Comments on: Surviving My First NaNoWriMo

By: Dana

Dana — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:48:00 +0000

Wow, 65K in a month is a great accomplishment! I’ve never done NaNo because I’m in a similar situation to Susan’s — November, December, and January are absolutely crazy months for my day job. I’m lucky if I can write even ten pages a week during those months.

My trick for turning off the internal editor is to write longhand, either with a pen and paper or on my tablet laptop. If I try to type draft straight into my PC, I just cannot stay away from the delete key! I’m not sure why my longhand method works, but I’m glad it does.

By: Melia

Melia — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 09:30:00 +0000

Congrats! Thanks for sharing your experience. I pittered out a crazy busy month for me. I so wish it was a spring time thing. But you have given me that extra nudge that maybe next year it will be worth trying. Cheers!

By: Susan Kelley

Susan Kelley — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:44:18 +0000

Congratulations to everyone who participated. I never have and probably won’t next year either. I always seem to be in the middle of some other project with a deadline in November. Thanks to my local chapter of RWA, I set a goal each month and it helps me keep going when I want to slouch off.

By: Lianne

Lianne — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:12:23 +0000

I’ve been doing Nano for 9 years (okay, maybe 8 if you don’t count the year I quit before 1000 words because of an eye infection).

This year’s book, I got to the end of act two (of the three act + denoument novel structure) with 52,000 words before the end of yesterday. Now I just need to get the last act finished, then I can start major rewrites, and see if this story is one that I would let anyone else read.

By: katiebabs

katiebabs — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:13:16 +0000

I was very close to not taking part in NaNo this year. I am so glad I did because not only did I meet the 50K, but know I can write way past the word count needed. I shut off my internal editor and the words just flowed from my head to the pages.

Perfect advice is definitely to just sit and write, no excuses no hemming and hawing, just do it!

By: Lee

Lee — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:41:51 +0000

As you said, Nano isn’t for everyone, but it does work in many ways. If you want to finishing something or start something Nano is great. It also has several successes to its name. Water for Elephants was one, which state on the NYT for months. I didn’t do it this year. But hope to next year. I’ve done it in the past and helped me write those final words, the end.

By: Caroline

Caroline — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:09:58 +0000

I have yet to participate in a NaNoWriMo, but plan on doing it next year! Kudos to those who did!!

~Caroline

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:18:38 +0000

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By: Sarah Tanner

Sarah Tanner — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:07:36 +0000

Thanks to all of you for sharing your NaNo experiences.

@MicheleKS: Congratulations! If NaNo did anything for me it was to prove that Nora’s butt-in-chair approach works.

@Liz: I love your Weight Watchers analogy! So true.

@Angie: I’m definitely planning on doing NaNo again next year. Obviously, I intend to continue writing between now and then, but perhaps not at such a frenetic pace.

@Wendy A: Funny you should say that about the “write-in” invites. In order to attend such a “write-in”, I would have had to travel over 90 minutes to get to the one nearest to me. That made absolutely no sense and would have cut into my writing time. Maybe if one had been held in my town I might have gone along for an hour or so.

I must say I quite liked the pep talks, particularly those given by writers I know and like.

By: Wendy A

Wendy A — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:45:19 +0000

I agree with Liz. I finished Nano before Thanksgiving with approximately 51,000 words and found the experience both interesting and annoying. If I do it formally again, I won’t join one of the groups. My inbox was flooded with pep talks and invitations to ‘write-ins’ where it was encouraged to discuss plots and character and development of your novel. The point of NaNo was to WRITE, not to socialize and I think a lot of the people were there, as Liz said, for the donuts. To paraphrase another Nora Roberts, the best way to write is “sit your ass in the chair and write.”