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jjurabong
Joined: 22 Jan 2003
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 Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 11:36 pm Post subject: past nanowrimo participants |
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Hi there,
I'm looking for some advice from past nanowrimo particpants. I'm considering taking the plunge, and have a few questions..
1. Do you think having a solid plotline first is the best way to go, or do you like to let your story develop as you write? What has been your experience?
2. Did you bang out the daily word count per day, no matter what, or did you skip some days and write more when you were feeling more inspired?
3. How much time did it take you
roughly per-day ?
Personally, I have some basic story "settings/characters" that I want to explore, but no plotline. I'm inclined to just start writing on Nov 1st and see what happens. Am I setting myself up for frustration? Thoughts? Advice?
Thanks |
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JongnoGuru
Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep
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| Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 12:00 am Post subject: Re: past nanowrimo participants |
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Does attempting and failing to finish my novel in the one-month time-frame qualify me as a "participant"?
| jjurabong wrote: |
| 1. Do you think having a solid plotline first is the best way to go, or do you like to let your story develop as you write? What has been your experience? |
I had a few plotlines worked out in advance, but I hadn't figured out exactly how or where they were going to intersect before November was already upon me. That was the part where I was just "winging it", how to connect them.
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| 2. Did you bang out the daily word count per day, no matter what, or did you skip some days and write more when you were feeling more inspired? |
What eventually did me in was not taking every advantage to write during the first half of the month, thinking I could make it up in the final stretch. The problem for me was never getting stuck or having writer's block. It was always unforeseeable interruptions. Given my work schedule, there was never any hope of my having a fixed daily word quota. My mistake was not busting ass every free moment in the first two weeks.
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| 3. How much time did it take you roughly per-day ? |
As I said above, that sort of daily writing-time allotment just won't fly for me.
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Personally, I have some basic story "settings/characters" that I want to explore, but no plotline. I'm inclined to just start writing on Nov 1st and see what happens. Am I setting myself up for frustration? Thoughts? Advice?
Thanks |
I would suggest outlining not just one but several possible plotlines in advance, see how you might connect them, decide which one you'll start with, and even try and get a clear idea of what you're going to write on those first few pages.
If it's any encouragement, I think chicks have a higher rate of success at this contest. See, we menfolk are frequently called upon to hunt wild game with sticks for food, or ward off marauding bears from the cave entrance. All the while, chicks are free to keep typing away and eating Doritos. |
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jjurabong
Joined: 22 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 1:45 am Post subject: |
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..and eating Doritos may be the only way through it..lol
Thanks Jongo, I appreciate the insight.
I take it that you are not doing it this year? |
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Dysupes
Joined: 24 May 2005
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| Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 4:06 pm Post subject: |
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Hi!
I participated in Nano last year and the year before and will be doing so again so I thought I'd take a crack at your questions.
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1. Do you think having a solid plotline first is the best way to go, or do you like to let your story develop as you write? What has been your experience?
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I'm one of those people who thinks it's a good idea to have an idea of what you want to have happen and where you want the story to go but I also think that part of the joy of Nanowrimo is to leave things up in the air and out in the open so to speak. If you have a rigid plotline first then you might find yourself sticking to that plotline and not deviating which can lead you into a dead-end. If you start with a very loose idea of the story then you're free to follow the characters and see what they're going to do and where they're going to take you.
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2. Did you bang out the daily word count per day, no matter what, or did you skip some days and write more when you were feeling more inspired?
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I always, always, always bang out at least my daily word count. If I don't make the daily count for one day I make sure to do make it up on the next day. The only problem with not setting yourself up to achieve your daily word count is that once you start feeling uninspired it's so much harder to keep going. If you're stringing it out on the page every day to xxxx number of words then you're guaranteeing yourself that you will write something even when you have nothing to write about. Another idea that I got from past Nanowrimoers is to try to leave your story at an interesting point at the end of your day. That way you're eager to dive back in and finish off an interesting scene that you already have been thinking about. It's definitely a good way to start the day!
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3. How much time did it take you
roughly per-day ?
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I would say that the standard daily count took me a less than an hour to do in a day. You only have to complete 1,667 words per day and that's about 30 - 40 min. depending on how creative I'm feeling. Usually I run about 2200 - 2300 words per hour and for me I try to put in 2+ hours per day during Nanowrimo. But I also have time for that so try to work it into your schedule.
I'm really looking forward to seeing you join the Korea network for Nanowrimo! Come join us! It's a lot of fun and even if you don't succeed at the event you can still meet some cool and interesting people. 
Dysupes |
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jjurabong
Joined: 22 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 3:10 am Post subject: |
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Super helpful post - makes it seem quite do-able. Thanks.
Is there an actual "Korea Network"? Is this something I'll find after I register? |
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Dysupes
Joined: 24 May 2005
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| Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 5:31 am Post subject: |
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When you sign up you can declare a home region and your word totals are tallied up with the rest of the people from that region. There are a whole bunch of us in the Korea region and we have managed to do quite well the last couple of years especially considering our number of participants versus the number of participants in some other regions (like NY for example!).
You can set up your region and everything once you sign up. It's really easy and there are a lot of people waiting to try to make you feel at ease if you're nervous and also to help motivate you in November so that you're able to meet your goals. It's a fun event so please come join!  |
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waterbaby
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Location: Baking Gord a Cheescake pie
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| Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 4:14 am Post subject: |
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Hi jjurabong - I've done Nano twice before. The first time I hit the 50K target and last year I crashed and burned after about 23K.
Neither year did I have a plot line worked out - just some vague ideas. Most of it was filled with utter fluff which was a joy to write  Some of the worst sentences I've ever written filled page after page.
So yeah - I've just let my story unfold over the month.
Some days I wrote nothing, other days I made up for it. I found it easy to catch up if I used the "Word Wars" forums and had a race against other people to churn out as many words as I could in a thirty minute period.
There's an Excel spreadsheet you can download which you can fill in each day with your word total - it's great for letting you know how many words left and what your target word count is for each day. You'll be able to download it from the site - I'm sure it will be posted on the forums as a sticky. Otherwise PM me with your email address and I'll send you a copy.
Some days I'd spend as little as 15 mins, other days (usually weekends) as much as 4-5 hours writing. I found when I was doing the word wars I was doing about 800-1200 words per 30 mins
But in general, I'd do about 1.5-2hrs per day.
Hope this helps and hope to see you over on the Nano Korea forum |
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