[Lestrade]

I hope this is the right place for this thread = )

Anyone else planning on doing NaNoWriMo this year? Have you done it in the past? What're you thinking of writing about?

I did it successfully in 2010 (despite falling way behind and having to write 15,000 words the final day). Last year I was way too busy to do much, so I plan on re-using the idea I didn't really write from last year this year. It's a semi-generic fantasy novel about a group of chosen heroes who have to save the world, but I'm hoping it'll be a little bit unusual in that the way they have to save the world is by releasing a sealed evil god and restoring the proper balance to nature.

My 2010 novel was about a half elf/half dwarf sent as an ambassador to the elven kingdom. It was really mostly a slice of life story and I'm sort of proud of it even though not a lot actually happens in it action-wise.

[John Watson]

I plan on doing it this year. I shouldn't have too much school work during November, and I won't be working because the village is only open on the weekend. But you know all this =p

I've never done it before, though I've considered it the last two years. My idea for this year is a story about a mage. I don't have a whole lot of details about it, yet. At least not enough to actually explain what I'm thinking.

[shay_almost]

I found out about it last year but I wasn't able to do it sadly. This year I'm going to do it. I'm so excited!

[Pathosis]

I've always wanted to do this, but I don't have the motivation. xDDD
It'd be quite the achievement to put under my belt though~

[Lestrade]

I have a hard time writing when I don't have a deadline so NaNo was actually kind of good for me = )

[Pathosis]

I've had this awesome plot in my head for a fanfiction.
But I don't even have the first chapter written because of writers block.
; n ;
It's depressing.

[Mizeria]

I've never done, but I have wanted to. I just forget and never actually do anything.

[Lestrade]

Originally Posted by Pathosis

I've always wanted to do this, but I don't have the motivation. xDDD
It'd be quite the achievement to put under my belt though~

That's why NaNo is awesome! You can just make yourself go without worrying about whether it's good or not until after you're done XD

[Quiet Man Cometh]

I've heard of it, but I don't do it. I've sadly come to the despairing realization that I am just not a novel writer. I've tried, but the farthest I've ever gotten was a single part of what was bound to be a four part novel that I ultimately felt was derivative and somewhat of a "favour of the day" type of book. That was some years ago so it's about time for me to try again. ;)

I write short stories instead, and poetry. Pulling off a short story in a month would be something worth trying I think. My latest short that I finished (billed as poetry rather then prose as it mixes the two) was begun sometime back in 2009, probably when I was taking my course on Ancient Egyptian religion. My writing speed is atrocius, and I often take so long to write something that my intent changes which ultimately results in a re-write.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

I've never liked NaNoWriMo. November is an extremely inconvenient time for me, possibly the worst writing month of the year with the way my school work tends to fall. I also disagree with the philosophy of the project, in that I'd rather plan something out in exacting precision and have the first "draft" be as near to complete as possible rather than push myself into getting words on the page only to be left with a (very likely) useless morass of broken character arcs, plot holes, and innumerable other issues that will crop up moving at that kind of pace.

50,000 words is also only half of a novel. I've been learning that the hard way with the collaborative novel I've been writing with my cousin for the past few years. We got to the "end" only to realize we had to go back and expand the story tremendously to take it from a novella to a novel, which is what it was conceived as.

I mean, I'm sure NaNo is fun, I guess I just... don't write for fun? I derive enjoyment from writing things I'm satisfied with or proud of. The writing process is extremely painstaking for me, I obsess over sentence structure and word choice to the point where I can get completely stalled out on a piece over a single word and never end up finishing it. I also constantly second-guess myself, so that, by the time I get halfway through something (especially something novel-sized) I end up thinking that what I've wrote is irredeemable garbage and giving up or starting over.

So, no, I don't think NaNo is for me. :P

[Quiet Man Cometh]

What he said, but I do like the idea of just powering my way through a word count and not obsess over details for once.

I'm not all that familiar with how NaNoWriMo works, just the main idea, but I figure that's enough for my purposes.

I thought that 100 000+ was high for the average novel. I've heard that as new authors go, 60 000 is the ideal mark as the bricks are usually saved for established authors that publishers know they can make money on and aren't too concerned about the extra money to print a larger book.

[Lestrade]

50k is certainly a shortish novel, but it's not like you have to stop there XD And a lot of people who do NaNo add more and edit later.

I don't think it's generally going to produce a really good, polished product, but that isn't really the point. My 2010 NaNo novel had parts that I really, really liked, and I ended up pulling out some of those parts, shuffling other stuff around, and turning it into a short story that I really like.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

@Quiet, I think that's largely the case in genres outside of fantasy. From what I understand, 200-page fantasy novels are not currently vogue, and haven't been for a while.

@Lestrade, I understand the sentiment, I just have such a hard time getting into my "writing zone" (outside of which I lock up and can't get a word on the page) that I want to make sure it's a 100% effort on my part once I do get there. Nice that you ended up getting something out of it, though, that's good.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Not sure, I've heard the same for fantasy since the comment referenced G.R.R. Martin and Robert Jordan for authors of the big novels. This was a couple years ago though. Epic, lengthy fantasy works might be the sellers now, but look at how the Harry Potter books grew after the first one. Not sure if Rowling would have gotten the larger books published without first having the shorter ones sell.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

Even the first one was over 300 pages, wasn't it? I mean, as a counterpoint, look at Erikson. They were meh about Gardens of the Moon, but they found out he had plans for 10 more 800+ page books, they were throwing money at him to get him to work for them. (Granted, that was a unique confluence of circumstances of his publisher wanting to compete with other big fantasy series)

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Ah. I imagine series are popular with publishers if they sell well because they provide a good long term investment. If you can guarantee a novel that will sell at least reasonaly well each year or two for the next 10 years then it's more security for the publishing company in the event that they can't find the next big thing from new submissions.

*This is theory of course. I have not actually dealt with publishing companies and only read about such thing from articles by editors or agents and such. Never know what might be useful to know. :)