Anyone going to do NaNoWriMo this year?

Every year I tell myself I'm going to do this, and the best I've ever managed is 50% of the word count. Sigh. But I'm absolutely committed to do it this year. I've got a neat little idea for a story, and I reckon it's worth taking a crack at.

So is anyone else going to try NaNoWriMo this year? And to veterans: have you ever "won"?

I'm kind of glad that you made this. I didn't knew anyone that have tried this. I actually won twice. It's such a fun activity and the fact that you win just by just reaching the minimum word count makes me want to do it every year. I didn't last year because of work but I'm doing it this year for sure. This time I'm actually really confident in doing it compared to the first time. To be honest, those two novels I did where not so good, but now I am working as a freelance writer with some experience, so I am exited to try it this year. I won't be easier though. My first two novels where in Spanish and this time I will do it in English. So that can be a little challenging, not because my English is bad but is not my main language so it might take longer for me to write.

I really hope you manege to finish it this year, I know it's hard to keep at it but it feels so good when you've finally done it.

Just about to make this thread as well

I've tried three times now, twice with terrible story ideas and one which was alright. I always gave up at around the 25000 mark though, when I realised I'd have to start working to the conclusion and I'd simply opened up too many plot threads to close in the same amount of time.

This year I have exams all across November though, so I might have to sit out D:

I... have no idea what this is. I haven't heard of it before. *looks it up*

Like Chalgyr, I actually had to look this up. I've heard of similar competitions and actually competed in one many moons ago but the word limit was pretty open ended so...you can imagine I took advantage of that.  

Okay - I had heard of this - I had just never seen it referred to like that before. I have never participated in one of these. I love the idea, and honestly the objective of 50,000 words really isn't all that daunting - but I do a ton of writing all of the time it seems. I do writing for a couple of gaming sites, but also have been writing descriptions for a MUD for about 1 1/2 decades and write a fairly lengthy story for my wife, adding between 3-5 pages about every other day for... years now. Of course, she's the only one who ever reads it. It is a cool idea though - I'd be curious to see how everyone progresses here over time. I have never actively participated in this, though I have thought about it numerous times.

To Matt's initial post - what do you mean by 'won'? Actually hitting the 50k word mark, or is there something more to the process I'm unaware of?

Chalgyr - You can win by just reaching the 50k word mark. The goal it to get people writing stuff, is just a fun activity. I think you can share it with other in the forums if you want and get criticism, but I never did that. I would do it here though if some of you are up for it and we can get a friendly activity going on here in the forum.

I'm up for it, Astor! Let's motivate!

Huh - so there's actual prizes. Not that I need that to motivate myself to write -more-, but that could I suppose encourage me to share it. Not that I think anyone's particularly interested in yet another fantasy world of swords and sorcery. :PThat's about 95% of what I've written about over the last 10 years or so. Still, after posting to this yesterday, my wife said I should take a look at my various chapters I've written over the last year - and it was interesting. See, this is my stories folder on my PC from the last roughly... 7 or 8 years:



About a dozen folders...

But then she pointed out how many chapters are in each:



And how long each chapter is (usually about 5-12 pages in Word, which she tells me would be like 2 novel pages)



She's been needling me for years to try and write SOMETHING for other than just her, so she did the math just on this one folder and figured 550 words a page, at roughly 7 pages per chapter with about 210 chapters worked out to be about 808,000 words per folder there... which sorta floored me. I had never considered that I had written THAT much until she was talking to me about it last night. Yeesh.

I guess the point of my post? First, 50,000 seems like a pretty doable amount. I have enough other stuff going on right now that I'm not sure the month of November makes sense for me or not this year to participate in something like this (rumor has it there's a new video console or two headed my way) - but also as encouragement. I've love to see what you guys are putting out, and just wanted to share that the goal of this thing should be pretty doable. I definitely want to hear about everyone's participation and progress here.

So I'm curious if anyone's signed up or posted anything yet? I created an account and looked about VERY briefly yesterday, but haven't done any posting of my own. I did start a new project to write last Friday, but only got a small ways into it and am not sure I am 'sold' on going forward with it - at least with this event in mind.

So... I signed up for the forum. Amusingly, I found out my oldest daughter did as well the other day. I made a couple of small posts and started a story on Nov 1st. I'm sitting at 15,983 words after the first 5 chapters. Unfortunately a crazy week ahead probably means I won't get a TON more done over the next few days. I also don't feel like I'm at some 1/3 to 1/4 mark. It was just more a really long set of introductions for characters. Eeep.

If anyone else is doing this and wants to buddy me up on there, I'm using the pen name... Chalgyr.

Shocking, I know.

Man I started but I don't think I'll be able to finish it. I'm taking a sudden vacation to go visit my family and that going to be a busy vacation. Plus I'll be playing PS4 back home with my brother. I knew this was going to be a busy month but I wanted to do it anyway! I am at 31,620. The only way I can finish it is that I make a miracle happen the last week this month but is not going to be easy. I'll let you know if I come back to finish it but for now I'm out for a week.

Hope you finish it though. You got a good start with 15,000 the first week.

Nice work, Astor! 31k is nothing to sneeze at.

Unfortunately, after week two? I'm still around 15k. Like you, I think I just have too much going on. This week was super busy at work - I'm going to wind up with more than 70 hours, and then tomorrow PS4, next week XB1. Between all of the game articles I write, my TOTAL writing this month should break 50k, but I have my doubts my actual story will.

You're more than Halfway there, Astor! I believe in you!

And I think I'll try this maybe next year. I have at least 3 stories in my head waiting to be written, including one that I've been working on for over 5 years. Needless to say, I could easily get over 50 chapters with that one.

CanisWolfred wrote:You're more than Halfway there, Astor! I believe in you!

And I think I'll try this maybe next year. I have at least 3 stories in my head waiting to be written, including one that I've been working on for over 5 years. Needless to say, I could easily get over 50 chapters with that one.

That's how I feel about this one I started. It's been so long gestating that the content is definitely there. It just needs out of my head and into my PC now.