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.

[Elliott Cox]

I like how you've set your format to look like the finished product...that's a great idea! I think that the 8,000 word day that you had this past weekend would more than qualify you for the Wonder Man award; I think I only qualify for the Wonder Where my Time was Going Award! And yes, the fact that I can watch my 6S and T10 friends' word count rise every day has really given me a lot of motivation. I couldn't imagine going this alone. Rock on, MDB.

[Jamie Hogan]

Hey people...it's half-way day!

Endeavor to persevere. Write. Put your music on and grab that beer/wine/coffee/special brownie and get after it. You didn't start this with quitting in mind, so finish strong.

This is something you will look to as a milestone in your life. A door kicked down. Don't stop until you stand on top and jam your flag into the ground and sound your barbaric yawp.

I hope you are all enjoying the ride. Be patient with yourselves and your characters, and be dogged in the face of distractions and listlessness and stubborn words. You can do this!

[Gita]

I declare, I can't hold down a 8-5 job and do it.
I tell you, though, I can't wait to read yours. If you ever need a copy editor before you show it to an agent/publisher, I'm your girl.

[Javed Baloch]

At first, I also thought the same thing, can’t work for 5 days a week and do 50k words in a month, but I signed up anyway. I must confess, at first, I was hoping for nothing more than 30k odd words at best, the figure I had in mind that I would be content with. Partly because the story idea was vague at best and most of the elements that have now become an integral part of the ongoing tale were conceived as nothing more than spur of the moment notions that gradually took a concrete shape as I wrote along.

And also because where I live in, I spend a fair amount of my time not talking in English since it happens to be a foreign language, and not to mention that I am writing about a small American Town, a kind of place though I happen to know few things about but I have never been to in my entire life. Though I grew up reading a lot of Stephen King novels, all of them actually, and it does help, but again it is not quite the same as being there. So it gets a bit challenging at times. But again, it is a lot of fun, as I believe writing, or any other artistic endeavor, should always be.

And once the writing part began, the idea began to expand, and what started as a 75k to 100,000 novella is now potentially a 150,000 to 200,000 novel. And I hope to finish it sometime the mid of next year, as it would need at least two rewrites for the final draft to take place.

Currently the novel is in a terrible shape, simply because I have taken a lot of liberty during the Nanowrimo endeavors, as sometimes I am writing about the beginning, sometimes the middle or the latter half of the novel, which ever suited me on that particular day. And once the novel reaches 100,000 words or so, I also plan to take a pause and figure out the exact flow of the story. As for now, I am simply writing down different passages and worry about the flow later.

But what is most surprising is how the pressure of writing can spur you to produce your best. In the last 20 days, I have often ended up surprising myself, given the kind of prose/passages I have been able to churn out.

On working days, I can normally allow myself maximum of 3 hours of writing in the evening, and hence can’t manage to churn out more than 1200 to 1500 words, if I am lucky. And there have been days, at least two that I can recall, where I felt way too tired (lazy!) to write anything. And I have also done a bit of catching up on weekends. Where I can conveniently manage 2,500 to 3,000 a day without stretching myself out too much, allowing myself three writing shifts, where I would write down roughly 1000 words and then take a break.

And I also need a lot of quiet and alone time. Because writing for me is a haunting experience. Call me crazy but I do need to go into that state, which I call slipping into another dimension, where I can visual with clarity the people and environment I am writing about. At times, I like being a mere spectator to the characters that I end up visualizing, watching them interact, or listening to their endless chatter ;)

At the moment, my 36,279 words cover 76 pages in 12pt Times roman.

[Sandra Davies]

Lev

This is truly humbling and astonishing as well as revelatory about the act of writing. I understand about the quiet times and about the way a really good passage can suddenly write itself, come from another dimension it seems and I reckon not to be too far above 60K by the time I finish, but thereafter the well is definitely dry. the ideas petered out.

And to be writing about places you have scant - no - knowledge of sounds dreadfully daunting .

Very well done indeed - and please do keep us up to date with post NaNo progress, please.

[Elliott Cox]

Excellent look into your process, Levi. I third the notion of having to be in the right headspace to allow the words to flow.

I like the idea of writing a town that you know very little about. I think that that allows you to make the town your own and you get to explore it through your characters.

I've also been surprised at how many words that I can get to fly out of my brain when under pressure. I guess the folks that talk about discipline may be on to something!

[Laz Farrell]

Lev really impressed with your commitment lucky if I manage 3 hours a week writing!
would love to see the results

[Kathleen Gabriel]

Hey, you guys! I haven't been following the conversation, as I've been in other places more. It sounds as if you're enjoying the exploration. Isn't NaNoing cool? My book's gone off in directions I didn't think of. It's turning out to be a lot less depressing than it would have been if I'd gone with what I originally intended. Some psychic and religious phenomena have infiltrated, and humor, too, in spite of my best intentions to be Serious (capitalization intentional). I am having a good time again this year, as I have the last four. I am on track to finish on time, too, at 39,587.

A little quote here, also posted on my novel info:
“What? You think psychiatrists don’t have fantasies?” He chuckled. “No, we have the best ones, because we know exactly what we’re doing.”

I'm off to a write-in at 1:00. Take care!

[Javed Baloch]

@Sandra: Thanks, and I will be more than happy to share the excerpts in the post Nano days to come, and of course the big bad beast in its entirety when it is ready :)

@Elliot&Laz: Thanks a lot :)