NaNoWriMo - anyone up for it?

[Drybird2020]

Would anyone like to join me here for a NaNoWriMo support and encouragement thread? I have just finished my first novel and am submitting it to agents in batches. I think a month focused on something different would do me a lot of good!
I have had a nose around the NaNoWriMo website and am about to start working through the preparation tasks- a bit late according to the official timetable but I already have an idea, rough plot, and characters.
Going to need plenty of ☕🍪🍰 to help it along.
Anyone else having a go?

I have just remembered I need to make a chart to put my daily wordcounts.
Dunno whether to write in Scrivener or Libre Office this time - Scrivener has the advantage of a little progress bar that turns from red to green as you reach the target you have set.

I just downloaded the free trial of Scrivener. Had to get DH to help with it ven af te videos but it does look good

Even after

Scrivener is fabulous, especially for editing and redrafting.

I’m in.

Hello, I’m going to do it too. Historical fiction. Have a detailed outline and lots of overworked attempts at the first few chapters. I really want to use this month to get a first draft down. I’ve spent months twiddling with the first 4K of the novel… and a good year or two before that trying to get started…

Thanks for the thread.

Let’s do it!

Do you try to write your word count first thing before the rest of the day's work takes over?

I think you have to play to your strengths. I tried for a long time to force myself to prioritise writing early in the day in the belief that it would be more disciplined/professional/workmanlike, but the truth is that I'm not a morning person, and whereas I struggled to concentrate and stay on task in the morning, the mid to late afternoon is my time. In the last couple of years I've been able to dump the afternoon school run as my children have got older and it's been a revelation in terms of productivity.

Once upon a time I used to work into the small hours, but I can't do that now either. So you need to figure out what works best for you imo, both practically and temperamentally.

I must say I'm really looking forward to being able to dump a load of other habits and obligations in my life that tend to get in between me and my writing, on the basis that it's 'just for November' and in the hope that actually it will become the new normal.

Thank you Misprit - I'm not really sure what my natural writing clock is! I'm a ghostwriter - I just write when I need to, whether that's for publishers or private commissions. Some days that's 14 hours, other times I can take weeks off at a time. I've taken tomorrow for myself to see what happens!

Done my words for the day (plus about 100).

I'm currently 500 words into my first 1,667! I'm really enjoying it. I'd forgotten how much fun it is to create a world, with real people and conversations, and warmth and emotions... 😯 I might even keep doing this for FUN. Da da da!!

But I'll let you know in another 1.217 words' time.. :)

*1,117 even

*1,167 even? 😂

Finished my words but I'm completely exhausted. Normally try to get ahead to start with. Trying four perspectives to keep things interesting.

Yes I’m in too. Working on my current project, a detective thriller set in Hatton Garden. I’m thinking I could coin a sub genre - jewellery noir?! Just doing my words now. Good luck everyone!

Have done about 1800 (handwritten so not precise but it’s done!)

Got to 1200 words. Am using the free trial of Scrivener. I wanted to back up a copy of what I have written as a Word doc though and I can't work out how to do that easily. My draft has everything I have written but split into the sections from my Cork board so each bit has to be copied separately and I have bits of writing in about 7 chapters so far.
I tried exporting it as a word file but again that exported it as 7 word documents.
Any ideas?

@Hippywannabe ~ I use Scrivener and it’s definitely not the easiest thing! Why are you writing onto cork boards? I think they’re designed to hold notes rather than your actual words.

What you’re meant to do is create Chapter folders, then write each scene on individual Scene documents in each chapter. Then you can save and compile it into a properly formatted MS, or export to word, etc.

I’d copy your cork board contents into scenes (using the Scene template from the bottom of your dashboard, on the left) then export from there.

I got to 1725 words of new stuff today! There are already 4K words there from when I started before. And today’s stuff wasn’t entirely shite, very pleased.

DH got on my tits though. I’ve done Nano before, which he knows as we were married. But when I told him tonight I’d just done 1700 words he was all, “what? Why? Is this different to the writing thing you were doing before? What’s the plan for this then, to publish it?” Which isn’t a bad thing to say at all, but I’m so defensive and vulnerable about my writing at the moment that it immediately struck me as judgey and unsupportive. 😆

1281 today. I'd hit a logical place to stop so I decided not to push on but do some thinking for tomorrow.

1750, a bit of a shock to the system as it took bloody ages

1300. That was good, I didn't think I'd.manage it, on an exceptionally busy Monday.

I joined my.local NaNoWriMo online meetup on Sunday, out of curiosity, but it wasn't for me. I'm just going to get on with it and chat on here from time to time.

I'm impressed with all the word counts! Have a great day, every one.Happy typing/scribbling.

1679, but the last 40 or so are jottings for the next session.

It was very difficult to get everyone else here to shut up and leave me alone, so I can see I'm going to have to be more ruthless from now on, at least until I get back into a rhythm and can tune everything out more easily. I was very distractible and I think the writing reflects that, but I can go back and fix it later. Will plough on for now.

@AlbertBridge I'm sorry about your DH's reaction - that would upset me too.

I wear ear plugs. They're AMAZING. Blocks everything and everyone out completely.

I'm still working on the revisions of my other novel so did not think I'd get to give NaNoWriMo a go, but then ended up drafting the story Sunday morning and have started writing yesterday, so I guess I'm in!

I'll have to try to work on the other novel in-between so I don't know if I'll actually get to 50,000 words, but the other novel will be the first I'll want to submit to agents and when I do, it'll be really good to already be working on a new project.

As a newbie to this, I was just wondering - does anyone else find the NaNoWriMo forums completely overwhelming? I feel like I could get lost in there and then I wouldn't be writing, I'd just be checking out the forums.

I’m not looking at NANOWRIMO forums. I’m sure they help many.

I’m just writing, not even thinking that much. Just writing. Not worrying about quality or plot or characters. Just writing.

The thinking and editing will come later.

My “strategy” is purely a brain dump, and I’ll see if any of the 50k words are worth it.