NaNoWriMo 2012

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I know we still have a few months until this starts, but if I remember correctly, a lot of people had wished they heard about this sooner. So I figured I could jump start the thread early so people can kick around ideas an perhaps get to preparing rather than "pants it."

The site doesn't restart until October 1st, so you can't sign-up until then, but you are welcome to peruse and start to think of ideas for this year.

Participants:
Dominic Knight
Duoae
tanstaafl
Slumberland
Dragonfly
Clover
Shawnosaurus
CannibalCrowley
thejustinbot
Jolly Bill
Benticore
Momgamer
Mimble
UnnamedListener
ccesarano
muttonchop
duckideva

I'll be not taking part but taking part... if that makes any sense. Basically, I have a story I want to finish and need a goal to work towards, however, since the rules disallow that I'll not officially be a part of Nanowrimo but would like to chat about stuff in the thread here on GWJ if people don't mind.

That's totally cool with me. I think you can still participate "officially" if at the start of November, you just track the words that you've added to said story from there and just record it that way. I know plenty that have done that previously. And I see nothing wrong with it. What's more important is that you're writing.

I'll be in again. I'm "PaleoGamer" in the NaNoWriMo world.

I don't know. My life is completely in flux right now. We shall see.

I'm gonna use it to finish last year's book.

tanstaafl wrote:

I'll be in again. I'm "PaleoGamer" in the NaNoWriMo world.

Paleocon looked at his adversary with barely contained contempt as he fingered his rapier wit with breathless anticipation. The words rasped between his dry lips...

"I guess that makes you older than me, eh?"

/shrug. tanstaafl was already taken when I signed up. PaleoGamer is my second id choice.

tanstaafl wrote:

/shrug. tanstaafl was already taken when I signed up. PaleoGamer is my second id choice.

Just joshing! I always get confused with people's multiple IDs on the internet

It does get to be a problem sometimes. I use PaleoGamer in Minecraft (tanstaafl was taken there too) and I think some people think I'm Paleocon there.

I could use something like tanstaaflGWJ but it feels weird to use a tag referencing one site on another.

My handle hierarchy is tanstaafl -> PaleoGamer -> afgncaap -> LonelyMisanthrope. I've actually hit sites where all 4 are taken.

I'm in for the first time this year, and I'm also using the goal as a way to make progress on a project partially started. I'm keeping a track of my starting word count for November. I really want to finish this novel! And I wish I had tried participating in the past!

I may or may not; Duckilama and I are in the beginnings of launching a company; so chaos and stress levels are high. I imagine that we'll be trying to launch product in time to hit xmas sales...so I really don't know if there will be any extra time. That said; I use Scrivener as my writing tool, and it's really easy to track word count by day, rather than by entire project; so I may try to use it to motivate myself to finish Sherpa Not Included.

Updated the OP with participants so far.

I'm in. I plan to "cheat" as usual and work on non-fiction or freewriting.

I also had fun making book covers for people a couple years ago, so I'm officially reopening the cover shop to y'all if/when you get a title and a concept nailed down.

Happy relaunch day! Sign up/Sign in and prepare for November!

I try this every year and come up way short, but what the hey, giving it another go because I'm a crazy person.

I remembered my login info, so that's a good sign. Hopefully I can use this to get back into the daily writing habit.

The end of the month is approaching! Has everyone decided if they want to plan their novel, or pants it?

pants pants pants pants

Has anyone had any experience with Scrivener? My daughter is gearing up for her second run at NaNoWriMo, and thinks this software is a must have.

Jayhawker wrote:

Has anyone had any experience with Scrivener? My daughter is gearing up for her second run at NaNoWriMo, and thinks this software is a must have.

I used the NaNo special edition a couple years on a Mac, and it was a pretty good way to organize writing. Admittedly, I was working on non-fiction, so I ignored some of the cool features fictioners would appreciate. I wouldn't pay 50 bucks for it unless I was going to keep writing every day, but if she uses the trial during November and finishes, they give a discount to winners.

Edit: actually, maybe I'll queue up the Windows trial, now that I'm looking at it. The NaNo trial goes from now through December 7th, instead of just 30 days.

I haven't used scrivner, but I know several in the local write-ins swear by it. I just stick with Word.

I was an obsessive note-card-user since grade school, so I think that's most of my affection for it.

This event tempts me every year. The problem is that I haven't written anything creative in a decade. Well, unless you count parody lyrics to win concert tickets from a morning zoo or bad juvenile style venting poetry. And when I think about it, I've never written anything longer than a short story.

Would you consider this a good way to jump back into writing? On one hand it seems like it may be, but on the other it's a rather daunting goal. Even more so when the well has been boarded up for so long.

CannibalCrowley wrote:

This event tempts me every year. The problem is that I haven't written anything creative in a decade. Well, unless you count parody lyrics to win concert tickets from a morning zoo or bad juvenile style venting poetry. And when I think about it, I've never written anything longer than a short story.

Would you consider this a good way to jump back into writing? On one hand it seems like it may be, but on the other it's a rather daunting goal. Even more so when the well has been boarded up for so long.

I think it is, as long as you're good-natured about your goal-setting. I actually "cheat" and just free-write or write non-fiction instead of constructing some kind of novel, but the external structure and camaraderie are great to get back into the habit of writing, whatever you want to be writing about. I've used it a couple times to jump-start things, and that's probably what it will be again this year.

Picked up the Scrivener demo to test-drive this month and see if it will work with the kind of things I'm doing now.

Clover, let me know how that Scrivener demo goes. It might be the thing that weans me away from my old idea-management system. That's starting to show it's age very badly on a 64 bit operating system.

I'm going to be putting it through some heavy use for a project over the next week-ish, so I'll have a reasonably-formed opinion for you before NaNo actually starts (with the caveat that I don't write fiction).

Dominic Knight wrote:

The end of the month is approaching! Has everyone decided if they want to plan their novel, or pants it?

At first I had an idea for a Lovecraftian novel set in Iraq, but realized I haven't done enough homework. Then I recently read an article showing how the latest trend on novels is weaving together various short stories as part of a greater narrative. I think I may do that, as I can always take my short stories and send them out separately.

PS - does scrivener work on Windows or tablets?

Scrivener comes in Windows and OSX.

Count me in!

I stick to plain old MS Office Word too (with OneNote in the background for jotting down notes and stuff along the way)

Last year I played with Scrivener, but I actually did all my writing in the 750words.com editor. Simplicity FTW.

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