Yeah, I know, I've been sort of not around. But I'd be horribly remiss if I didn't post about NaNoWriMo in MFC.
As you may remember from my posts for the past several years, every November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo.
During NaNoWriMo, people all over the world try to write a 50,000 word novel (that's about the length of The Great Gatsby or The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). They start on November 1 and finish by November 30. One novel in one month.
How? Determination and caffeine. Why? lots of reasons. Thrill of the challenge. Fun of writing. Mental exercise. Bragging rights. Peer pressure.
For the fifth time, I will be participating, and, hopefully, succeeding for the fifth time. For more info or to sign up, visit nanowrimo.org and get ready, because the fun starts in just a few hours.
I'll be posting daily status updates and short excerpts on my livejournal.
I know there are others who've participated in the past. Who else is having a go at it this year?
Eh... I know I said in one other topic I'd be joining, but I've changed my mind since then.
Failing schoolwork comes first. 
Sure I'll try again. I want to at least beat my record from last year of like... 500 or so words. 
Once again I have no idea what to write though. Crab people maybe...
I'm typically a short story writer, but I've thrown my Dungeons & Dragons inspired fantasy writer hat into the bucket: www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/210551
Probably do excerpts and status on my deviantArt
Who likes to rock the party?
Who likes to rock the party?
NaNoWriMo likes to rock the party.
I've been waiting for this for a while, and I'm ready. I'm gonna do it this time, and it's gonna be awesome.
I already said this in the SPA, but as part of my preparation for this, I've given away all my video games, just for the month of November. That's right. The Wii, X-box 360, DS, PS2, PSP and even the PS3 I just bought are all going out to friends until the end of the month. I also took out the power cable for my PC and asked my roommate to hide it until December 1st. Nothing but me and my laptop and a copy of Open office.
Who likes to rock the party?
Like I said in the SPA thread, college, work, and collegework have all gotten the best of me this November, but that doesn't mean I'm not gonna be writing. I have my own story challenge to finish (100 short stories based on a list of given words FTW!).
But I did complete last year, and I still can't believe I managed it. I'll be cheering all of you crazy authors on this year!
~Shadowed Spirit Sage
It's the 50,000 word count which is what I have problems with. Usually that's only chapter 5...haha.
Edit: Emo quitting stage is over. Kitty's on track now.
I could not sleep last night and was up and writing around 6 am. Then I printed off what I had, along with all of my notes and pre-writing, shoved em in a binder, and took it to work with me, where without the aid of a word processor I was forced to make do with notebook paper and a sharpened pencil. All told, I made today's quota and a little bit more; 2k words under my belt =3
to think that it'll take me several weeks just to struggle to write a 5000 word essay.. and you people are writing 10 times as much, for fun? madness, i say! 
No. THIS. IS. SPARTA!
*Shot*
Day three, morning word count 2221. I need to get my but into gear... Dx
After three years of contemplating it, I finally decided that if I managed to get a plot and outline 2/3 done, I'd join. That happened, so I decided to go for it. Super Long Zelda Fic Ahoy!
It's day three, I'm only partly through Chapter 3, and already 1/10 to the goal. At the end of 11/1, I looked at my word count (at that point 3000-something), and it suddenly dawned on me: 50,000 really isn't such a daunting number, after all.
50K is really not alot. Its when people start talking about 150K, that I kinda step back and go "Yeahhh ok...a bit much right now?"
Thanks to all that are posting theirs online to read, gives me a chance to see how much great literature there is yet to be read 
I'm not even 7% done on day 3's end... I need to get my butt into gear... T_T;;
So... shall we post excerpts just for the hell of it? xD
Day 4 begins and i'm yet to get a chance to start!
I'm just about on track. 6'000 words in and my writing time for today is allocated "After Empire. Interupt me during that movie and DIE!"
Now I just need to work out how to get from point A to point B.
Battling a newfound sinus infection (curse this frail physical form x_x ), just hit 6k. I need to make quota today...
*clears throat noisily*
I got off to a really strong start but floundered a bit. For nearly ten days I was stuck at 25,000. But now I've managed to hit 30,000, just from one day of writing. Still a bit behind, but catching up.
How's everyone else doing?
Over 42K as of last night, at least according to Word. The NaNo automated word count shows fewer than Word does, I know, but I haven't done an upload for a while to see how big the difference currently is. I'm just gonna keep going until Word says I've got over 52K. I should be safe by then.
Granted, the story is nowhere near halfway done, so December and NaNoFiMo, here I come.
I got to 36,000 last night. Gonna try spree as much as I can this weekend the END the damned thing.
EDIT: 42,015 now. 7,985 to go.
Come on Kitty. FINISH IT. FINISH IT!
34,000
I am seriously lagging. My story wasn't even approaching its halfway mark, so I sort of decided to "fast forward" to later in the story.
I refuse to fail. I simply refuse. If I have to stay up all week I will finish this damn thing.
I am winner!
Finished on a good 51,000ish words. That was tough >>;
Situation is critical. I'm at 39,150 words and this novel is sucking hard.
So it's time to win this thing the only way I can: playing dirty.
Here's what I'm going to do.
The fourth wall has now broken, and the author is emerging. He is about to explain some of the symbolism used in the novel, for the benefit of the reader (not that anyone will be reading this tripe).
This novel is full of Hellenistic Philosophy.
And so, I am including the full text paper on Hellenistic Philosophy that I wrote last week. I wrote it during November, so this is technically within the rules, but it's playing dirty. I hope that I don't have to incorporate my paper on the film "Dirty Pretty Things," or on the novel "North and South," but if things look dire I will do it.
Furthermore, I am completely setting aside my ideas for the plot of this novel (which, I maintain, were excellent and will be reinstated in a later draft) and I am going to simply bring every character together into one room and write a gigantic brawl.
I will have a work of narrative fiction. It will be at least 50,000 words in length. That is all.
I was at 35k last Saturday and realized the only way to finish would be to completely abandon all other activities and lock myself in a closet somewhere so I could concentrate on writing, something I was not prepared to do. So instead I just dropped it, heaved a huge sigh of relief, and am preparing a short personal essay about all the things I learned this year, to get prepared for NaNo 2008.
NaNo is very much a marathon of writing, and like a 26.2-mile run, it takes training and conditioning throughout the year to make it through; I keep thinking I can jump in all gung-ho in the middle of October and expect to finish things. To that end, I've already sketched out a rough guide to help build my creative stamina, hopefully that will help me come next November.
As they say, better luck next time. I wish everyone here still doing it their best on their ways to 50k!
I think I'm at around...20 or 25K words...and while I've been known to do 50K in one day (Those were legendary and rare)...I think I'll try again next year...haha.
I have Torn's problem - once I get started, stopping at just 50,000 words is an effort.
I was too busy this year, anyway. Maybe next year...
So in order to win, I dragged my novel off into ridiculous territory. However, I managed to bring it back to seriousness and got a decent ending (if a bit bare-bones in terms of description of events).
But I finished, at 8:03 on November 30th. A bit close, but I always manage.
So, yeah, fifth successful NaNo is done. hurrah!
