NaNoWriMo - what's it all about?

[Twine88]

I know roughly the idea behind it, but I wondered if anyone had actually taken part and had any thoughts to share?

My novel is already in excess of the 50k but, is still all over the place and needs much editing.

Any thoughts appreciated, even if you considered it and decided no.

I've hit 15k so finally feel like I'm on track.
I think mines mainly dialogue, this is the first time I've done it without a plan and I've spent a lot of time just getting to know my characters. I realised yesterday my characters were moving really slow and not doing much of anything except chatting so got it moving and that helped the word count a bit.
I think I know the basic outline of my story it's all the bits in between that make the story that I'm struggling with.

I'm on about 11 or 12k - it's all in separate documents and I haven't added them up.

Some excellent word counts. Well done all of us!
Jomaco I have lots of dialogue too. I figure I will go back at some point and add in more detail, setting, etc.

I made it to 20,000 last night which I’m very pleased with, hoping to get to 25,000 over the weekend.

I’ve been chatting on the NaNo boards as well, and have acquired some ‘writing buddies’, though I don’t know what that really means. But I got this message last night, I can’t tell if it’s written by a) someone who speaks English as a second language b)a troll or c) a robot.

Sounds like a guy who really likes microbiology charming.

I hit 20304 today. Really pleased with that. I'm wondering if I can manage 25k by the end of the weekend.

I'm up to 18 000 now. Really could do with getting up to 20 000 by the end of today.
I found myself slightly padding as I wrote, but even so I'm not sure the wholestory (middle grade) will get to 50 000.
But I thought that last time I wrote a story and got to 60 000, so maybe I'm wrong.

Hurray! Just made it over 20000 before midnight. Have to try and do similar amounts over the next two days.

Great job witches!

I woke up about 5am with the solution to a plot issue that was leaving me stuck because I couldn't work out what would get a character to go to a certain place and what was actually going to happen when he got there. I just woke up with the perfect set of events in my head and was so excited I spent the next 2 hours just lying in bed ginning away to myself.

Inspired by you lot. I nearly skipped yesterday as was knackered but did my 1700 words.

Really looking forward to reading some of these one day! I've stuck a 'cover' picture up as I find it quite inspiring, anyone else?

Hit just over 23000 today :)

Ohhhh Anna I may reward myself with a few hours of faffing over a cover picture when I hit 25k.

Fiona that's an amazing turn around from being uninspired! I hope you're proud of yourself, I certainly am. That's an amazing achievement in such a short space of time!

I'm still not writing as quickly as I'd like, but am managing to just about stay above par - currently on 18,777 words. Sundays and Mondays are the easiest days for me to get some writing done, though, so it would be nice to hit 30,000 by the end of Monday. That may well be too ambitious, however!

I can't see my book being finished at 50,000 words though. I should be starting to resolve / move some of the plot points on by now, but instead new ones keep popping up. At least it gives me something to write about I suppose!

I reached 23,000 words tonight and my characters kissed for the first time! I’m feeling very happy for them!

I hope everyone has a productive weekend :)

Wow! Well done everyone who reached 23k! I'm just over 22k and hoping to get to 25 by the end of today.

I am very happy for your characters Charming. I hope they get their happy ending.

One of my main characters got blown up by a vengeful librarian yesterday, but he's half demon so will probably be OK

Bigly that sounds amazing, I want to read that!

Ohhhhhh Charming! Is it weird that I'm quite thrilled on behalf of your characters?

And Bigly I'm now incredibly curious and would like to read it as well

In a moment of utter psychosis, my leading lady spent yesterday in the bath collecting bits of her aborted foetus in a tea strainer.

I'm not sure what she intends to do with the remains ...

OMG Carpet! I think you might have just won the random plot events for the day.

Maybe we should do swaps at the end of the month. At least sharing it with other people doing NaNo I know they will be well aware that it is totally rough and flakey. I am getting sooooo curious about all your stories

Carpet is that wrong that it made me laugh in a "what on earth" type way? Definitely random plot hole award!

You're going to have to share further to put us out of our misery here.

I have to say I'm not expecting mine to be finished at 50000 words either. I assume Nanowrimo is based on a benign effect of the sunk costs fallacy, in that once you've written 50k you muse surely feel like you MUST finish it. I'm assuming that most novels come in around 80000 plus, with probably 100000 unedited.

I assumed the 50k was just hit upon as a suitably challenging, but still achievable amount that could be counted as a novel as opposed to a novella.

I'm just going to do a little happy 'i've reached 25k' dance right here

Now I just have to do that again...

Wooo! Way to go Bigley!

Score! Amazing [claps]

Bigley that's brilliant! Well done!
I lost momentum over the weekend as had days out on Sat and Sun so I am miles behind. If I don't catch up this week, it will impossible to reach 50k by the end of the month.
It was funny on the school run this morning, DH drove back through town and I had a moment of 'oh, xxxx works here' before I realised x was my character, who doesn't work anywhere because she doesn't really exist

Not to dominate the thread but I just discovered on the NaNoWriMo forum there is someone doing tarot card readings for people who are stuck with their plotting. It's so entertaining to read