What do you think of NaNoWriMo?

Forced me to write a whole 60k words of a book. The novel is a piece of shit, but my writing improved so vastly just from pumping out that much material every day that I would say it's worth doing at least once. You won't get anything from the project directly, but it's a great place for newer writers to start building the habits that you need to actually get shit done.

>>9988363
>60k
far above the averages on the site. well done
any tips on someone considering trying it this nov?

>>9988363
This

It's not about writers actually making sellable novels, it's about showing non-writers they don't have the talent nor dedication to do this.

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>>9988423
Pace yourself, but not autistically. I tried to hit around 2k words a day. Sometimes I would undershoot and barely breach 1k, a few times I made it to 3k. Do a little planning beforehand, especially for characters. Solid characters+setting = as much potential material as you want.
I pushed other obligations to the side as much as possible and tried to do my writing in the morning right after breakfast because that's when I'm sharpest. Which reminds me, eat plenty of food. If you have anything that helps you focus (for me it's coffee), use that. I probably drank two pots a day while working through this.
Be prepared to spend 3-6 hours a day on writing. Sometimes it will be easy and the words will flow - capitalize on that and go as far as you can that day. Sometimes it will be hard and you'll struggle with each new paragraph - push through it and go as far as you can that day. NaNoWriMo is not for writing great works of art, it's for getting the feel of writing an entire book cover to cover. Just plow ahead and don't look back until you're done. Don't revise, don't make major changes to earlier sections, just keep going.
If you're lucky, you'll get into a groove and it will be fun, you'll zone out and only stop when you can't put sentences together anymore, only to look outside and see the sun going down. It's rewarding, but also tiring. The closest analogy to how I felt after finishing it was as if my brain had rope-burn - it was rubbed raw.

That's a lot of words so tl;dr have fun and keep moving forward.

>>9988353

It's that thing that people who say they're writers do, but you never seem to find them writing, do you?

>>9988448
>>9988363

/thread

Unless you're like, I dunno, Louis L'Amour or someone with experience "forcing out" a "novel" in four weeks is fucking stupid and kind of fruitless. It most likely isn't going to be good. You need to do an in-fucking-credible amount of research and have an unbelievable amount of patience to write an ACTUAL novel.

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>>9989373

>ACTUAL

>>9989390

There's a difference between typing and writing anon

>>9988353
hjhk

>>9989394

Alright Freaks and Geeks, you were never that good.

>>9988353
It's not a bad idea by any means, but most people miss the point. You should be writing like it's NaNoWriMo every single month if you want to be a writer.

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>>9988353
It seems useful for getting into better writing habits, but it never seems to be a convenient month for me, or I have some other project I don't want to be distracted. It's a shame because I need to develop better habits still.

I "won" a couple times. Now I go to hang out and work on my novel without trying to hit 50k.

I found three of my writing groups through NaNo which has helped my writing more than NaNo itself.

>>9990105

>Writing a novel a month

Unless you want to be writing pulp shit, no.

Not even King writes at that pace.

>>9990339
How you managed to find the groups, Anon?

>>9990979
Yeah please elaborate. Are these in person groups or just online?

>>9990524

He didn't say shit out a book every month dummy.

>>9991189

What did the anon mean then by "should be writing like every month is NaNoWriMo"

>>9990524
Philip K Dick seemed to write at that pace

>>9991967
1-2k words a day

>>9991991

Dick was mentally ill

>>9991967
Not him, but he probably meant writing everyday not only when inspiration hits. You won't always be inspired, your work will usually suck, but forming the habit is an important part of writing.

>>9988353

I think a lot of people enjoy it and get a lot out of the attempt

I also think the person who wrote the NaNoWriMo book should be ashamed of encouraging participants to take advantage of friends and family and to steal time and supplied from work while trying it

>>9992012
how else would he write VALIS?

>>9992012
>>9991991

PKD was always a prolific writer because it was his livelihood and he got his start writing pulp. It's a big part of why the quality his craft doesn't match that of his ideas. It's also why unlike me he actually got stuff written

>>9990979
Not him but I joined a writing discord for nano that stuck around afterwards

unfortunately, its full of people from tg

>>9992157
I've been thinking about that lately, if there were any writing discords around here that were active. Thanks for the tip man, it's good to know that can help if it sticks around (even if it's one from /tg/ I know it could be a lot worse). I guess I'll wait until November to see if we manage to create one for /lit/ or something.

>>9988353
It's more of a social event, which offers the chance to dip into writing for beginners and motivate each other, and make some friends. Nothing wrong with that but doubt any dedicated artist would really bother with it, and doubt anyone who needs an event like that to get some writing done, has much of a chance to do it professionally and write anything meaningful.

>>9992540
I agree with this, simply associating with the program is a pretty big sign that you're a hack.

>>9993587
That seems a bit too harsh. If one does it for fun or kind of a challenge to see what they can accomplish under an extreme deadline it's not too bad. If one takes it serious because they need motivation to write (and hope for twitter followers), yeah, it's hack-worthy.

>>9990979
>>9991096
I found IRL writing groups from either the hosts of some of the write-ins (who basically kept up the meetings after NaNo) or from the forums. In my experience, there are plenty of people who want to write beyond November.

If you want to win at NaNo, going to write-ins are super helpful for your word count.

>>9992540
All kinds of people do NaNo. There's been at least a couple big books that came out of NaNo: Like Water for Elephants and The Night Circus. Anecdotally, two of my NaNo liasons and one friend went on to have books and short stories published.

>>9988353
It's brilliant, but largely pursued by fags

>>9988353
It's a meme. Actual writers don't need a holiday set aside to write. They just write.

That being said, if you wanna give it a shot, do. Nine folks out of ten fail, but if you make it, keep going at that pace all year and you'll get somewhere meaningful. And edit your "novel" at least five times before sending it anywhere.

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I don't understand yalls attitude about this. Would you get mad if someone tried painting a picture and posted it on Facebook? How is this any different? What's wrong with trying your hand at writing? I think everyone should create art. It's good for you, no matter the quality. Not saying I'd want to read anyone's novel they shat out in a month, but I respect the exercise.

>>9995442
its worse for people who have little or no experience with painting to try it out of social impetus and share their results with others

its really better to have never done it or shared. dilettantes. tourists. casuals. cluttering the creative atmosphere with their trash. yes, its pollution, noise. similar to how i hate the gym after NYE.

>>9995442
I know. God forbid that people try something to have fun and be social.