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We see the final battle between the new gods and the old gods, and Kate and Daniel are trying to keep their secrets hidden, or they risk losing all their allies.
- Trying to finish Project: Underground.
- New ISBW website coming soon!
- Promo: Metamediocrity
- It is NaNoWriMo time again. 30 days (November), 50,000 words, bragging rights forever.
- Promo: The Leviathan Chronicles
- Dr. John Kessel will be speaking on speculative fiction at the NC Writers Conference
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10 Responses to ISBW #103 – NaNoWriMo Time Again!
Get the GFL with Discount Code MUR
The Latest from I Should Be Writing- Fun website stuff February 1, 2012
- A different writing challenge January 31, 2012
- ISBW Special #46 – Stonecoast Writer’s Residency January 30, 2012
- Notice- No interviews for a while January 30, 2012
- Eligibility in Hugos and Campbells January 24, 2012
It’s not only the schedule and the conquering of the “impossible” goal, but also simply that you *have* to write some crap before you learn to write well. The first rule of learning to write is “Write. A lot.” And NaNo forces you to do that.
I am pumped for NaNo again this year. My region is already hopping and chomping at the bit, ready to go. We’re planning on doing a tri-weekly “Virtual Write-In” podcast and I get to spend a weekend in an isolated yurt in the middle of the mountains.
- Crash
I just had a nanowrimo comment and for the life of my couldn’t figure out how to post elsewhere. The reason that I do it is partly to get some writing done. With school, work, figuring out what to do with the rest of my life, it can be tough to be motivated. And I find that if I have a deadline for a story of some sort I get more writing done. I have yet to finish 50,000 words but do enjoy the challenge. This year I am working on my last semester of undergrad, doing a nonfiction proposal, and attempting two nanos. I like to be crazy, I guess is why I do it.
I’ve won Nanowrimo four years in a row. With 4 very different genres. From a chic lit, to a fake religious book with no characters in it at all, to a book about sheep who try to find their God Sheep, Aries so they can learn how to jump fences, to a Chic-lit Romance dealing with emotional abuse. This year it’s going to be a murder/thriller (I really suck at this genre–so Nanowrimo it is. ‘Cause I won’t write it any other day of the year).
Nanowrimo for me is a time to break out of what I normally write, go nuts and challenge myself. I find with each progressive win it becomes easier and easier to clock those 1667 words. They seem to shrink and I have learned to work on other novels with the Nanowrimo novel.
Nanowrimo has another feature too, deadlines. Some people work really well on deadlines and won’t work without a deadline. You have people asking you how far you are. People who are watching your bar, and that also helps a lot.
I’ve also used Nanowrimo to diagnose problems I run into when I’m writing other novels. For example, last year I got stuck on the love story for my fantasy book. So I focused on romance, tried to learn the genre a bit, and tried to get out of it what I wanted to learn by focusing on it.
This year I’m doing murder/thriller because the same novel I was working on before I’m not quite sure how to handle those elements and am running into a dead end.
Nanowrimo teaches how to prioritize as well.
I heard that they decided in November, because 1. That was when they started the challenge to each other and 2. BECAUSE it’s a busy time of the year. If you can write a novel in November, then you don’t have an excuse for December through October anymore. You are going to invariably be busy, which makes it a good month to put it on. And what you ultimately learn is that you can write your novel anywhere. I text messaged myself part of my novel last year. I wrote it in the parking lot when I was freezing waiting in line. I was jotting it in my notes. I was writing it in the dark at a concert. When my lights went out that wet into the novel and I was writing and struggling in the dark. I found places to write because I had to write. I didn’t write only in an “idealized” space. I wrote in places people would think one is nuts to write. And that works too. You find out that the biggest excuses you face are from yourself. Not from whatever X, Y, and Z are on your schedule.
You may not write it like that for the rest of the year, but for that one month you learn quite a lot about your writing, your habits, your procrastination ability and about yourself.
I do burn out, but I don’t burn out on writing. I burn out on doing that novel. Last year though I finished the whole novel, basic edited it and organized it by the end of December. Mildly surprising me because people didn’t think it sucked and people who don’t read that genre normally thought it was good and not what they expected of the genre. But After I finished organizing it, I didn’t want to see it for at least six months. I worked on other novels instead.
Hi Mur,
Thanks for answering my question! I’ll give your advice a shot (as well as any other advice anyone cares to leave) and let you know how it goes.
Actually, it sounds like a great project for NaNoWriMo. This year will be my first shot at it, and I’ve been struggling with figuring out what to write. Maybe this will give me a good starting point to explore.
Also, I think it was Ray Bradbury who said you have to write a million words of sh** before you get good. In other words, do NaNoWriMo for 20 years and you should be golden!
– Jason
I’m a fairly new listener, and I heard of NaNoWriMo for the first time a month or so ago, as I listened my way through the archives. I decided to give it a go for a few reasons.
In the last couple of years, I’ve got out of the habit of writing regularly, and although I’ve been trying to get back into the habit recently, it’s not really working. Work can often eat up a lot of time, and it’s just too easy to think, “I’m too tired, I’ll write something tomorrow.” I’m hoping that having something concrete to aim for will help me make time for writing everyday, even if I am tired, and can only spare a little time.
I’ve tended to stick to shorter pieces but ultimately, I want to be writing novels. It’s rare for me to go much past 5k, and I finding aiming for something longer a bit daunting, so I’ve decided to make the most of the fact that my word count will be visible for all to see. I’ve tended to keep my writing fairly secret, but I’ve been telling friends that I’m doing NaNoWriMo in the hope that knowing they’ll know if I fail will shame me into keeping going. For the same reason, I decided to start using Twitter and LiveJournal to publicise my progress, too. If it works, I may continue doing this to keep myself motivated all year round.
I suppose the last reason is I’d love to have written a novel by the time I’m 30, and I’ve got a little over six weeks left.
It’s having a positive effect already. I have a rapidly filling file of character profiles and chapter outlines, and although initially I worried that I’d struggle to find enough story to fill 50,000 words, I’m starting to think that perhaps 50,000 won’t be enough.
Re post from the ISBW site:
Thanks for the mentioning me. I really like it. Forgot to say that any listeners are free to visit my site make suggestions and are feel to Crit. My site is here: http://big-nutter.livejournal.com/
Also do you know which Episode I should be looking for about Naming?
I’d like to know that too, cause I don’t remember that episode, and naming is something I’ve always had an issue with (the title of my book that Mur read aloud on this show was the 3rd title).
I am a habitual ‘story starter and never finisher-er’. A friend of mine introduced me to NaNoWriMo last year, and for the first time in my LIFE, I wrote more than 10,000 words on one idea. NaNoWriMo is a wonderful once-a-year boost/party/hoopla that keeps writing fun for me. After winning last year (while finishing up my thesis for my Master’s degree in Architecture no less!), I was convinced that I a) COULD write every day b) HAD THE TIME to fit in even 100 words a day to keep the story fresh and c) could actually write a story from beginning to end. Was NY Times best-seller material? Most definitely not. But I did start an entirely new novel in June, and am writing the sequel for NaNo this year, that’s two novels in a year! (that both need editing….) The nice thing(s) about NaNo is that it’s about putting words on the page, making ridiculous mistakes, and just floundering around until your move past the writers block. It’s about TURNING OFF that inner editor, and everyone around you is struggling with the same thing. It’s a boost of confidence, a rush of accomplishing a goal, and some really fun community right along with it. The trick is taking these lessons and using them for the rest of the year.
[...] novel in one month. You track your progress, and other writers support your effort. Writers like Mur Lafferty are doing it, and Neil Gaiman is plugging [...]
Hi Mur!
I’m listening to I Should Be Writing, ep. #103 again and decided to add my voice here. I signed up for my very first NaNoWriMo this year after listening to this very inspiring episode as well as my many other writing podcasts (Dead Robots Society, Writing Excuses…). Even though my November is going to be the “death” of me at work (though I really shouldn’t complain since it’s backstage theatre construction/lighting but it is Peter Pan, argh!) I decided another big project won’t kill me any less or more. Addled brains need a bit of clearing so why not NaNoWriMo?!
Thanks for your inspiring podcast from this fairly recent listener (since the first iPhone came out…visited the Apple Store to see what the fuss was about and left with a brand new video iPod, sigh). I’ve read my share of self-help writing buddy books but never really got down to writing (started out writing stage plays and branched out to short stories and beginnings of longer works as well as poetry but not much else). Now that I’ve bought a new MacBook Pro to replace my Powerbook and loaded lots of useful software on it (Scrivener being one of the must-haves) I have very little excuse not to write. I hope to quiet the very vocal procrastinator in me and have lots of fun doing NaNoWriMo. Thanks again!