Anyone else doing nanowrimo this year?

[NanoTime]

Would love to hear from others tackling this challenge.

I'm trying but not feeling well today. Did a bit on my nonexistent plan...

Am in. 1089 words today.

I’ve done it intermittently since 2005, but I know I won’t have the time this year, sadly. My top tip is never to get behind on word count, I once had to do 20,000 words on the last weekend, including pulling an all-nighter, that was painful!

Wishing you all every success.

I've found myself thinking about it a few times recently but really have other priorities. Signed up for it once years ago but didn't get very far - maybe next year??

What I have just committed to is entering a composition in a music festival - which will need to be ready to send to the adjudicator in about 6 weeks. So can I join in on here trying to do a bit of meaningful work on that every day too?

Good luck to all writers!

Good luck everyone! My word count is zero cos I’m still titting around with plot so I’m getting off Mumsnet right now to get some words done.

I am. I'm in a fanfic community, so I can publish short stories and be guaranteed readers and positive feedback, which makes it easier. But I've barely written anything for more than 6 months, so I need a kick in the pants!

Is it normal for your writing on nano to be absolutely dreadful? I have written some genuinely decent pieces in the past, even in the very recent past. But today I wrote 2500 words of absolute dreck. It's really, really, really bad. Worse than anything I've ever written on a bad day.

It's honestly almost just a just a list of things that happen, with some thoughts, emotions and terrible dialogue thrown in. It's for a well planned novel, so I don't even have the excuse of flying by the seat of my pants. I didn't think I'd be writing gold in a first pass but I didn't expect it to be such absolute poo either.

Hell yes! It's a question I battle with every time I try NaNo. If NaNo is meant to be a way of pushing me to be creative and make time to write every day then, yeah, it works. BUT if I'm supposed to be creating half way decent stuff, then does NaNo do anything for me? I say this with 235 words of crap in my file to date.

Whatever you do though, DO NOT EDIT. Not this month, save it til December. The first time I got past 20,000 I decided I couldn't live with myself if I didn't just tweak what I'd done slightly, and I lost 5,000 words in the edit.

Well done everyone! I logged 801 just before midnight, not unhappy given a busy day and evening...
Remember to back up your work, then back it up somewhere else...😊

Last year it helped me a lot getting involved in a couple of the NaNo communities on discord (adult daughter helped me with that, even though I'm tech savvy usually...) One's for my county, they also organise physical meetups to write at, as well as zoom write-ins and very frequent 'sprints' - write as much as possible in a set time with others...if you search region on the main NaNo site, click on one you're interested in, the discord channel will be listed if there is one - it's where most of the chat goes on.

Apologies if everyone knows this - I didn't until year before last, and only really connected with discord last year. Helped my word count a lot...!

Happy writing today, everyone!

I tend to write not knowing where things are going, so the first bit is often me feeling my way before the story kicks in.
When I edit it, most of the first bit will go, because it's more about me writing the backstory/character until I know it well enough.
I've written 4k words over the last two days and the action is just beginning, so it will probably condense to around 1k.

Also rambling a little on Nano works. So lots of description helps the word count, and it may not be needed in the end.

Best of luck with the music festival composition,@GrassWillBeGreener

Thanks guys. I've turned off my inner critic and passed 8000 (in total for the 3 days) today. I'm trying to build up a cushion for days were I'm too busy to hit 1667. I'm hoping to get properly in the swing of it so I can keep writing each day in Dec/Jan as I know the book I'm writing will be at least twice the length of the nano goal.

I've done 3000 words. Not so bothered about word count, just wanted to get my characters out of my head. DD is hooked on the story already which is lovely. I'm finding it strangely enjoyable. My subconscious conjures up all sorts once I start typing. It's weird.
Very fun so far.

Happy weekend everyone!

I hit my first three goals almost effortlessly (aiming for 50k in 30 days) despite WFH with children off school. Today I’ve got the house to myself and nothing to do but have taken all morning to write only 554 words.

I'm playing catch-up this weekend. I've written every day but I've only got 2900 words so far.

I too have had nothing in particular to do this morning but have only churned out 300 words today. Back to the grindstone for me...😣

Got to 5k, just about.

That's how it goes isn't it. The first couple of mornings I was really busy but I got up early and hit my target. Day three, I had a free morning so I faffed and faffed and opened my document and had no idea what to do so I faffed for another hour. I eventually got it done but I managed none of the other things I'd thought I'd have time for.

I usually find the NaNo excitement wanes for me around the day 3/4 point, but once I've pushed past it then it gets better! Then I have another lull somewhere in the middle, and one in the last few days. The last day or two I'm usually relieved to finish but also strangely bereft!

Up to 5k so far, but tonight I've written a grand total of 31 words... I've got no idea where I'm going with it, which doesn't help. Normally I like some sort of plan!

I'm trying it (though writing fanfic rather than an original novel). I managed it two years ago but gave up pretty early last year. I've been off work this week so I've built up a bit of a cushion. I'm on 11388 words, but only 443 of them have been today (I'm just not feeling it - I don't know if it's the day, or the chapter or if all my skills have abandoned me). I don't know how well I'll manage to keep up after Monday when I'm back in work, but hopefully I'll still manage to write a little bit every night.

But this has inspired me to persevere - so I'll make a cup of tea and go back to doc.

I wrote something today that I'm really not sure was a good plot choice. Is it best to ignore and plough on or go back and change it?

I'm on 5k words too.

Rewrite it but don't delete the bit you've written. Save that for editing

Thanks to this thread I've pushed on and written 2020 words today. I'm not stopping now, but I've exceeded the necessary 1667 so I'm happy.

I've found this thread really helpful too and have ended the day on 4500.

It’s encouraging me a lot to know other people are pushing ahead despite busy lives or self doubt or both.

I’m at 9048 words, which at 18% of the way feels good. There’s something therapeutic about writing and writing without censoring myself as I go. I do review it as I go, trying to think like a reader, and while it’s dreadful in most ways it’s fairly well paced and I’m into it. Hopefully it will be easyish to fix the parts that let it down. It’s important to keep moving the story forward regardless.