NaNoWriMo
 

National Novel Writing Month is coming up again in November. Since I have been a member of the boards here at Horror.com, I've been impressed with the creativity of the membership in general, and a lot of the members specifically.

NaNoWriMo is a site to give writers, or wanna-give-it-a-try writers, a kick in the pants when they need a little help getting off their respective asses and putting the ideas they've had floating around in their brain buckets down on the pixelated paper. During the month of November you write a fifty thousand word novel ("novella", really). That's it. It doesn't have to be brilliant, or re-invent the wheel (although some writers have gone on to have their stuff published); you just have to apply yourself and meet the deadline.

Fifty thousand words is not really a novella. This is something I'd like to try but probably won't because that's Bizarrocon time and I'm usually really busy for it. My favorite alternative to this is the three day novella. My book Archelon Ranch is the product of one of these three day things and in spite of its lack of popularity, it's one of the best things I've ever written and has been nominated for the Bizarro community's Wonderland Award. Three days, 20-30,000 words. If you've got the balls and the caffeine and a vision, you can do it. I recommend trying this before Nanowrimo.

Fifty thousand words? You'd spend more time counting than putting together a good storyline.

Writing tools. Word count.

Here here- Archelon Ranch is brill xx
OK so can someone tell me more about this as I am really a technophobe. If I do it in Word, how do i get it on here and who do I send it to? Was inspired in the bath earlier and have decided to go with your idea Doc and just do it! :)

Challenges like this always fascinate me. I don't have a whole lot of creativity so I love to see things like this and see people flexing their creative muscle. I'd say something like this is a quality opportunity for people who want to have a bash. Either that or follow Doc's lead and try his 30 000 word book in a weekend idea. I can't really imagine putting 30 000 words of creative thought down in a weekend though. I think by the end of the weekend I'd be sat there with and ashtray full of nub ends and the words "It was a dark and stormy night" looking back at me. Good luck to anyone who has a go at this. :)

I have an idea, and the ability to apply myself, but have little belief in my spelling and gramatical capabilities. Its my lack of confidence that lets me down:o

Spelling and grammer can be given a helping hand along the way from word. I would think if you got something you want to put down, the most important thing is to get the idea out of your head and onto the page. Worry about the rest later. I'm sure you can find someone who would happily proof read your work too. Would be a shame if you let a lack of confidence get in the way. :)

Thank you for your encouragement. I will give it a go-but not all in a weekend-I dont think my lungs and bladder could cope with the nicotine and caffeine!:eek:

I just signed up. Thank you for the link. Hopefully this will give me inspiration to write... Though a novel in a month seems really heft, considering I can't even finish a short story since I graduated college.

We'll see how it goes. I need to pick an idea and go with it.

I also need to pick a genre... Like I LOVE horror (obviously) but this obsession has only been fairly recent for me... I'm not sure if I can WRITE horror... I feel as though I haven't read enough to be able to write it... I don't know. This is where my lack of confidence really comes from. I tell myself that I just simply "don't know enough" to do it.

What I need to do is read more... My mom gives my boyfriend and I a "Best Horror/Scifi Short Fiction" anthology every year which I honestly find inspiring... I mean, these are people who are getting published. It gives me a lot of good perspective.