Mumsnet MuNoWriMo in February 2022?

[cloudmessenger]

So, it's the final day of #NaNoWriMo21

Drafts that have not reached the 50,000-word target (mine is 10k short) will self-destruct on the stroke of midnight, so best get scribbling

I hope that you all found it rewarding, whether to finish your first story, take a break from other projects, or re-write an existing one. So many committed writers on this board!

I've found it worked wonders for my 'productivity' (ugh, that word) and focus at a busy time of year, at least until the 'flu jab made me poorly, and I switched back to an existing MS that someone asked to see.

I will definitely be doing it again next year, but now I'm wondering about an informal Mumsnet #MuNoWriMo in February 2022? I have another project I'd like to build up a head of steam on, and this would carve out space for it.

Anyone interested?

Can I join you?

Good to hear that handwriting hasn’t been abandoned @StellaOlivetti

By all means @JohannSebastianBach

Yay! Thank you!

@vivariumvivariumsvivaria I've downloaded a trial a few times and never got anywhere so much to learn.

I ADORE Plottr however can't recommend it as it's full of bugs and has lost my work 3 times now and I'm sick of it. I can't leave as it's the best thing I've ever used to plot and I've got my whole 20 book series outlined on there. It's crashed atm and I'm waiting for them to get back to me. Fed up!

Looking forward to February!

Id love to join please? I have the problem of getting good ideas actually to come out into the form of a book. Any tips on how to get passed this? Maybe better planning? Ive always been half hearted before due to time constraints but I have time to actually focus on it now, if I can figure it out!

I'd love to join in but can't guarantee I can write everyday, how would you recommend handling this? Just go for it anyway and see what happens?!

@britneyisfree lost your work 3 times? Goodness. Hard pass on Plottr then.

@Snow1n not sure what to recommend apart from sitting in a chair and writing. Have you ever tried morning pages? That might ‘prime the pump’ and bring up ideas to pursue during #MuNoWriMo

@toomuchfaster perhaps you could set yourself the modest goal of 250 words a day, just to keep moving forward with an idea? Then if you feel compelled to write more, you can. It’s more about the discipline of tuning into the process daily.

@cloudmessenger that sounds doable, I will try my best then!

@cloudmessenger yes!!! No exaggeration. It's been absolutely devastating. I keep going back because I have already spent so much time inputting all my character info and plot lines.

@britneyisfree oh my. Condolences for your extreme data loss! I can imagine how it feels to lose all that work. Nothing to be done but keep going, and overcome the loss.

Thanks @cloudmessenger I'll have a look at that and see about giving it a go!

Hi, can I join too please?

By all means @samvimesboots

👋 I’m in too, will use Dabble. Haven’t completed a nanowrimo yet and it must be about twenty years since I first signed up - maybe this is the one!

Hope this is the one @Ylfa !

I'm busy sorting through notes in order to start actually writing instead of procrastinating my way through February.

Really pleased you set this up, @cloudmessenger!

I’m excited to get started, and I’m tentatively trying to organise the mess of handwritten bits of paper I laughingly call my Plan, so I can hit the ground running on Feb 1st. The chances of getting to 50000 words are slim though I must admit. I am a particularly slow writer. If I make 20 000 I’d be thrilled.

Excited for you both!

Get those notes all tee’d up @vivariumvivariumsvivaria

20k would be a substantial achievement @StellaOlivetti 50k isn’t a magic number, and too much depending on how/what you write.

You’re ahead of me! I’ve had a wobble about which idea to launch myself into on Feb 1st…the one I’ve had on the back burner, for which I’ve already done the research, or the wizzy new one that’s calling to me, siren-like. Decisions, decisions.

I’m so excited too, woke before 5am literally twitching with ideas. Have decided to write with a pen 😯 in A4 journals because the words get stuck much less easily between my brain and the paper page than when I try to type or dictate into a screen. I really really love this part, of writing down the plot outline and the characters and so on. Historically never got much further than that but I have the space and time now and some real motivation. Mixed feelings about aiming for heroic word counts but I’ve been writing this funny little book in my head for years now and maybe the targets will help?

Yes, I feel the same, @Ylfa. I've been thinking about this book for so long that it has turned into a trilogy in four parts - I've got far too much info so I get stuck and keep on making notes instead of actually writing it.

You figured out the whizzy 'v' researched option @cloudmessenger?

@britneyisfree - I have started backing up properly, so thank you for the prompt. Last time I backed up was July...

I use Scrivener. I cut all my work up into scenes and use a different document for each one. Use the notes function to ensure I've captured key questions I ask about each scene such as what is the purpose. Bit analytical but then I find it easier when there's a clear method. When you view the chapter it is all pulled together for you and not in separate documents.

I'm about 24k words in to my first ever novel. It's tripe. Keep telling myself it's the first draft. Trying to write everyday.

@vivariumvivariumsvivaria a trilogy in four parts 😀 that must be an emerging genre, mine is one story told in three ways but it keeps wanting to grow some phantom fourth appendage. It feels scary making the leap from daydreaming the idea of this imaginary world to the actual work of constructing it for others to judge, but that’s what’s so great about nano - it’s only a challenge of output, it doesn’t have to be any good until some later date. Your notes will be so helpful though.

@Icenii you are everything I aspire to! How long have you been writing, in a regular sort of way?

I think I started September time so not very long at all. My writing is beginner level, but we all progress don't we. I use Pacemaker Planner too where I have a target word count in there and add in my daily word count. It gives a graph of where you are in relation to your target.

Oh, @Ylfa, that's Douglas Adams, who said Hitchikers was a Trilogy In Four Parts. Only, now it's six. He was a loss, and an undervalued writer, I think.

I've got “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.” on a post it note at my desk.

Notes - it's a bigger job than I thought, but, I have got to the end of the Big Box Of Doom, where there is stuff from a decade ago. Some of it is really quite useful, proper first draft stuff! Bit of a result.

Scrivener is a god send, it's letting me just put topics together in related "piles". I'm a bit of a butterfly brain and my tech skills are poor - not a great combination for finding files on a creaking mac.

I'll just put ALL the info into scrivener and then chunk up what goes into this book and what will be for others.

I feel like I'm cheating - my book's non fiction. It's popular science, I've got expertise in a niche area - but it's a massive and misunderstood niche.

I've got notes for a novel but will try to do my comfort zone first...

@Iceniii I saw how to do that on the tutorial, it's quite an impressive programme.

I'm still on the free trial but I will buy it. Anything that helps me organise my bits has to be good, I seem to work in a fragmented way. No real logic, just been flitting from one topic to the next. Being able to put everything in one place and see what's missing and what's got so much that it could be a book on it's own has been quite a revelation!

Has anyone got a resource they can recommend with examples for writing a book proposal? I'm a bit stuck.