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National Novel-Writing Month
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Apologies for being a little late with this post. But November is National Novel Writing Month, where everyone who ever claimed they could write a novel is encouraged to get up off their big fat sofa and just do it.
The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30. Last year there were 79,000 who at least tried, and 13,000 who succeeded, according to the group’s website.
According to the fun, non-hectoring website, NaNoWriMo (an awkward acronym if ever one existed) is all about “valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft. … The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly. Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap.”
Hey, I’m a professional journalist! I’ve spent my whole career writing a lot of crap!
It’s too late this year. Maybe next year. For now, I thought we could just exchange novel ideas. Does anyone here have an idea for a novel they’d like to write? I’ve been kicking around a lot of ideas that have yet to really work out yet, but I’ve got this one very rough notion for a comic novel set in Atlanta that involves the Mansion Madam, Mike Vick and golf.
Anybody else want to share an idea for a novel, or a novel-writing experience?
Comments
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By Jeff
November 6, 2007 8:36 AM | Link to this
I’ve had a few over the years.
One is a techno-thriller whose main character would be a synthesis of all the points of Dirk Pitt, Jack Ryan, and Patrick McLanahan that I love, but more of a ground-troop action base. My guy would have an armor system similar to McLanahan’s Tin Man Battle Armor, but with some enhancements I’ve thought of over the years, including a type of Predator-style cloaking. This cloaking would enable the wearer of the armor to be completely invisible, have just the armor invisible, or have everything - including the armor - visible. I’ve even recently thought of a plausible change to Dale Brown’s basic idea to make it uniquely my own: instead of a Bio-Electric Reactive Process (BERP) base and haveing to have a backpack battery, mine would use nano-technology that would simply absorb any incoming weaponry and use its atoms to power the armor.
Being as thrilled with NBC’s Journeyman as I am, I’ve also recently been toying with the idea of a novel along similar lines. (Man travels through time but comes back to his present life and has to deal with the complications of his ‘vanishing’.)
By Maria
November 6, 2007 9:37 AM | Link to this
Thanks for the press on NaNoWriMo, Phil! I was so excited to see this entry this morning. This year marks my seventh experience with National Novel Writing Month, and something like my seventeenth novel manuscript overall. Novels 1 - 15 were for fun and practice and learning the craft. Only with novel #16 did I start thinking about publication. I’m still revising that one while working on my new National Novel Writing Month manuscript for this year.
I credit NaNoWriMo with helping me over the hurdle of an unintended five-year break from fiction writing, as well as leaving behind the overtly autobiographical fiction I wrote when I was in college. (I’m sure I wasn’t alone.) Sure, you write a lot of crap during November, and you miss out on sleep, but you also emerge from the madness with something approaching a finished first draft of a novel. Suddenly you’ve moved from being one of those people who “has a good idea” for a novel, to someone who’s actively working on putting that idea to paper.
Also, I should mention that the Atlanta-area contingent of NaNoWriMo has grown like crazy over the years. This year we’re at nearly 1000 people who claim Atlanta as their “home region.” So much of the fun of writing a novel in November is the social aspect of the exercise — we meet in late October for kickoff parties, then during the month for “write-ins” (yep. You sit in a restaurant or coffee shop or library with other participants and just type or write like mad), then on or around December 1 for a Thank God It’s Over party.
It’s great fun. And, honestly, it’s not too late to join up for this year. There are only 24 days left to write the 50K, but, hey, that’s just a little more than 2000 words a day. And you can never underestimate the power of a Thanksgiving weekend writing blitz. That’s a tradition for me, as I always seem to fall behind on my word count around this time of the month.
By Jen
November 6, 2007 9:58 AM | Link to this
Hey, all, I’m doing NaNoWriMo this year! First timer. I’m up to about 12,000 words, so I’m doing okay.
I’m writing an urban fantasy story - very much pulp fiction.
By Phil Kloer
November 6, 2007 11:40 AM | Link to this
Cool! I should have known that even though I wasn’t on the ball, some of you were! Maria, I think I may need to come to that Thank God Its Over and either blog about it or do a story for the paper or both. Shoot me an email when you know the particulars, would you?
By Kimi
November 6, 2007 11:58 AM | Link to this
I’m also a first time NanNoWriMo participant this year, writing mainstream fiction. I’m not even sure what my novel is about yet, it’s changed at least once since we started! But at least I’m finally sitting down & doing it.
By Tina
November 6, 2007 2:38 PM | Link to this
Thanks for the shout-out! This will be my fifth NaNoWriMo!
By Maria
November 6, 2007 2:51 PM | Link to this
Will do, Phil! I expect we’ll have the party planned by mid-November.
By Nancy
November 6, 2007 3:37 PM | Link to this
My father started a novel before he died in 1992 and it was to be about his family that lived on a farm in South Georgia where during the depression he was growing up. I keep promising myself that I will look at his notes and finish - or actually write the novel but I never do. Maybe I will try to get it done before November 2008. Perhaps a deadline would inspire me.
By margaret
November 7, 2007 8:03 AM | Link to this
I’ve written a few novels, but have never done Nano. A lot of my online friends have, but I don’t know if they’ve every polished their manuscripts for publication. I just don’t like the idea of the pace and the novels that I wanted to write were already half finished and that seemed like cheating lol.
I’ve written one about secret societies based on the last spartans left and another one based on my grandfather who worked on the Panama Canal and almost killed his brother in law on his return. I’m glad I did both, but on some levels I’m not sure why I did them.
By erinanne
November 7, 2007 11:11 AM | Link to this
This is my second year doing NaNoWriMo. Or, if that moniker is too ungainly for you, I invite you to call it by it’s shortened name, NaNo. As in, this year my NaNo is a coming of age story about a young man in rural Georgia at the turn of the twentieth century who dreams of a life of adventure beyond his family’s farm. (NaNo also is a verb: can’t talk; Nanoing!)
NaNo is great for those who enjoy writing, but like me, can never make themselves sit down and finish something. I have a ton of first chapters saved on my computer, but last year I actually sat down and wrote a complete plot arc. It’s not good, and I’ll never publish it, but it taught me a lot about writing, and a lot about myself. cue cheesy music
Plus, I met a lot of cool people through the process. Hi, Maria!
Yes, NaNo has it’s critics- what program or organization doesn’t?- but the people who truly care about the craft will use it for what it is; namely, a jumping off point for getting that first draft out there. You can always go back and edit later.
By Roosevelt Chavez
November 20, 2007 7:37 PM | Link to this
forgeman portrayable sutherlandia blemish khanjee deamidization abstraction appointee http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/B/relee/relee.htm >Robert E. Lee http://www.dorchesterhouse-keswick.co.uk