What are you doing in November? How about writing a novel?

[Elliott Cox]

Every November, the folks at NaNoWriMo ( National Novel Writing Month) pose a challenge to all comers: Write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. 

The focus of NaNoWriMo is quantity, quantity, quantity.  Just get the ideas flowing and worry about editing later, unlike Six Sentences, which focuses on tight, clear, and concise writing.

So far, the 6S NaNoWriMo crew is:

Brittany Elizabeth - NaNo username:  Britt Beltram
Michael D. Brown - NaNo username: MuDJob
Elliott Cox - NaNo username: Elliottcox
Sandra Davies - NaNo username: Sandra Davies
Glen Green - NaNo username:  glengreen
Nic aka CJT - NaNo username: nhirschi
Khaalidah - NaNo username: Khaalidah
Paul Phillips (from Thinking Ten) - NaNo username: crybbe666
Leviathan - NaNo username: Levi_Athan
Tina Iwamoto - NaNo username:  tmtiwamoto
Kathleen Gabriel - NaNo username:  Duktape
Jared Handley - NaNo username:  Jaredallas
D.B. Dean - NaNo username:  DBDEAN
Gita Smith - NaNo username: Gita
Susan May - NaNo username: S.May


You can find all the gory details on NaNoWriMo's FAQ page.

[Toby Tucker Hecht]

I would love to but my daytime job gets in the way.

[Michael Brown]

I should be committed for agreeing to attempt such a thing, but agree I did. I've been watching the proceedings for some time now and I just might be able to do the thing right this year. Would love to know more friends are suffering along with us.

[Toby Tucker Hecht]

I will be vicariously rooting you on. I will be working my 12 hour a day job wishing I could be writing.

[Gita]

*doing the math*
That's 1,666 words a day.

[Toby Tucker Hecht]

That's about 420 words if you write 4 hours a day!

[Sandra Davies]

I've been told 80,000 is a novel length but that shorter is 'popular' at the moment ... my Eddie'n'Jenna + Bridie'n'Sean pieces (including what not yet typed) must run to nearly 35,000 and has taken me 4 months ....

Time for second thoughts obviously...

[Sandra Davies]

hmmm ... am tempted ... no excuse like job or holidays ...

[Michael Brown]

Hey, Elliott, I know we discussed this before and you mentioned the numbers, but my mind was on the things I was supposed to get done for tomorrow (oops, today as I write this), but now seeing those numbers again, I'm getting scared. 1600 a day is a tall order. My typical Thinking Ten piece, which I only do once a week, is around 500 words, combined with the occasional, not always weekly anymore, six sentence piece of about 250-300 words, I'm only writing about 800 to 1000 words a week. Now we're talking about 11,660 words a week, for four weeks straight! I don't know man, that looks as nearly like a killer as I can imagine.
If I do go ahead with this, I may write gibberish for a month, and hope I can extract a couple of stories from it when I'm done. I doubt I'm going to get a real novel out of all that typing. In any case, don't count me out yet. If we get a cheering section here at 6S, I just may feel shamed into giving it my best shot.

[Elliott Cox]

Don't worry, I'm not counting you out.

[Elliott Cox]

"Pulloffable"...I like that!

[Glen Green]

Ah, what the hell. Feats of endurance and great suffering for no real purpose are always attractive.

[Elliott Cox]

Right on, Glen!