DIY Planner - NaNoWriMo 2008, or The Year I Decided to Do Crazy - Comments

I finished

SusanBeth — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 22:39:10 -0500

in the 50k+ words sense, but I have about 8 scenes left that are just outlines -- I skipped ahead and wrote the climactic battle and the denoument. (Hmm. Is that he word I mean? It looks funny.)

I'm giving myself a much more modest goal for December: 500 words written OR a solid half hour of rewriting. Hopefully I've have the monster done in time to take advantage of that free printout offer.

Yep

Friend of Pens — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 17:07:37 -0500

Finished, and well over the 50,000 mark. My first attempt last year was a real struggle to get to 50K, but this year was a struggle to get to the end of the story before the end of the month. I wound up writing a number of synopses in the story just to move things along, so I can go back and flesh it out later. I'm a complete believer in analog writing now.

I

Tournevis — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 14:48:43 -0500

I finished. I'm really happy about that, since it was my first official NaNo. It's a really, really rough draft. Much rougher than it usually is me. I had to write in a completely different, counter-intuitive way than I usually write. Add to the fact that the topic, manner, structure and genre are different than what I usually write and I can say this has been a really fun, weird, topsy turvy ride for me.

I did it

LisaPT — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 11:32:38 -0500

I finished one day early. Considering I only had 23,000 on the 26th, I really raced. I had a whole quiver of pens and kept going right threw them so I wouldn't have to stop and refill.

I did find doing analog on an airplane far better than electronic. They make you turn electronics off 15 min before landing. I also had to sit on the tarmac in the plan for about an hour. No electronics then either.

Congratulations to all who wrote more in November then they normally do in a month.

Analog technology meltdowns do occur!

innowen — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 08:36:56 -0500

Actually, I had what I'd like to call my analog "meltdowns". The first happened when my pen refused to write. I found out later (thanks to The Hubby) that the nib was loose and just needed to make a tighter seal around the converter.

The second occurred when the pen rolled off the counter and hit the floor. My fountain pen splooshed all over the floor and kitchen cabinets and had the nib get bent as well. We un-bent it and I was able to continue on with that day's word count. Note to self: Do not put pen on counter where it can roll off!

Other than that, it was smooth sailing... till my fingers cramped up. And yes, I quietly finished on day 17. Expect my wrap-up article soon!

/innowen

I'm a winner!

innowen — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 08:30:30 -0500

Yep,

I finished. Actually later today (Dec. 1st) I'll be posting a wrap-up from this year. With images. :)

How'd everyone else do!

And don't worry, Katrina... at least you wrote 3,000 words. It's a good start. :)

/innowen

Did anyone finish?

Katrina — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 07:52:23 -0500

I'm guilty of not finishing ... dramatically. The 50,000 word dream sputtered to a halt at just over 3,000 words and didn't start again.

So, perhaps next year for me. Or maybe next May in Autumn/Fall. I was right, Spring weather here was too distracting for me

Analoggers unite!

ygor — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:51:48 -0500

A worthwhile battle cry if I ever heard one !
-----------------------------------
"I think the surest sign that there is intelligent life out there in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." (Calvin and Hobbes/Bill Waterson)

Eeek

Friend of Pens — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:56:26 -0500

I think I'd be far too paranoid to let someone else read my NaNovel as it was being written. Just word-counting has been interesting as I go back and look at the dreck I've produced.

By the way, I'd like to point out that at no point this month have any of my typewriters lost any of my words due to power outages, spilled coffee, viruses, software updates, or random software glitches. My files have never been rendered unreadable, the trial version of my software has not run out, and I'm not being pestered with Internet distractions by the ton. Although I can't speak for innowen, I notice that she quietly crossed the 50,000 mark early this week with her hand-written draft, and I suspect that she suffered no technical meltdowns, either, except maybe sore wrists.

The Technology Forum on the NaNo site is rife with tales of woe: dropped laptops, locked or corrupted files, and I just can't help but feel a whole lot of smug as I thumb through my Rolla-punched pages, waiting to be edited and re-typed.

Analoggers unite!

A NaNoWriMo Tool: A Web App For Real-Time Collaborative Writing

ygor — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:35:53 -0500

I saw this on Slashdot and immediately thought of all you NaNoWriMo's

What'cha think ?
-----------------------------------
"I think the surest sign that there is intelligent life out there in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." (Calvin and Hobbes/Bill Waterson)

I used a Palm once

Anonymous — Fri, 7 Nov 2008 18:42:32 -0500

Katrina,

Some years ago, around 2000, I used a Palm IIIxe with an external keyboard to write I story I had. (I wouldn't let myself 'give in' to what was popular and get a Palm until I had 'a very good reason' to do so. Writing the story turned out to be just good reason, lol.) I had the keyboard set up in front of my big keyboard at work. Whenever I thought of something, I had everything already set up in front of me. And I didn't have to transcribe notes later.

Monica
(still trying to get an sign-on set up)

Not alone

Friend of Pens — Fri, 7 Nov 2008 16:42:26 -0500

All the collective swearing is sweet, sweet music around week 2. Just try to get a little done every day by whatever means.

Not handwritten

Katrina — Fri, 7 Nov 2008 02:09:39 -0500

Thanks Mike.

I've decided to challenge myself and write my story on a palm pilot with an external keyboard (the closest thing I have to a laptop) as I edit too much when I write by hand.

So if you hear the occasional long-distance swearing wafting through NaNoWriMo, it's probably me trying to get the palm to behave. ;)

I joined, too

HistoricStitcher — Thu, 6 Nov 2008 13:58:09 -0500

And I'm handwriting it. A little bout of food poisoning has affected my word count, but my son's dad just requested a weekend visit with him, so I get the WHOLE weekend ALONE to write!!!!

I'm loving my story, enjoying my characters, and still deciding which pen I like the best. Believe it or not, so far my favorite consistent writer is my Sheaffer cheapie plastic fountain pen I bought some 15 years ago when they were about $5 at every office store. I have 2 of them, and I'm preferring them over the Waterman, the Esterbrook, and the Sheaffer Javelin. I just ordered a True Writer from Levenger, what with their sales right now and a 20% off coupon I got with a recent order...I had to try one! I pretty much only write with fountain pens anymore (except when doing the crossword in the newspaper.)

Thanks for all the advice! I am using it, and am having far more fun with this than I thought I would!

It's never too late

Friend of Pens — Wed, 5 Nov 2008 17:52:07 -0500

Sign-ups go right up until November 30th. Just do the best you can, try to set aside a little regular writing time, and don't worry about quality. Even if you don't make it to 50K, NaNo is secretly about enabling good creative habits.

Good luck!

NaNoWriMo 2008, or The Year I Decided to Do Crazy

innowen — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 03:26:33 -0400

The leaves on the trees outside have begun to change color and drop off their branches. The air has grown extremely cold this year and I'm shivering inside again. I keep a trusty notebook near me as I worry and fret and push my mind into thinking mode. What do all these things have in common? It's October and I have less than 30 days to come up with a plot for NaNoWriMo 2008. Welcome to NaNo season!

This year is a special NaNo. It's the 10th anniversary of Chris Baty's madcap escapade into the novel writing life; it's also my 7th year doing it. This year, I've decided to break from my own NaNoWriMo traditions. Usually this means that I schlep my computer around to write my novel. I've gotten good at it but this year I felt I needed to shake things up a bit. This year, I'm going analogue. That's right, you heard me. I'm going to write all 50,000 words by hand. Am I crazy or what?

Of course, I've got friends (like iScribe) who have have done this year after year, writing their novels longhand. And I know that authors like Neal Stephenson and Neil Gaiman write their first drafts longhand so I know I'm in good company. Ever since I made this pact though, I've been doubting the little sanity I DO have and wonder how on earth I am going to pull this off. So, for this year's annual NaNo article, I've decided to share what I currently know about surviving NaNoWriMo longhand.

Get a good pen. This one sorta goes on the DUH side of things, but yeah, doing a lot of novel writing means you'll need a good pen. You'll want something that fits in your hand comfortably and feels good. I'm going to use one of my fountain pens. I've discovered that I prefer using a fountain pen for writing as the body is much fatter than most standard pens and that helps to relax my hand when I'm doing a lot of writing. I will also be using Levenger's Cobalt Blue ink. I have a brand-new bottle of ink and it'll be fun seeing how much ink I use during November.

Practice writing longhand. A few months ago I started a daily creative writing practice. Mostly to get me back into the habit of writing. But also to see how many words I could churn out with a pen during one sitting. This daily practice not only has helped me handle a pen, but has given me some idea of how well I'll do when I start writing my novel. I now know how long it'll take before my hand tires and where it hurts.

Tally up your words by page. My friends who write their novels long hand swear by this. After every page they write, they'll tally up the page's total words and jot them down in one corner of the page. This way, they know when they've hit the requisite 1666 words for the day. It also helps them track their daily goal on the NaNoWriMo website.

Fake the final word count. This tip, given to me by my friend ariana, is probably the thing that helped me get over the fear of doing this year's 50,000 words by hand. Basically, when you've finished your book writing, you create a faked document, on your computer, that contains the same number of words as your long-handed manuscript. Then, you feed THIS document into the final counter to get declared a winner.

To be quite honest, this last tip feels like a cop-out to me because I've always been proud to enter my original manuscript into the reader to get the final count. However, to upload my original story to the website and have it properly validated means that I'd have to write the same story twice in one month: first by hand and then entering it into my computer. I see this as a lot of work to do and something I don't want to tackle on in the same month. But this tip, sanctioned by the folks at the Office of Letters and Light themselves, does give the analogue writer a big help up in getting their nano-novels done and on time, without having to duplicate efforts.

If you want to see the past NaNoWriMo article series, please go visit the beginning here, and then go here, and then here, and here. I've also written a review of Chris Baty's book, No Plot, No Problem, and you can read about it here. And if you're doing NaNoWriMo this year, feel free to add me (innowen on the nano boards) to your friends list. I'd be happy to help cheerlead you on and do some word wars with you.

D*I*Y Planner - NaNoWriMo 2008, or The Year I Decided to Do Crazy - Comments

I finished

Yep

I

I did it

Analog technology meltdowns do occur!

I'm a winner!

Did anyone finish?

Analoggers unite!

Eeek

A NaNoWriMo Tool: A Web App For Real-Time Collaborative Writing

I used a Palm once

Not alone

Not handwritten

I joined, too

It's never too late

NaNoWriMo 2008, or The Year I Decided to Do Crazy

DIY Planner - NaNoWriMo 2008, or The Year I Decided to Do Crazy - Comments