NaNoWriMo Participation Announcement 2015!

Guys, it’s almost November again, which means get ready for increased coffee intake, numb fingers and word-vomit we slap with a label that says ‘this is writing’. I’m so excited! I’ve been participating in Nanowrimo every year since 2007, but I’ve only won it 2012 and 2013. I’ve noticed a trend – each year I had high school or college, I lost it. The two years I was just working, I won. Last year I returned to college and therefore lost again. This year… still in college. So likely gonna fail, BUT THAT’S NOT GONNA STOP ME. And because I saw Panda’s post about participating, I decided I should make one as well. :”D

For those three of you out there unfamiliar with Nanowrimo, it stands for National Novel Writing Month. Participation is simple in theory, harder in practice (but also way, way funner in practice). During the month of November, from 12:00am on the morning of November 1st until 11:59:59pm on the night of November 30th, you and everyone else participating, will try to write a 50,000 word novel.

Sounds like a lot, right. Well, it is. But it’s so worth it. To achieve this goal, you need to writing an average of 1,667 words a day, every day. And your writing is going to be bad. But that’s the point. The goal of Nanowrimo is to get you to pound out the roughest of a rough draft of a novel. Don’t worry about editing, don’t worry about plot holes – that’s what December is for. You go back and fix all that stuff then, because if you worry about it in November, you won’t get the word count you want. In the meantime, let your creativity flow. That little plot bunny that’s been hopping around in your head? Write it out. Got two or three of them? Combine them.

Before November 1st, you can make outlines and create character profiles, etc etc. You can do everything except actually start writing the thing. Some people do this rigorously. Some people just start writing with no idea in mind and just wait to see what happens. I’ve done both ways in the past and since then I’ve fallen into a happy medium. I know roughly what I want to do, but I usually don’t have fully developed chapters or characters in my head when I begin (though as I write, I add to the character profiles, etc so I can come back later to reference them). It’s super fun 😀

The most important reason I think you should try Nanowrimo though, is the community. The Nanowrimo community is one of the most positive, most supportive, most interactive groups of people I’ve ever come across on the internet. And that includes when considering the community here, which I also think is wonderfully positive. Everyone participating in Nanowrimo is in the same boat as you. They all support each other during this process – you can bounce ideas off each other, bond through common rantings. The Nano site itself has very active forums in which to do this. Also every few days, either people from the site or actual published authors will send you peptalks to your inbox to keep you going! It’s really encouraging. 😀

The community I usually participate in during Nanowrimo though is reddit’s subreddit for the event. It’s pretty nice. The atmosphere, at least on that particular subreddit, is pretty positive and supportive. I find it a good place to vent and ask for ideas and just feel included in the larger picture of hundreds of thousands of people writing a novel.

Anybody who likes to write should try this. Anybody who likes to be challenged should try this.

If you’d like to be my writing buddy, add me here!

I know I go by a different name there – I promise you, it’s me, haha.

I think this year, I’m going to try to re-write the novel I did in 2012, completely from scratch. I like the plot, but I didn’t like where the story went during the first writing. And now that I’ve read a lot more fantasy, I feel like I might be able to improve the wordbuilding a little bit. Hopefully. Well, wish me luck!

Let me know if you’re participating! Ace, I’m looking at you.