http://www.nanowrimo.org/index.php

I've copied this from the "What is NaNoWriMo" page:

"What is NaNoWriMo?
National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30."

Is anyone interested in this?

How many words is this per day?

Ani

Under 1,700 words a day. Do-able, certainly, but the quality of the resultant, unedited novel is unlikely to be impressive.

Yes, but that's not the point.

From their site:

"Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down."

But if you had a synopsis ready to go, it would help.

Ani

I always liked the fact that they were completely upfront about the fact that it was "the timely production of crappy novels". They don't pretend you're going to write a masterpiece. Or not initially anyway. I've met a few people online who've taken part in it. One of them finished, two others didn't. They said it was fun.

Cas

It seems like it would be fun. 1,700 words a day - not 1,700 perfect words. Not even coherent. Just whatever comes out. I think I could do that. It could be a lesson in letting characters, events take over, which I have to admit I don't allow. I'm a tyrant, so my writing rarely runs away with me. What an excellent excellent exercise this would be, and I am sure that at the end of the month, whether or not I were to reach the 50,000 word target, there would be something worth keeping.

I am sorely tempted. Sorely sorely. I am doing two writing courses simultaneously right now, but what the heck.

Ani

<Added>

I don't remember writing 'excellent' twice. Hmmm.

It's seriously tempting but I can't imagine writing that volume every day after work... so I'd have to cram it into the weekends... dunno... I'm tempted but I don't think I can match the output.

Dee
x

As I have never written anything like 1,700 a day, not even close, I suppose it was rather optimistic for me to state that I could do the 1,700 a day in the circumstances.

Still, I want to. I want to. I want to.

If anyone decides to do it, we could keep a running tally of our words here. And we could cheer each other on, too.

<Added>

Even if there's nothing we would be prepared to post on the site until after the event, when we've had time to start fixing.

If you allocated 8 hours a day (480 minutes) that would be 3.54 words a minute but who can spare 8 hours so lets say 2 hours a day then 14.166 words a minute or 1 every 4 seconds that is a hell of a task but good luck has to be worth a try and who knows you may find the masterpiece in there after all.

This sounds like it might be fun. I think I'll go for it. Are you allowed to do any pre-planning?

I like the approach of just banging the thing out. Someone came onto this site early on in the year and mentioned an alternative approach to novel writing. The system is basically this: sit down and bang the thing out as fast as possible; rewrite once to get the story right and again to get the grammar right.

I tried this method on my last attempt and it kept the story fresh and lively. I just had to add a fourth revision - cutting down - cos I tend to waffle.

Colin M

I don't see why we shouldn't be able to plan ahead. if I do this (which I want to do), I will work from a synopsis.
Fortunately I am working on one at the moment!

It's a synopsis for a novel that I initially tried to write as a short story, but quickly understood that it was too much for a short story. It's been plaguing me now since May 2003, so this is a brilliant opportunity to start squeezing it out. No, shoving it out. Or something like that.

Ani

What about one words every ten seconds -- that's six per minute times 60 minutes is 360 per hour. 1700 words divided by 360 words is .. calculator? - damn, where is it? - did it by ahnd - something like 4.7 hours. Hmmm.

One word every four seconds is 25 words per minutes times 60 minutes is 1500 words, so an hour and eight minutes to write it at that pace.

I've just gone back and looked at your figures, olebut, and I think that I botched up my math.

Ani

Oh, I see the problem, I had 100 seconds per minute in the 10 1 ord per four second calculation.

<Added>

"in the 1 word per 4 second calculation" I meant. (I'll use the preview key this time!)

Oh tosh. I've written 1,500 words in a couple of hours several times. Try writing 10 words a minute for 3 hours, and you're there. If you can't manage 10 words a minute, you either have no imagination, or you're a lousy typist.

60 seconds to type this message, I'll count the words later.

IB, yes, when you put it that way! That's one sentence and this makes two. 15 words. Just a few seconds (though it took afew seconds to count up the words, too.)

I'm going to do it.

From 1 October you can register at the NaNOWriMo website. Plus I wrote a synopsis over the weekend for an idea that had been forming itself for a long time, so I'll have something to run with. I hope.

Ani

Sound like a crazy sort of fun, I'm gonna give it a go! Yep it will porbably be crap but if Stephen King can bash away for 5 hours a day five day a week then at the end of the month go back and see if there is any think useful why can't the rest of us?

Well peps here goes - lets keep each other posted.