NaNo'ing Away
Sep. 2nd, 2011 01:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winters_queenI was trying to get organized (HA!) and pulled up all the NaNos that I keep on one flash drive (and keep in two other places). One thing I need to do is go back and edit and finish the stories. Though I can’t find my 2005 NaNo right now but I remember the ideas of the characters I was going to use.
I know there are people who think that NaNo is the worst thing to happen because they feel that it teaches bad practices such as the whole quantity over quality. I also know several authors who use NaNo to write their first (or zero) drafts for books that they are contracted for and swear by them.
It really is different for everyone. And I don’t know about anyone else but I know a first draft is always far from perfect so it’s always going to need to be looked over and such. That’s part of the process.
NaNo is just something that is to be fun and give people an experience that they might not really do other than once a month. They want to give in to their imagination or just let loose with the voices in their head for a little.
Being an Municipal Liasion, I’ve seen a very wide variety of people. From High School students to retired. The age range is about 17-60s.
That’s a pretty big gap there were everyone has one thing in common that they might not before. Where else are you going to get something like that? And it’s always fun to run across people in every day living who have done NaNo. One time last year, my roommate and I went to the local diner (that has AWESOME waffles) and my roomie was wearing her NaNo shirt. Turns out our waitress did NaNo that year and how much she had fun doing it.
NaNo turns strangers into comrade at arms for a month and you might just get some new friendships that continue past from it. There is nothing wrong with NaNo. Again, it’s a personal preference. No one is making anyone participate and even if you don’t get to the 50k at the end, what you written might have something that jumpstarted an idea that you want to continue on or something that should just be put away to stew a little.
Looking at the stories I have below, for some reason, being ML made me more accountable to finish. A friend first introduced NaNo to me in 2003. Needless to say, I didn’t do much and a computer crash had me lose what I had written. I can’t even remember what the story was to be about. 2004…was better but then the next two years, I just flubbed it. When the current ML at the time said she was moving so she wouldn’t be able to be our ML, and at the time, there weren’t a lot of people showing up when we did get together, I said I would give it a go. It has been a learning experience about how I manage my time and try not to spread myself so thing. I have two co-MLs who are awesome and I’m going to try to get at least one more for the two areas that I have a fair distance to travel for. We’ll see if there is any luck with that.
For Camp NaNo, the reason I made it is that I booted up Twitter and got into word sprints, as well as going into a chat room on AIM where there were others doing Camp as well. I think that’s the only reason why I made it to as far as I did. Because I was being held accountable against someone else. I am a very strange person.
Hopefully, the 5th year of being an ML and meeting the regulars who have done NaNo since I started to ML and new people show up and we can have more fun. I just need to find ways for everyone to connect a little more. People get shy and they talk on the forums but it’s the nervousness of meeting in person that they seem to avoid. Or they feel better just doing their own thing alone.
2004 – Rivalries - 50,337 words
2005 – Untitled Steampunk – 5,000 or so words
2006 – Snip – 15,523 words
2007 – A Day at the Office – 51,176 words
2008 – From the Ashes – 56,925 words
2009 – Waking Dreams – 53,766 words
2010 – Waking Choices – 51,592 words
2011 - ??
2011 - The Divided Suns – 50,121 words (and still going)
And hopefully this wasn’t too rambling of a post.
It made sense in my head. :)
I know there are people who think that NaNo is the worst thing to happen because they feel that it teaches bad practices such as the whole quantity over quality. I also know several authors who use NaNo to write their first (or zero) drafts for books that they are contracted for and swear by them.
It really is different for everyone. And I don’t know about anyone else but I know a first draft is always far from perfect so it’s always going to need to be looked over and such. That’s part of the process.
NaNo is just something that is to be fun and give people an experience that they might not really do other than once a month. They want to give in to their imagination or just let loose with the voices in their head for a little.
Being an Municipal Liasion, I’ve seen a very wide variety of people. From High School students to retired. The age range is about 17-60s.
That’s a pretty big gap there were everyone has one thing in common that they might not before. Where else are you going to get something like that? And it’s always fun to run across people in every day living who have done NaNo. One time last year, my roommate and I went to the local diner (that has AWESOME waffles) and my roomie was wearing her NaNo shirt. Turns out our waitress did NaNo that year and how much she had fun doing it.
NaNo turns strangers into comrade at arms for a month and you might just get some new friendships that continue past from it. There is nothing wrong with NaNo. Again, it’s a personal preference. No one is making anyone participate and even if you don’t get to the 50k at the end, what you written might have something that jumpstarted an idea that you want to continue on or something that should just be put away to stew a little.
Looking at the stories I have below, for some reason, being ML made me more accountable to finish. A friend first introduced NaNo to me in 2003. Needless to say, I didn’t do much and a computer crash had me lose what I had written. I can’t even remember what the story was to be about. 2004…was better but then the next two years, I just flubbed it. When the current ML at the time said she was moving so she wouldn’t be able to be our ML, and at the time, there weren’t a lot of people showing up when we did get together, I said I would give it a go. It has been a learning experience about how I manage my time and try not to spread myself so thing. I have two co-MLs who are awesome and I’m going to try to get at least one more for the two areas that I have a fair distance to travel for. We’ll see if there is any luck with that.
For Camp NaNo, the reason I made it is that I booted up Twitter and got into word sprints, as well as going into a chat room on AIM where there were others doing Camp as well. I think that’s the only reason why I made it to as far as I did. Because I was being held accountable against someone else. I am a very strange person.
Hopefully, the 5th year of being an ML and meeting the regulars who have done NaNo since I started to ML and new people show up and we can have more fun. I just need to find ways for everyone to connect a little more. People get shy and they talk on the forums but it’s the nervousness of meeting in person that they seem to avoid. Or they feel better just doing their own thing alone.
- NaNoWriMo
2004 – Rivalries - 50,337 words
2005 – Untitled Steampunk – 5,000 or so words
2006 – Snip – 15,523 words
2007 – A Day at the Office – 51,176 words
2008 – From the Ashes – 56,925 words
2009 – Waking Dreams – 53,766 words
2010 – Waking Choices – 51,592 words
2011 - ??
- Camp NaNoWriMo
2011 - The Divided Suns – 50,121 words (and still going)
And hopefully this wasn’t too rambling of a post.
It made sense in my head. :)