Post by James on Oct 16, 2015 18:27:26 GMT -5
NaNoWriMo isn't actually an AWR thing. It's an independent event. If you google NaNoWriMo, you'll find their website with a lot more information. Essentially, the goal is to write 50,000 words of a novel in one month. Simple as that.
I have not been here for some time now. Well, not entirely true. I entered a contest earlier this year that had a pretty disappointing turn out, was just me and Sekot. Then to add insult, nobody except the contest's judge even read our entries. I didn't bother coming back because it seemed that the site was dying off. Then I read the preface to this post and it seems that I was.. am.. right.
I think you've just had some horrible timing. You're actually very wrong about the whole site "dying off". The preface to this post was about the NaNo sub-board, hence the reference to Nanomor.
2015 has been quite an active year, you've just popped up occasionally in between big events. I guess if you turned up in the 1920s and the 1990s, you'd probably come away with the impression that the 20th century was very peaceful as well.
The March Challenge was always going to be tough. I was disappointed with the turnout, but we had just had a very long competition:
awritersrecluse.proboards.com/board/80/awr-cup-2015
Like I said, the turnout was disappointing, but not totally unexpected after people were recharging their batteries. Could people have read the stories posted? Hell yes. Then again, they didn't have to because the judging was being done by a judge, not a popular vote.
Then, after March, we've done two further successful events:
awritersrecluse.proboards.com/board/7/awr-cup
awritersrecluse.proboards.com/board/83/festival-writes
The Festival also showed that people do read other people's stuff and they do review. We've also ran a Skype Writing Group that reviews people's stories and discuss writing fortnightly. So yeah, 2015 has been a busy year and unfortunately you popped in during a quiet time.
That being said: I logged on tonight before bed to look about. I desperately need some motivation to put my fingers back on the keyboard. If I understand all this correctly, the assignment is to write something.. anything.. just do it. Preferably something like a complete story of about 50,000 words.
Great! Hopefully, you'll find that motivation and have a blast through November!
But then what, beyond stimulating our own creative egos, are we going to do with them? Is the plan to post them here? Will we be encouraging each other to honestly critique each others' work? This sounds as if it has great potential for fun, however, is it realistic to think that we, the AWR community, are going to actually read each others' 50,000 word novels when, as I recall, we have a hard time just reading and responding to 2,000 word short stories?
I mean, there's a few things here to say about this:
- First, like I said, NaNo isn't an AWR event. So the NaNo website has their own website and forums which can be used as well.
- Secondly, everyone is probably coming at NaNo from different angles. Which is good. So there's no "AWR plan". I'm writing this year as a semi-serious attempt at writing a publishable novel. Is it going to be that good by the time I'm finished? No idea. Can I write publishable stuff? Apparently. So it's worth a shot. I don't lose anything if it ends up being rubbish. So since it's a serious attempt, I'll only be posting small excerpts. I imagine a few other people are in similar positions. Then they'll be others who are doing it for fun, or just to start writing again, and they may post the entire thing.
- Thirdly, I've written a 90,000 word novel. It was one of the most important learning experiences for me as a writer. I also haven't shown the finish novel to a single other soul. You don't need feedback to take something away from novel writing. Feedback is more rich than figuring out stuff on your own, but writing 50,000 words will make you a better writer even if no one else reads it.
- Fourthly, as the Festival showed, people do read and respond to short stories. But also, let's be real. When everyone's trying to write 50,000 words, no one is going to have the time to read and respond to everyone else. What I'm hoping for is that people post smaller samples and people give those excerpts a read and leave their thoughts.
- Fifthly, the most important thing I take away from NaNo is the sense of being all in it together. It's exciting. This week I've discussed with Zovo his idea, and briefly talked to Pete, and it's made me more excited about my own. I'm hoping we can feed off of each other's energy and each of us can make the finish line, or at least write a solid 20,000 words.
