NaNoWriMo

[OneandonlyDoc]

Originally Posted by VydorScope

Those of you that do this, do you go back, edit , and release?

With Awakenings, I have, as a fiction serial (once the first major arc is finished, I'll be releasing an ebook version of that, too).

My first Nanowrimo project, When All's Said and Done, is waiting for me to do a full redraft. It's kind of a disturbing piece.

I have two linked fantasy pieces that need a lot of work (they were never finished) and the first two books of a science fiction trilogy in various stages of completion thanks to Nanowrimo. I plan on releasing both sets as something eventually.

[Eisengoth]

Originally Posted by VydorScope

Those of you that do this, do you go back, edit , and release?

My released novel, Elegy, was my 2008 NaNo project. It required some significant time away from it, major editing, and a complete rewrite of the ending after it hit my critique group. I hadn't really considered the idea of releasing it until this year - if I had, I probably could have gotten it done faster.

Most times, NaNo projects will need more than simple line editing/proofing. Because they're produced under such incredible time strain, they often come out looking quite contrived and icky in places, despite their occasional shining brilliance. I think a better description might be "do NaNo, go back and completely rewrite what you just wrote, edit, then release if you actually ended up with a good story out of it".

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Eisengoth

My released novel, Elegy, was my 2008 NaNo project. It required some significant time away from it, major editing, and a complete rewrite of the ending after it hit my critique group. I hadn't really considered the idea of releasing it until this year - if I had, I probably could have gotten it done faster.

Most times, NaNo projects will need more than simple line editing/proofing. Because they're produced under such incredible time strain, they often come out looking quite contrived and icky in places, despite their occasional shining brilliance. I think a better description might be "do NaNo, go back and completely rewrite what you just wrote, edit, then release if you actually ended up with a good story out of it".

Ah, but isn't a basic rule of writing the fact that a book isn't written but re-written? Most authors I imagine would admit that they do a good deal of editing of their 1st draft.

[VydorScope]

Yea I tend to do cyclical editing... slow like Im 20 or 30% precent into the story and I will sometimes cycle back to page one and start re-working the story till I get to where I stopped then I continue on. So that by the time I reach "the end" its probably already has several dozen run throughs. As a side effect it helps with consistency in the story.

[William F]

From the website. "Who: You! We can't do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let's write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together."

Doesn't sound like a very good idea to me. Encouraging people to write crap is an interesting theory but I'll just stick to actually caring enough to do my best.

[VydorScope]

Originally Posted by William F

Doesn't sound like a very good idea to me. Encouraging people to write crap is an interesting theory but I'll just stick to actually caring enough to do my best.

I think the idea I think is to just get people writing. There are probably a zillion and a half people out there that say "I have this great idea for a book" that never ever write. This project plan it to get some of them to start and not get bogged down in the details. At the end of it they either enjoyed it and carry on, or not, but at least they accomplished something.

[Eisengoth]

Originally Posted by crich70

Ah, but isn't a basic rule of writing the fact that a book isn't written but re-written? Most authors I imagine would admit that they do a good deal of editing of their 1st draft.

Hah... not if you listen to Dean Koontz. He only writes once, dontcha know?

Originally Posted by William F

From the website. "Who: You! We can't do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let's write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together."

Doesn't sound like a very good idea to me. Encouraging people to write crap is an interesting theory but I'll just stick to actually caring enough to do my best.

They're not encouraging people to write crap. They're encouraging people to write. The point of NaNo is to help all those people who get bogged down jumping from topic to topic, or endlessly revising so much that they never actually get past the 10,000 word mark or so. The idea is to help those people let go and actually get a longer story written by imposing a deadline, so that they don't have time to be a perfectionist.

The OLL has a bit of a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor. It's fine and all to do your best, but if you never finish anything while "doing your best", you're not really accomplishing anything. If you're already finishing work while "doing your best", then you may not need what NaNo provides. Of course, you'd also be missing out on a rollicking good time and a great community in the process.

[OneandonlyDoc]

Originally Posted by Eisengoth

They're not encouraging people to write crap. They're encouraging people to write. The point of NaNo is to help all those people who get bogged down jumping from topic to topic, or endlessly revising so much that they never actually get past the 10,000 word mark or so. The idea is to help those people let go and actually get a longer story written by imposing a deadline, so that they don't have time to be a perfectionist.

The OLL has a bit of a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor. It's fine and all to do your best, but if you never finish anything while "doing your best", you're not really accomplishing anything. If you're already finishing work while "doing your best", then you may not need what NaNo provides. Of course, you'd also be missing out on a rollicking good time and a great community in the process.

Yeah, it's mostly just to stop people from worrying so much about the quality of what they're writing to get the ideas down on paper. Just like every writer mag will tell you to do: don't worry about the quality of the first draft, just write.

[William F]

The OLL has a bit of a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor. It's fine and all to do your best, but if you never finish anything while "doing your best", you're not really accomplishing anything.

But vomiting forth 50000 words of stream of consciousness so you can proclaim yourself a novelist is somehow an accomplishment?

If you're a writer, you write and you don't need some sort of manufactured special club to encourage you to do it. If you're not a writer then spend that month doing something else you enjoy.

All of which leads me to wonder if serial killers have a similar, if more secretive, organization.

[VydorScope]

William, why so negative? Lots of people have fun doing it, let them be.

[OneandonlyDoc]

Originally Posted by VydorScope

William, why so negative? Lots of people have fun doing it, let them be.

NaNoWriMo attracts all kinds of people for all reasons. Some are serious writers. Some are not. There's nothing barring either end of the spectrum from their participation save their own fear.

[crich70]

The way I understand it Chris Baty and a bunch of his friends decided to challenge themselves to write a book and came up with the 50k word count as a reachable goal. Over time the challenge has grown into what we now know as NaNoWriMo. Some have actually gone on to publish the works that they wrote for the challenge. While not every book written for NaNoWriMo is likely to be publishable I don't see the harm in doing it. And having others trying for the same goal as yourself does help in reaching that goal.

[William F]

William, why so negative? Lots of people have fun doing it, let them be.

What was it the road to hell was paved with? I forgot.

There's nothing barring either end of the spectrum from their participation save their own fear.

or common sense.

dissenting opinion registered. Do as you wish, but not everything is a good idea just because some people said it was.

[VydorScope]

Originally Posted by William F

What was it the road to hell was paved with? I forgot.

The Road to Hell is paved with frozen door-to-door salesmen.
On weekends many of the younger demons go ice-skating down it.
-- Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, Good Omens

[jedipencil]

The NaNo website and its sense of humor seemed, in my humble opinion, set up that way simply to encourage people who might normally feel intimidated by the idea of writing a book, to just sit down and try it. Being forced to sit down and "put out" is, for some people, a major accomplishment in itself. And then actually finishing it? Major satisfaction.

My day job has let me meet a number of people who repeatedly say - "oh, I wish I could do such-and-such, but life gets in the way." I'd be willing to bet that life gets in the way for nearly all of us here, in whatever we do.

Some don't have quite the self-confidence to actually believe they might finish a big project, and accomplishing that might give them the self confidence they need to do something in another area in life.

I thought the site was fun and good-hearted, and a sense of humor will win me over every time. Just my opinion.