CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

For those who've never heard of it, November is National Novel Writing Month! There's a fantastic websiteto help those who want to get started. The goal? 50,000 words in 30 days.

I know a lot of us participated last year. So who's prepping up to do it this year? I'm going to be starting a new story than last time, and have been looking for inspiration from the Random Fantasy Novel Title Generator. I've also bookmarked Write or Die, since I know I'll be needing it!

I...might be. Possibly. Potentially. With Youmacon and a wedding I'm in though...sketchy I will be able to make time alongside my coursework load. I have a few scattered ideas for making a backstory to my OC, Okami, though, which I have always wanted to flesh out. We'll see.

I'm in again this year! I'm going to write something I haven't written before- An Urban Fantasy! I've been thinking about it a bit for a few months, but I haven't structured out a plot. I intend to make it up as I go! I can't wait!

I'll be participating again this year =D I'm pretty excited about my story idea this year. We'll see how it goes...

I am in. And like Lynna, testing a bit of a new genre...

Historical Sci Fi! Science fiction set in the 1920's, though more likely than not it's going to resemble Historical Urban Fantasy unless you look really close, or I get fancy.

My real challange though is designing a mystery and having my charachters solve it.

It's possible, depending on work. I'm considering doing the purest NaNoWriMo I've ever done: new world, new characters, nothing written, ideas less than a month old.

I'm in. This will be my third year. I'm not doing much planning since I want to revisit the train-wreck that was my story from last year. So my prep is to not look at any of that mess. I still like the story and I've had some good ideas about the characters but last year's execution was just terrible.

I did win last year though and used the 50% Scrivener discount, so that's cool

How's everyone's planning going? Are you doing any? I have exams this month and my last one is on the 31st so I probably won't get to it. If the last two NaNo's were anything to go by it seems that I write easier when I don't plan.

Also the title of this thread is incorrect, it's NaN O WriMo. Clearly my inner editor is going to be making attempts on my life in November.

Courseload and other business willing, I'll participate as well. I guess it's the year for trying new things, since I'll be writing in a new genre (very scifi, hopefully some comedy will work its way in there) with some significantly different inspiration (some childhood pastimes). I'm pretty stoked. \o.o/

Since it's speculative fiction, I'm working on building as much of the world as possible beforehand. I've had the backbone of the world and my main characters down pretty well for a while, but I'm hoping to spend October laying down some concrete rules, boundaries, locales, and history.


If I'm feeling inspired maybe I'll find some exercises to help me get better at description as I'm writing so my first drafts aren't so bare, but I think that particular pursuit of improvement is just going to have to wait.

EDIT: How have I never checked out Write or Die before? Just bookmarked it since I have a feeling I'll need the extra help this year.

GeneD (post: 1592460) wrote:Also the title of this thread is incorrect, it's NaN O WriMo. Clearly my inner editor is going to be making attempts on my life in November.

Er, that is an 'o' in the thread title I think your inner editor might be a little tired

Atria35 (post: 1592542) wrote:Er, that is an 'o' in the thread title I think your inner editor might be a little tired

Mech fixed it after I posted.

Write or Die scares me but I found a friendlier variation: http://writtenkitten.net/ which rewards you with a cat picture after every x amount of words. I haven't actually tried either before so maybe this year I'll see which one works best for me.

^ The only thing that should scare you on Write or Die is the Kamikaze Mode. That is terrifying. The Normal Mode's 'most unpleasant sound' can range anything from the Banana Phone song, to a phone ringing, to a violin playing.

The other nice thing is that you can actually set your own time limit and word count, so if you need to rush then you can put out the maximum amount of words you can in the shortest amount of time you can.

So glad a thread was made for this! This will be my first year participating in this, and though I'm excited, moving overseas right in the middle of November IS going to make this hard, but hey, maybe I'll be able to do it anyways;) I'll be finishing my second book, which is the second in a series, then working on the first book of ANOTHER series, and maybe starting the third book of the first series. I'm just hoping I can get the lead out, I once wrote a little ver 200 pages in a month, but i haven't been able to do a whol lot of writing lately, so I guess I just have to get myself going again before then, haha:)

Cianter (post: 1592600) wrote: I'm just hoping I can get the lead out, I once wrote a little ver 200 pages in a month, but i haven't been able to do a whol lot of writing lately, so I guess I just have to get myself going again before then, haha:)

I've actually been pretty successful at starting full-speed on November 1st and keeping it up throughout the month.

Extra writing will never hurt you, though. :>

I'm torn on what to write about. The first thing I'd like to do is a story about a town that rose and fell with Route 66 (yes, inspired by my recent trip across the country). The other is start writing about my family. I mean, my grandma is 92 years old! That's a huge amount of story-worthy information right there!

Why have I not posted in this thread until now??

I'm going to try for NaNoWriMo again this year, (Did it last year, worked out well, can't wait to start this year ) but like last year, I'm going to use THIS version, where you can set your own goal instead of the regular 50,000 words one. (but you have to be younger than 18 to join up)

As of yet, I have NO IDEA what my story idea will be. Maybe I'll take an idea I haven't worked on for a while, and throw a new twist into it? Probably come up with something completely new though. Oh well, I have the rest of the month to figure it out!

I've bookmarked Write or Die, as well as the Random Fantasy Novel Generator, though the second one will most likely be used for laughs, haha.

Atria35 (post: 1592675) wrote:I'm torn on what to write about. The first thing I'd like to do is a story about a town that rose and fell with Route 66 (yes, inspired by my recent trip across the country). The other is start writing about my family. I mean, my grandma is 92 years old! That's a huge amount of story-worthy information right there!

The solution is to smash the two ideas together and throw in a wizard.

: D

It's been a few years, but I think I'll do NaNoWriMo this year. Unfortunately, I'm very indecisive and easily bored with what I write about if it's all constant like that. My solution-that-hopefully-will-work: I'm going to use a main character in a random situation, write for a while, then once I get bored I timewarp/teleport/howeverIdecidetoexplainit the character to a different situation. That way, don't have to decide on a specific genre and I can write about whatever I feel like at the time. And maybe even sneak in a few of my English papers. XD

eightluvver888 (post: 1592771) wrote:It's been a few years, but I think I'll do NaNoWriMo this year. Unfortunately, I'm very indecisive and easily bored with what I write about if it's all constant like that. My solution-that-hopefully-will-work: I'm going to use a main character in a random situation, write for a while, then once I get bored I timewarp/teleport/howeverIdecidetoexplainit the character to a different situation. That way, don't have to decide on a specific genre and I can write about whatever I feel like at the time. And maybe even sneak in a few of my English papers. XD

xD That sounds like a whole lot of fun!

Some people do anthologies of short stories, which is also an option. Nothing says you only have to write one story out of it.

The solution is to smash the two ideas together and throw in a wizard.

: D

... That sounds amazing. I will have a slowly-aging wizard live in a now-desolate ghost town that was once a main stop on Route 66, and he will look back on his life.

I don't even know how that will work, but it will.

Atria35 (post: 1592772) wrote:xD That sounds like a whole lot of fun!

Some people do anthologies of short stories, which is also an option. Nothing says you only have to write one story out of it.

This is something like what I did my first time, actually. I finished a story that was a book in my head (but turned out to only be about 11,000 words), and spent the rest of the month writing shorts and scenes from other stories still in development. It's a completely acceptable way to rack up 50,000 words.

... That sounds amazing. I will have a slowly-aging wizard live in a now-desolate ghost town that was once a main stop on Route 66, and he will look back on his life.

I don't even know how that will work, but it will.

Ahahaha, awesome!

eightluvver888 (post: 1592771) wrote:It's been a few years, but I think I'll do NaNoWriMo this year. Unfortunately, I'm very indecisive and easily bored with what I write about if it's all constant like that. My solution-that-hopefully-will-work: I'm going to use a main character in a random situation, write for a while, then once I get bored I timewarp/teleport/howeverIdecidetoexplainit the character to a different situation. That way, don't have to decide on a specific genre and I can write about whatever I feel like at the time. And maybe even sneak in a few of my English papers. XD

That sounds sooooo cool. If you do it that way, you can do whatever you want! XD

FllMtl Novelist (post: 1592739) wrote:The solution is to smash the two ideas together and throw in a wizard.

: D

My reaction? = Lololololol

I will! one of my friends here is doing so also and bough I've never heard of it before today I want to! Haha yes I be the noob.......

Anyway I have the same username there as I have here.

Oh right, I'm Tsifira on there, in case I buddy anyone new without warning.

And 'nanaLob you should totally do the original NaNoWriMo because I know you could do it and I want you on my buddy list. :<

So today is nano Prep day according to the nanowrimo website...

So what are you doing to prepare, or are you preparing at all?
Outlining, research, nothing at all since you plan to write a seat of your pants book?

mechana2015 (post: 1593447) wrote:So today is nano Prep day according to the nanowrimo website...

So what are you doing to prepare, or are you preparing at all?
Outlining, research, nothing at all since you plan to write a seat of your pants book?

No planning here! 'Twill be my downfall someday.

November is going to be so messed up and busy for me. XP We have a guest at our house for like two weeks, so I get to give up my room and move to the basement, then my b-day is on the 6th, then I have my driver's test and the extensive practice beforehand, and finally we have Thanksgiving, which I'm sure will entail some sort of celebration. I'll definitely need more than one shove to keep going...

Um, and my username is Deverouxxx there.

mechana2015 (post: 1593447) wrote:So today is nano Prep day according to the nanowrimo website...

So what are you doing to prepare, or are you preparing at all?
Outlining, research, nothing at all since you plan to write a seat of your pants book?

No planning for me either. I'm just kinda go with the flow, lol. Though, I suppose planning on/working on finishing my book might count, hahah:) But yea, crazy month for me too. My birthday is on the 3rd, we are moving on the 12th, and there are a ton of things that go along with that, hehe. But I've been writing like 2,000 a day, so I should be fine ^_^

mechana2015 (post: 1593447) wrote:So today is nano Prep day according to the nanowrimo website...

So what are you doing to prepare, or are you preparing at all?
Outlining, research, nothing at all since you plan to write a seat of your pants book?

Since my project is really interviewing my grandma, I can't do much besides sectioning out things to ask her about (family, travel, food, the home, her marriage, etc)

But sectioning that out requires a good amount of thought.

I'm doing some incredibly intense hemming and hawing at the moment since I got an email about a deadline extension for a short story contest I'd thought about entering last month. Not sure where to prioritize. xD On the one hand, I'll really want the extra background worldbuilding come November, on the other hand, it'd be nice to really finish a short story...

I participated last year and didn't make the word count. Still, it was a good experience. This time, since I know I'll have more fun without planning, I've decided to do nothing until November 1st after I've had my morning coffee.

FllMtl Novelist (post: 1593497) wrote:I'm doing some incredibly intense hemming and hawing at the moment since I got an email about a deadline extension for a short story contest I'd thought about entering last month. Not sure where to prioritize. xD On the one hand, I'll really want the extra background worldbuilding come November, on the other hand, it'd be nice to really finish a short story...

Would finishing a short story give you extra confidence for November? Could be a win-win if you don't think you'd burn out too fast.

Lots of no planners...
I'm planning because I find it easier to roll out a story when I have definate points to hit, and a decent idea of who the charachters are before I start... I'll find out more as I go along but I need some planned spots before hand, and my setting will require some serious research.

Uh oh. Only about an hour more of Prep Day left. I better go do some sort of planning!

Last year I didn't give much thought before November, and it didn't turn out that great. The year before I did a lot of planning, and that made Nanowrimo much more enjoyable for me. So this year, I have/will do some outlines, etc.