my daughter to love writing and reading even more but just warning parents not to let their kids wander/post to the forums without very careful monitoring. 

 

 

Which forum? the one for the YWP or the regular forum? If someone was trying to approach her  inappropriately on the YWP program, you should contact a moderator of the group. The regular forum is not really designed for younger kids or those who prefer to monitor content for their children. Nanowrimo in general is an adult writing contest, open to all genres of writing. The regular forums may include sub-forums that some parents are uncomfortable having their kids view. 

 

The YWP allows you to sign up as a educator if your children are participating. That way you can track their progress and, along with their log in information, you can monitor all their posts and progress as well. 

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I think I am in too. I have taken the last couple of years off. Last year would have been impossible. But I have three good ideas and think I have chosen one. But I have a quilt I am making, some ideas for a painting I would like to paint, oh, and a restaurant to run and a 14yo dd to supervise.

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I'm in.  I did two years and was all set to do last year and then we got notice that DS was to be born on Oct 30th so I skipped it last year.

 

I've got a few ideas floating around.  I'll get them finalized by November 1 and then off we go!

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Slight change in plans as I'm going to be a nano rebel.  I really, really, really want to finish editing my current wip.  After checking nano board, found out that 1 hour of editing is equal to 1000 words, so committing to 50 hours of editing (basically 2 hours a day rewriting)  and hopefully by the end of the month, I'll have a shiny, fixed up, ready to beta read story.  I feel so much better.  And to top it off, just had a few sparks for combining some characters from the sparkly new idea so it will work with my current story.   :hurray:   I'm getting psyched.

 

And my son is committing to 25k on the young writers site.  He's so prolific, I know he'll make it.

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I might be a NaNo rebel this year.  I've got a fanfic idea in my head that keeps pushing every other idea out.  There was a thread on here talking about what happened to everybody in Fiddler on the Roof at the end of the movie and I keep thinking of a great story to go along with that.  The three girls getting older with WWI and then WWII in the background.  

 

*argh*

 

I don't want to write a fanfic!  I want to do  something else but that plot is running wild in my head.  

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I came up with a new story idea today. The idea I've been playing with and planning to use for months was taking too much development and I just didn't feel like I could get it ready to write. Maybe I'll use it next year. I was starting to panic that I wasn't going to be able to NaNo for lack of a workable idea, but today I came up with a concept and it is playing out fast in my mine. I think I can be ready to start Saturday - Saturday  :w00t:

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I signed up but I have never participated before. I'm nervous and already considering backing away. haha

Don't back out. You can do it. Write up a basic outline of 30 ideas for scenes and then just roll with it. And have fun seeing what flows from your mind. It is so much fun.

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I signed up but I have never participated before. I'm nervous and already considering backing away. haha

 

Nope, you can't back away now. You've signed up and admitted to signing up. You're stuck :). You might as well give it a shot and see what happens. Not finishing is no worse than not starting.

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First year question....DD signed up to register, but says she didn't see anywhere with an option to choose the "pick your word count" option or just the regular 50,000. How can she choose that?

First thing...

Make sure she signed up for the" young writers program" and not NaNoWriMo. There's a link for ywp on the NaNoWriMo site.

 

If she is signed up for the ywp I'm not sure exactly but maybe look for a link for "my novel" or similar.

 

Hth

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First thing...

Make sure she signed up for the" young writers program" and not NaNoWriMo. There's a link for ywp on the NaNoWriMo site.

 

If she is signed up for the ywp I'm not sure exactly but maybe look for a link for "my novel" or similar.

 

Hth

 

Yep, go to the ywp, ywp.Nanowrimo.org

 

Sign up there instead of regular NaNo. The full site is for adults and gives no option for word count. Once she has a YWP account, then go to My NaNoWriMo, then Edit Novel Info. There you can set the word count and she can change that later too, so don't panic over it.

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Will it mess anything up because she already signed up on the main site?

 

Not if she has an account, but makes sure she deletes her novel (if she created one) so she is officially not participating. Otherwise she'll show up as participating but not finishing, which also won't really hurt anything.

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DD is going to do it this year.  We have never done it before!  Any tips or advice?

 

Grab a copy  of 'No Plot, No Problem.' Very encouraging and full of advice. Mostly--JUST WRITE. Even if it isn't any good, write. Lock the editor away. Your brain will eventually get itself organized and you will write coherently. If you hit a roadblock, drop in an accident, a murder, a new character, or an alien from outer space to get you going again.

 

I've done NaNo in the past--my two novels sit proudly on my bookshelf in first draft form because editing is a bear to me. :) But I LOVED participating each time.

 

This year, I will be writing non-fiction. It won't be as much fun as the roller coaster ride that is NaNo fiction, but it ought to bring me some credibility in my career--and eventually dollars. No pressure, right?

 

WRITE ON!

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Gah!  I shouldn't have opened this thread again.  Now my inner guilt is starting to eat at me.  I skipped last year because I was burned out and had a cruise planned at the beginning of November.  I have a cruise planned again and will be gone for a week, but I really want to play again.  The thought of writing 50K in 3 weeks is a daunting task to say the least.  Maybe I will slip the laptop past my DH....

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I'm too scarred to do it on my own (probably ever) but I have a first grader who might enjoy it and it's EDUCATIONAL!!!! Thank you for the reminder and I'll definitely check out the young writer's page to see if it's realistic for him to do it this year.

 

 

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I have my main characters, settings, the beginning and 1-2 more points I want to hit in the plot, but the plot itself is still missing. ;) I hope I'll find it when I start writing!

 

 

You will.  Once you get started and let your characters take the reigns, things will unfold.  I love the aha moments!

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Gah!  I shouldn't have opened this thread again.  Now my inner guilt is starting to eat at me.  I skipped last year because I was burned out and had a cruise planned at the beginning of November.  I have a cruise planned again and will be gone for a week, but I really want to play again.  The thought of writing 50K in 3 weeks is a daunting task to say the least.  Maybe I will slip the laptop past my DH....

 

There's always the old fashioned route, writing with pen and paper.  

 

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I'm too scarred to do it on my own (probably ever) but I have a first grader who might enjoy it and it's EDUCATIONAL!!!! Thank you for the reminder and I'll definitely check out the young writer's page to see if it's realistic for him to do it this year.

 

On the YWP you can sign up with any word count you want for yourself too. The first year I did a smaller goal, maybe 20 or 30,000 words? Having kids participating is a great excuse to track your goal, be a good example and write! Once you start, you'll get addicted and before long you'll find you are writing 50,000 words even if your kids aren't!

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There's always the old fashioned route, writing with pen and paper.  

 

 

 

:eek:

 

What she said. Actually I have done pen to paper in situations where I would be gone a few hours but pulling out the laptop isn't an option.

 

So I went to posting the last thread to a full blown storyline in a 20 minute shower. Dh isn't going to be amused but I think I'm in this year.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Nope, you can't back away now. You've signed up and admitted to signing up. You're stuck :). You might as well give it a shot and see what happens. Not finishing is no worse than not starting.

 

DH says I need to do it for the fun of it. I have a good bit of a story idea for a young adult sci fi novel

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:eek:

LOL!

 

What she said. Actually I have done pen to paper in situations where I would be gone a few hours but pulling out the laptop isn't an option. So I went to posting the last thread to a full blown storyline in a 20 minute shower. Dh isn't going to be amused but I think I'm in this year. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Yep, it is doable since I have hand written all my drafts and typed them in later.  I go blank when look at a computer screen, but thoughts fly when writing it all out. 

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Yep, it is doable since I have hand written all my drafts and typed them in later.  I go blank when look at a computer screen, but thoughts fly when writing it all out. 

 

I'm impressed.

 

I rarely write a sentence by hand. We like to consider our house paperless. I wouldn't even consider writing if the physical act was involved. Ds is dysgraphic. I'm not but I certainly am writing phobic when it comes to the physical act of writing. I guess I am very fortunate to live in the computer age!

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LOL!

 

 

Yep, it is doable since I have hand written all my drafts and typed them in later.  I go blank when look at a computer screen, but thoughts fly when writing it all out. 

 

I do find that I can think faster when I hand write parts.  Unfortunately my handwriting is only a step above chicken scratch when I am flying and figuring it back out allows the inner editor a chance to slip in. 

 

Well I told DH and it went over about as well as I figured it would.  I promised him that I would not be dedicating my cruise to writing.  If I find a down time and there is nothing we want to go do, I will write a bit.  Even if I come back with just a couple of thousand words, it will be less of a catch up game when I get back.  That's when I will go into writing hibernation.

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