NaNoWriMo's in FOUR weeks!

[Classical Country Mama]

Ways I am preparing for NaNoWriMo:

 

1. I took a deep breath and warned my family today they will be eating nothing but hotdogs in November. (Considered the crockpot, but that takes thought and prep time.)

 

2. I put on lipstick and took smiling photos of myself to tape around the house in November to motivate my family not to shoot me then.

 

3. I did not clean the house this weekend, to lessen the shock of November in which I will lose all sense of time and place and lemon-scented Pledge.

 

 

How are you preparing?

[Melanie]

My son and I signed up for the first time. He's been doing a lot of research for his book (he wants to write a story about Armageddon), but I haven't been doing anything in particular to prepare. Should I be stocking up on frozen pizzas or something? Maybe I've gotten in over my head here! :tongue_smilie:

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Ways I am preparing for NaNoWriMo:

 

1. I took a deep breath and warned my family today they will be eating nothing but hotdogs in November. (Considered the crockpot, but that takes thought and prep time.)

 

2. I put on lipstick and took smiling photos of myself to tape around the house in November to motivate my family not to shoot me then.

 

3. I did not clean the house this weekend, to lessen the shock of November in which I will lose all sense of time and place and lemon-scented Pledge.

 

 

How are you preparing?

 

I was hoping that the fact that I'm a fast typer would pull me through. Then I got up early for a test run and only go 300 words done. So I'm either going to become much more prolific and efficient, cut out all my WTM board time (hm, not a bad idea for productivity), or have to decide that this year it's quite alright to not get to 50000.

 

On the other hand, I have shifted something in my plot so that instead of having a bunch of vibrant characters who are people that really annoy me, I have a situation I can put people I like into and shake them up to see what happens. I don't know which makes a better story, but I know which I'd rather spend my time working on.

[AuntieM]

Ready? Hehe..... no. But still planning to join the fray.

[elegantlion]

My preparation has included going through many annoying events, like a five day ordeal with a dying car battery, to add fodder for the story. Oh and there is the damaged passenger door where my dh backed into my car last week with his tailgate down. I think my main character will be spending more time in her car, maybe wearing a safety helmet.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

My preparation has included going through many annoying events, like a five day ordeal with a dying car battery, to add fodder for the story. Oh and there is the damaged passenger door where my dh backed into my car last week with his tailgate down. I think my main character will be spending more time in her car, maybe wearing a safety helmet.

 

Hey, if you need car drama for your plot, my dh was once following me to the dealership so I could get some engine work done and he ran into me. Luckily at low speed with two pretty tough cars.

[Garga]

I type fast. I can get my 1667 words done in under 2 hours a day.

 

Kids go to bed at 8. I type until 10. Done.

 

I did it once...I can do it again!

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I type fast. I can get my 1667 words done in under 2 hours a day.

 

Kids go to bed at 8. I type until 10. Done.

 

I did it once...I can do it again!

 

I could get up when dh leaves for work and get almost 2 hours in before the kids are up and about. Hmm. Maybe it's not so impossible.

[Classical Country Mama]

I type fast. I can get my 1667 words done in under 2 hours a day.

 

Kids go to bed at 8. I type until 10. Done.

 

I did it once...I can do it again!

 

ohhhh I envy you! I can type fast too... but I'm pretty sure I can't actually write that fast.

 

Do you come up with your entire plot etc in advance?

[elegantlion]

Hey, if you need car drama for your plot, my dh was once following me to the dealership so I could get some engine work done and he ran into me. Luckily at low speed with two pretty tough cars.

 

:001_huh: I'm so borrowing that. :D

[Garga]

ohhhh I envy you! I can type fast too... but I'm pretty sure I can't actually write that fast.

 

Do you come up with your entire plot etc in advance?

 

 

Oh wait! I did have a rough idea of where I was going. I knew some "scenes" that I wanted, and would write until I got to the next scene (if that makes sense.) Like, I knew that there would be an old woman who would betray my main character. But then, I had to figure out how they met, what the old woman looked like, where she lived, the details of the betrayal as I wrote.

 

So, there was a rough outline and I wrote the details leading to each point on the outline.

[rwjx2khsmj]

I've been exploring over at the NaNoWriMo site and this is really, really tempting.

 

Maybe I could write about a homeschool mother that totally lost her mind while trying to write a novel in a month. :lol:

[elise1mds]

I've been exploring over at the NaNoWriMo site and this is really, really tempting.

 

Maybe I could write about a homeschool mother that totally lost her mind while trying to write a novel in a month. :lol:

 

Not credible. What homeschool mother still has her mind in the first place?? :lol: This is my first time, too, and I am hoping that there's not a lot of work. Usually I work in the evenings, but from what I'm reading, I suspect that I may need those evenings to get to my 50K!

[Sebastian (a lady)]

You're more than welcome to it.

 

:driving:

 

:001_huh: I'm so borrowing that. :D

[anneofalamo]

you are all doing it also??? I am the taskmaster here! and printing out the wonderful workbook that promises not to be lame? as I type...:lol:

[Food4Thought]

I will not plan my nano novel. I will not plan my nano novel. I will not plan my nano novel.

 

Today, I practiced by doing some freestyle writing. I got 4 pages done, and the familiar smell of ink reminded me of the three notebooks I filled with last year's crazy ravings about werebears and tribal hunter-gatherer cultures. Then I dreamed that this year I'll write something better. Thankfully I set the bar pretty low last year. :001_huh:

[Elizabeth in WA]

I will not plan my nano novel. I will not plan my nano novel. I will not plan my nano novel.

 

Ditto.

 

But I am making my kids do the workbooks. They can pants it when November comes, but in the lead up we will study elements of fiction to justify the month of no other English writing assignments. Actually, I found last year that the freedom of NaNo really helped my most reluctant writer loosen up and start putting words on paper. Once he could do that with less struggle, we really started to make progress on the more academic writing. We all have goals for this year. For my oldest, it's the full 50K, for my 12 year old who did 50K last year, it's 50K again but this time with less padding of his word count. My younger two are upping their word count goals. My goal is just to finish again, but this time with a high schooler to teach and no time off from other courses for any of my students.

[Luckymama]

My younger two are upping their word count goals. My goal is just to finish again, but this time with a high schooler to teach and no time off from other courses for any of my students.

 

Could you share the word counts for your younger two, both this year and last? This will be dd10's first NaNoWriMo and she has written stories for years. As I am a non-creative-writer (oh, on so many levels :lol:) I have no concept of how long X number of words is.

[michelle l]

I'm thinking about doing it, but I'm not sure I can pull it off time wise. :001_unsure:

[anneofalamo]

We started the workbook today, and buried our "inner editor" my kids are actually giddy about this...

because I got them their own email accounts to be in the virtual classroom!

 

I printed one workbook, and first 10 lesson plans!! I am a bit excited...and if any of you have done this before, I would love any helpful hints!!???

[Elizabeth in WA]

Could you share the word counts for your younger two, both this year and last? This will be dd10's first NaNoWriMo and she has written stories for years. As I am a non-creative-writer (oh, on so many levels :lol:) I have no concept of how long X number of words is.

 

My 8 year old wrote 6,000 words last year. I think she had some kind of apocalypse every single day in order to hit her 200 word per day goal. My 10 year old wrote 12,000 words last year. That was also an ambition goal and difficult for him to make. They both typed their work with older brother, who is an excellent typist taking dictation for them on really difficult days. But, my goal is for them to learn to elaborate in their writing as they tend to write sparse sentences with little action. We are using Killgallon's sentence composing this year to really work on their sentences. Since my goal for them in NaNo is just to develop comfort with writing, in more of a free writing, explore your own thoughts kind of way, I want their word counts to be very ambitious and really stretch them. The rest of the year we try to work on writing well. NaNo is just about quantity for us, and a quantity that really forces you to get at the heart of putting your thoughts into words. The story aspect of NaNo is just a nonthreatening vehicle for expressing themselves to me. I have no research to back up my views on why this helps, but it did work for my oldest son who used to have difficulty putting three sentences on paper and can now write long, surprisingly well thought out and organized papers. I don't read what they write for NaNo unless they ask me to. This is their safe space to develop a relationship with writing in the context of telling their own story.

 

Now, if you want your children to really focus on writing a good story, you may want much less ambitious word counts. However, what is ambitious depends on how easily your child writes. My then 11 year old last year had no difficulty at all hitting 50,000 words. But he tends to write convoluted sentences with a fair amount of redundancy. That's why he is going for same word count, but "cleaner" writing this year. My then 13 year old struggled to make 30,000 words and resorted to counting at least once. But he is the one who benefited most from the exercise.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Maybe I don't have to despair. I "interviewed" one of my characters this morning and had 1k very quickly. This is the character who is most like me. But I'm not sure if she is the best focus for the protaganist. I think maybe she needs to be a friend instead.

 

Dental appointments this morning. I may be sitting there writing character sketches of everyone in the waiting room.

[mmasmommy]

I'd never heard of this before, thanks for posting!

 

I think I'll give it a go. We'll definitely be doing the kids one, what an awesome site. :)

[IsabelC]

So far, I have prepared by, um, signing up :lol:

I also wake up at random times in the night with ideas for scenes to include in my book.

Are there things one should do to prepare??? I have NO IDEA as I signed up on a whim and it's my first time :confused:

[Classical Country Mama]

So far, I have prepared by, um, signing up :lol:

I also wake up at random times in the night with ideas for scenes to include in my book.

Are there things one should do to prepare??? I have NO IDEA as I signed up on a whim and it's my first time :confused:

 

 

It's my first year too, and I'm prepping in a way suggested by Lazette Gifford in her free NaNo prep e-book, NaNo for the New and Insane, found here http://www.lazette.net/FreeStuff/NaNo.htm, by coming up with 30 plot points, so each day I'll have something new to write about.

 

--and I also found this awesome October NaNo prep site: http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1711639-October-NaNo-Prep-2010-Calendar. It has "tasks" for every day to help you (if you wish) get a handle on what you'll be writing.

 

You can of course just jump in on November 1 and see what happens!! But there are also lots of things you can do until then. Whatever suits your style.

 

Isn't it yummy???

[BikeBookBread]

First timer here... I just signed up yesterday. I'm a little scared. Haven't even got a clue what I'm going to write about, but wow -- it sounds fun!