Julie Israel

How do YOU observe NaNoWriMo?

Happy Friday, fellow writers! This week’s forum is aimed at novelists, or those with aspirations to become one:

How do YOU observe NaNoWriMo?

National Novel Writing Month is a challenge taken by writers in the US (and the world over) who aim to write a 50,000 word, 175 page novel in the course of thirty fun, frantic, and fear-filled days. While many of us struggle to get words on the page, and then nitpick over what we do manage to get out, NaNoWriMo’s 1,667 words-a-day challenge pushes us to produce now and edit later.

Are you participating? First time? What are you working on? Do you have NaNoWriMo traditions besides word count– favorite cafes, comfort foods (god knows we’ll need them), or WINES, perhaps? Let us know below!

Julie Israel

2 November, 2012

Books, Inspiration, Writing

Ernest Hemingway, NaNoWriMo, Writing, writing community

13 responses to “How do YOU observe NaNoWriMo?”

writeaubreywrite

November 2, 2012 at 8:00 pm

This is my first NaNoWriMo too. After two days of it now, I’m finding it less daunting to imagine 1667 words/day for the next 28 days. I actually managed to break 2,000 words yesterday, something that seemed impossible before. But god, am I tempted to edit…

Reply
1. Julie Israel
  
  November 3, 2012 at 9:36 am
  
  I know the feeling!!! Being in “production only mode” is helping me too (much to my disbelief, Stephen King’s normal 2,000 words/day actually seems a human possibility now) but I still can’t really wrap my head around not making any edits for a whole MONTH! I’ve got a running list in my head…lol…we’ll see what happens.
  
  Congrats on your first attempt and progress– and keep it up! 🙂
  
  Reply
Daniela

November 3, 2012 at 12:06 am

Congratulations Julie -:)! I have only recently heard of NaNoWriMo and only because of my blogging friends. For a brief moment I contemplated participating … but decided against it, at least for now. I can off course rattle off number of every-day excuses, (all of them real), like I work full time and alike … but the truth is I just do not feel confident enough. Having said that, just this week I have received a surprising acceptance into Iowa Workshop on the basis, (get this), of samples of my writings I sent them! So I am now panicking about that … luckily it does not start until January next year!

All the best with NaNoWriMo!
Daniela

Reply
1. Julie Israel
  
  November 3, 2012 at 9:42 am
  
  Daniela, thank you, but I should be congratulating YOU!!! You were accepted into the Iowa Workshop?? That’s FANTASTIC news!!! Well done! Given your writing talent your acceptance doesn’t surprise me in the least. I’m also pretty sure that, if you put your mind to it (with adequate time, of course– I understand how demanding full time work is), you could work your way up or meet your own word count goals.
  
  At any rate I look forward to hearing more about your work and the workshop! Congratulations again 😀
  
  Reply
  1. Daniela
    
    November 3, 2012 at 3:45 pm
    
    Thank you very much Julie! As I mentioned before, your encouragement and support really means a lot to me! I am looking forward to the workshop, but I am also quite scared … I wrote little bit about it in my last post and am planning to write about the course on the Lantern as it progresses, so everyone who would like to know more can find out.
    
    Kind Regards,
    Daniela
    
    Reply
Papizilla

November 3, 2012 at 7:50 am

This is my first time really buckling down and trying to complete it. I have participated in past years, only to taper off towards the 3rd or 5th day…:( sometimes I last until the middle of the month. This time I will do it! As the supporting cast of the every Adam Sandler movie says..”You can do it!” This time I shall. Like the new look of the blog(hoping you changed it just recently and not weeks ago… first time I noticed.) 🙂

Reply
1. Julie Israel
  
  November 3, 2012 at 9:46 am
  
  Congratulations and I wish you the best in your attempts! I hear that the first week is hardest…so let’s toughen up and show our word processors what we’re made of! 😉 (Also, I like the bit of Adam Sandler advice…it’s TRUE!)
  
  Thanks for your comment about the blog 🙂 I’ve just made a few little tweaks in the last couple weeks. Added the “I’m Writing a Book page” for one. Or perhaps you caught the post format– this time I put my image at the bottom rather than the top. Just for kicks, but maybe I will keep it that way!
  
  Cheers and I look forward to updates on your NaNo progress!
  
  Reply
  1. Papizilla
    
    November 3, 2012 at 10:21 am
    
    I would have sworn I reblogged this as well. Hmmmm, guess not. Doing it now though! 🙂
    
    Reply
Papizilla

November 3, 2012 at 10:22 am

Reblogged this on The Ranting Papizilla and commented:
I love NaNoWriMo and this year I plan on finishing the darn thing. Are you with us?

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Virginia

November 4, 2012 at 12:53 am

Good luck with nano, Julie 🙂 I was thinking of taking part this year but November is shaping up to be rather busy so I didn’t want the added pressure…..sad face….but will be cheering my fellow writers on! 🙂

Reply
1. Julie Israel
  
  November 4, 2012 at 8:17 am
  
  Well played, Virginia, and I fully understand…NaNo IS pretty time-consuming. It’s something you should want to do for fun– not have to stress about (well, no more than the average writer stresses about word count)!
  
  Thank you for your support, too– it is definitely other writers that encourage me to push myself and remind me that YES, it IS possible! 😀
  
  Reply
RandomJordan

November 6, 2012 at 9:04 pm

I am both half-heartedly in it this year and in full force. I used to write 3,000+ words a day when I was making the push with my novel and ended up getting a little over 50k done in two weeks, but that certainly doesn’t make Nanowrimo any less daunting or challenging, because I now have to do the same thing with an entirely different book!

Originally I had plans to do a young adult novel I had been researching for and I did start writing it with the first few days of Nano, but that changed quickly to me writing the second book to my series instead, which has well passed into the second chapter (And left me considerably behind in word count). This mostly came about because I just really wanted to write this second book more than the other and I’m going to follow that flow of thought rather than force myself against it.

My personal goal is to have around 30k words done with this month in my second book, but it’s entirely possible I might pull more out of my… tooter. Mostly it’s just to set me on course to make sure I’m getting a new book out at least every six months.

Reply
1. Julie Israel
  
  November 6, 2012 at 9:55 pm
  
  What wonderfully ambitious goals you have! Man, if I could get the whole trilogy I’m working on out in a year and a half I might keel over from happiness. 3,000+ words a day is incredible. So far, my personal best is 2,000 flat.
  
  And good on you for starting where the story’s hot! If you feel compelled to write that (the second) book first, it only makes sense to me if that’s what is clearest in your head… Funny that you mention that, actually. For the trilogy I’m working on I originally wanted to start on the second book, but I decided against it; however, in starting the story at the beginning (with the first book) I think that altered the story significantly and obviated most of what I had planned for the second book, anyway. FUNNY how that works.
  
  Anyways, best of luck to you in accomplishing your NaNo goals and beyond!
  
  Reply