NaNoWriMo?

[[Mariko]]

Anyone else here doing NaNoWriMo this year? Really, I'm just looking to start a support group of NaNoWriMo Gaia junkies XD;;
 

[Twilight Falcon]

I haven't heard of it... *so I can't help at all...sorry*  

[Pixilated]

Is that where you try and write a book in a month?  

[[Mariko]]

Yeah, Pixi. You've got 30 days to write a 50000 word novel (roughly about 175 pages). I'm 5000 words into my novel so far, but I can feel myself slowing down D: I'm trying to at least average 2-2.5k a day for this first week.
 

[Akina-cho-chan]

Wow. I've never heard of it. that sounds really tough.  

[boconnotto]

My personal belief is that if you need a month dedicated to writing to get that writing done, you probably shouldn't be bothering with trying to write a novel. It's a nice sentiment, but the majority of what I've read of NaNoWriMo novels can be summed up by the posters the writing center hung this year:

"It's an opportunity for non-writers to bang out 50,000 in one month".

Not a novel. Not literature. Just 50,000 words with a small level of coherency to bind them together.

.:boconnotto:.

 

[[Mariko]]

For me, it's mostly a "learn to write using deadlines" kind of thing ~_~ I'm usually pretty horrible with deadlines, so by using the month to write 50k words that are mostly put together with coherent thought, that's good enough for me. Then again, I realize it's not for everyone.
 

[boconnotto]

Nyxyn

Well, that does describe what I ended up with last year. xd

It's like any generalization, though. There are good writers who do it, and there are a whole lot of bad writers who do it. Yes, there are people who shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the English language who do it! wink Personally, I think it's good to challenge yourself to something like that sometimes, especially if it's not something you would normally do. Chances are against you ending up with a gem, but for me it was the challenge that mattered, not what I ended up with.

I've had too much going on this year to do it though. I wanted to do it. But I just moved into a new apartment, and I've had a million things to take up my time. I thought I could resign myself to living out of boxes for a month while I wrote, but I was wrong.

Well, there's that and a few other things. Most of what I have read from NaNoWriMo is crap. The only thing I read that was any good didn't make it to the 50,000 word marker--which I think is an idiotic standard to begin with. The logic of it is that it's a "novel" length. Okay, dandy. But does that mean that the words string together into a "novel"? Not necessarily.

The other reason I dislike NaNoWriMo so much is that I hear about it constantly from people on IRC during November. People change their names to XXXX`NaNo and the like, and brag about their word counts-- but that's all they brag about. These people who are participating don't act like they care about the stories or the plotlines, at all.

Just that wordcount of theirs.

I wouldn't mind NaNoWriMo so much if the emphasis were on what the words were, rather than how many have been written. I don't hear "I had this brilliant idea to have X do thisreallyawsomething with Y in the middle of Y's doing thisreallyawesomeotherthing". I hear nothing of plot development, character interaction or building, world establishment; I hear "I MADE IT TO 45,932 LAST NIGHT! PRAISE ME FOR WRITING 13,999 IN THREE DAYS!" which says to me that the person writing only cares about the accomplishment of banging out those words, and not what the words may mean.

What's the point in writing a story if it's only for the sake of a pat on the back for getting a certain number of words out, rather than a certain quality? Even in this thread, no one has discussed their characters, their story, nothing-- just the rate at which they want to write. To me, that's not only wasteful, but degrading to the idea of someone being a "writer".

.:boconnotto:.

 

[[Mariko]]

Honestly, the biggest reason I haven't discussed my characters and such is because it's really personal to me right now. I'm using NaNo as a kind of therapeutic way to deal with me being married but still being bisexual. Plus, I know that, at this moment, my characters are vapid and boring. This is more of a detailed outline than anything right now.
 

[DarquePinkPaper]

When one burns out, another takes its place;

I am gray, I am gray
Shoot it
I am color, I am color
Shooting
This is gray, this is gray
Shot it
I am color, I am color
Shot

I dunno, I wouldn't expect something put out in 30 days to be absolutely brilliant but to me it seems more of an exercise. Something fun and interesting to do for 30 days.
Plus, I'm sure it gives some people really good ideas when they just let whatever come out, come out.

If I wasn't so uh...I'm not sure what you call it, I would do the NaNoWriMo thing. It sounds cute and fun and a good way to work the writing muscles.

At times, they seem close enough to touch,
as they transport your dreams far away.