And the rocks below say "throw your skinny body down, son."

[cyrano]

Because Rivendell Rose is a bad influence, I am now considering using NaNoWriMo as a tool to bludgeon 'Exodus' into novel-like shape. When I get home, I plan to put a hold on the library's copy of 'No Plot? No Problem!' which is advertized as the sort of NaNoWriMo companion volume.
It means I'd probably spend a lot of the month out of social contact with folks (or in social contact but with a laptop in my lap) or after a week I'd decide it was too much work and bail.
If anybody, especially those with first hand experience in this insanity, has any comments or suggestions, please feel free to make them.

Comments

[irismoonlight.livejournal.com]

OOo!
*envision a bony hand curling fingers enticingly*
Come PLAY with us, my pretty. It's only 1700 words a day. Come PLAY!

Heh.

Seriously, the weirdly fun thing about NaNoWriMo is that it IS social. You log onto the site and there are a boatload of forums to meet people in your area or around the planet who are doing the same insane thing you are, at the same time. Hell of a way to procrastinate from writing..er... make new friends. And area organizers schedule meet-in-the-flesh gatherings, some of which are write-ins, where you bring your laptop and write in the same location. Whoo. Solidarity in creative insanity.

Or you can avoid all that and type at home alone, staying off the forums and creating against that midnight Nov. 30 deadline. Whatever works. I've never read Chris' book, but he's a kick, so go forth and read.

Point is, NaNoWriMo makes it fun. I've written three books that way. I am not working 50 hour weeks at a job that's driving me nuts, but other participants are, so YMMV.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Okay, so, 1700 words a day looks *huge* from here. But that's only if I plan to participate *and* win, I suppose. (:

[mnarra.livejournal.com]

Here's the secret to NaNoWriMo:

Write Shit.

That is intended in both the "write shit" sense and the "write shit" sense. Just sit down and start slamming the words out, no striking out words, no going back a page because you left stuff out or screwed it up. Create a manuscript that is utterly unintelligible and not suitable for sharing with anyone.

A year after the fact, no one has yet been permitted to read "Scapegoat" -- to include me. I hope to be able to read it next year.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Do you think, at that point, you will edit it and turn it into an actual story? Or will you simply laugh in that horrified hysteric fashion as you read it and then throw it into the bottom of the drawer?

[mnarra.livejournal.com]

Both, actually. I plan to write a synopsis of what I recall the story to be before I read it, then do a blank-page rewrite based on good bits that I wrote and the more coherent story that I synopsized.