[extropy-chat] National Novel Writing Month - who's game to try?

[Emlyn]

I was just forwarded information about National Novel Writing Month.
Has anyone here heard of it? Basically, the idea is that over
November, you (and a zillion other people who've signed up) write a
novel, from scratch.

http://www.nanowrimo.org/

>From the website:

"What is NaNoWriMo?

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to
novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to
write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo
is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly
about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort
involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in
NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The
kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks,
and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good
thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving
yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking
and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact
that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month
participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing
the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer
encouragement, commiseration, and -- when the thing is done -- the
kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small
children."

I'm going to do it. It should be an absolute hoot! It's historically
had a social aspect too, people get together and write these novels,
or have a group experience of it in some way - the site calls this
"Novelling". So, I'm wondering, are there are any other extros with
the bottle to give it a go?

If you are going to do it, go sign up on the site and post back here about it.

Apparently it is forbidden to start writing before November 1, and you
must start from scratch. However, it would be a really good idea to
plan out what you are going to do before starting. Once the month
starts, individual and collective word counts are tracked as an
indicator of progress.

Also choosing a genre that doesn't require any research, or too much
actual background knowledge, or internal consistency / logic /
rationality, is a good idea imo. I can't stomach writing a romance
novel, however, so my next best bet is a rollicking fantasy :-)

So, who's with me?

--
Emlyn

http://emlynoregan.com   * blogs * music * software *