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Hello everyone,

It is getting to that time of year again with NaNoWriMo due to start in just over one week. Will any of you be taking part in the challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in a month?

I am giving it a go and I wish all those taking part the very best of luck. Happy writing!



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Dear Clare -

What is your profile name? I'd love to buddy with you!

Mine is -

http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participants/lisashea

I will be writing a murder mystery.

Last edited by Lisa LowCarb / VideoGames; 10/24/12 06:10 PM.

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Hello Lisa, it's great to hear from you. I have just added you as a writing buddy and my profile name is cstubbs.

Always love a great murder mystery, good luck with it. Mine is going to be a horror / supernatural story



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OK great, I've added you in Clare! I admit I can get nightmares from horror but I will support you without reading it smile


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Thanks Lisa, I really appreciate it smile Will definitely keep an eye out for your story. Even though the genre is horror, the aim is to avoid gore and replace it with plenty of short, sharp shocks.




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Hi Clare,

Absolutely not!
What is the point of writing a novel in 30 days?
My plans are to treat my proposed piece of literature as a full-time job entailing extensive research and then a thinking/writing schedule that will take upwards of a year.

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Clare.....I just don't have the time to complete such a project in that short amount of time. I don't rush through my writing. I don't think most people have hours and hours each day to dedicate to this, but if they do then they probably already have several books out by now if they can complete a book in a month and that is their passion in life.

I believe in quality over quantity, no matter how long it takes when it comes to writing a piece. Why rush through it like a contest? I just don't get that. I enjoy writing but I have several obligations that also take up a good amount of my time, including a full time job.

Good luck to anyone taking this on!


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For those who haven't investigated NaNoWriMo, the purpose is a focused effort to create a first draft.

People who invest in this absolutely do months of research and preparation and outlining. They often invest years into that fact-gathering.

A writers-block situation for many writers - mostly new writers - is to then start writing. They just can't do it. They feel intimidated, or perhaps that their output will never be good enough. So they don't get started. The purpose of NaNoWriMo is to help people get through that stage. It is primarily new writers who participate in NaNoWriMo because they face that issue.

Because of the many emotional issues involved with writing, if there was no deadline it would be pushed off, other things would get priority, and it would never get done. I have seen that myself and heard about it from many other writers. So the purpose of a month deadline is to simply "do it" - to get that first draft out. Yes, absolutely one then revises and polishes it! But as Ian said so wisely at the gathering, one cannot edit a blank page. One needs content to edit. So even if that content is a first draft, it is critical to HAVE that first draft to then polish up.

This project is a focused way to get through an enormous writer's block that many writers face. It has been extremely successful in helping literally tens of thousands of writers move through this massive hurdle, and get their book on towards a final product that was published with huge success.

If someone is already a published writer and is easily creating a new masterpiece each year, then they probably do not need this support smile. This is for people who do not already have that finish-a-book-in-a-year system down.

It shouldn't take hours and hours. It's only 50,000 words in a month. So that's barely 1,667 words in a day - which many editors here write as a long article. That would take many of us under an hour. So an hour a day of writing - which is definitely in line with what many of us do.

It's the whole "one step at a time" theory. Get that first draft out at a set, reasonable rate with a deadline. Do it with the support of hundreds of thousands of other people who are cheering you on.


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I really wish anyone who enters this all the luck, and support, in the world. It is a fun thing to do and has a great, and satisfying, goal at the end.

Just one proviso, as someone who worked as a journalist for many years, which meant under extreme time pressure at times, I could not remember ever managing to take only only an hour to write 1,600 original and relevant words to describe a situation, a film or whatever.

Therefore for interest I have spent the last few hours phoning friends who continue to work in TV, in print and the radio, asking them just how long it would take them to complete an assignment of that length.

Not one could manage it in that time and that is the way they earn their living.

The opinion is that the only way to keep within those perimiters would be to rewrite an already written article, cover a topic that is totally banal and requires no original thought, or one that one has been endlessly covered before one way or another so it can easy just be rewritten by rote, and with a few words juggled.

It has nothing to do with knowledge, originality or talent, simply prior usage of the text.

Would therefore think that the "time limit" is somewhat arbitrary, and any authors thinking of making a stab at NaNoWriMo, which is a terrific ambition, should not feel under any type of pressure to try to keep to this schedule.

They should simply be allowed to enjoy their journey wherever it takes them, and at the speed it suits them.

And Toi, Toi, Toi, GOOD LUCK to all of you.





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Dear Francine -

The key word in there is "complete an assignment". We're not talking about a complete, final version! We're talking about a first draft. We're talking about getting the gist of a story onto paper.

Also, the requirement for NaNoWriMo is that it be fiction. It has to be an invention of your brain. So yes, certainly, some people base their fiction in fact - and they do months of research ahead of time to get all those facts laid out. But the actual writing of the story, the moving of characters from here to there, of describing the rooms and letting the characters speak, can simply flow from your fingers.

Stories written in NaNoWriMo can be vibrant, fresh, original, delightful, and fantastic!


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