Hello! With November fast approaching, I was curious whether any other Pinsiders participated in or would be interested in participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).

For those unfamiliar, it is a self-inflicted challenge (haha) to write 50,000 words of a novel (or any kind of written work - since the rules are self-imposed, they're pret-ty flexible) over the course of the month of November - 50k being the accepted "standard" for the lower limit of what constitutes a novel-length written work. The official website for the event is nanowrimo.org.

This will be my twelfth time doing NaNoWriMo. It's a ton of fun, if grueling - I've managed to miss the mark every time, yet I keep trying. I find it to be one of my best motivators for keeping up with writing regularly while trying to balance work and life (and pinball!), and I spend the eleven months between NaNos in eager anticipation of November 1st, daydreaming and planning all the while.

Will anyone else be making the attempt this year?

Yeah. The target goal per day is 1,667, if I recall, so that you hit 5,000 every three days, which would give you the 50,000 in thirty. It is a steep incline. You have to carve out a solid hour to two hours of writing time, and that doesn't account for instances where you have to pause and figure out what's going on.

The challenge stresses that this a first draft, so the emphasis is quantity, not quality - plot holes and the like can be saved for revision AFTER November - so that can take some of the stress off, but it is still a lot to do.

Thank you!

Awesome! I'm glad to see other writers on here! Good luck with your novel!!

Hah, yeah, the Thanksgiving holiday is a double-edged sword like that. It's built-in free time...with built-in expectations. I'm glad you were able to use the time to catch up and pull through!

It's a pretty fun ride. I got into it when a friend told me about it on Halloween night, of all times, so I kind of dove in headfirst with NO clue as to what I'm doing.

Which...sounds eerily like what I'm doing right now, I guess, haha!

I agree, it's pretty cool.

That's understandable - life happens. Glad you're going to give it a try!

Congratulations! That's awesome!

Hey man, that's what revisions are for! They say getting the words (or just words) down is the first part. Revision is the part where you look through, figure out what the heck you just wrote, and make it into what you want. Cull the bad parts, polish the good, etc. Revision seems like a saga in its own right...

Of course, I'm hoping I can say that from the authority of experience after this NaNo, haha!

I couldn't say I was ever on pace, but I did manage to pull it off!

How did you fare?

Yeah, learning to quiet your inner editor is HARD. Especially for my writing style (handwrite on the go, transcribe while home, meaning I expand as I go and reword things).

I picked up a trick this year that I wish I'd been able to stick to absolutely. It helped so much:

When you find a sentence that breaks continuity, sounds awful, or otherwise makes your inner editor want to scream, instead of deleting what you highlight, white out the text. This way the words still count AND you can rewrite.

How did you do overall?

Ha, I understand completely. My "finish" was basically a poorly cobbled together beginning and the confused foundations for some kind of middle. I effectively wrote 50,000 words of stagnant garbage...which, compared to how little I was writing before, is a quantitative miracle. I'm hoping that I can build the world I planted the seeds for in this story and grow something decent from that, which is more than I had before November. Any step forward in my motivation to write is a good step!

Congratulations on making the quantitative goal - I know some don't like NaNo because it's quantity over quality, but it's still a writing goal regardless. It's something of a step forward. I'm glad you made it!

NaNo is certainly not the only impetus to write. I am glad that you have made it through that gauntlet and that you have taken up writing - in all honesty, I find that quite admirable. Your horror collection and novel sound like worthy endeavors; your passion comes through even talking about them tangentially.