*NaNoWriMo or "Write a Novel in a Month"!* :)

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@ Dennis Was it your "inner editor" censoring everything? ( whether ideas, language use, or the whole project ). The peptalk from NaNo at the beginning of November/when you sign up mentions how oppressive it can be, how need to lock it up for the month! :lol

How is everyone else doing? I'm at 44,361, and the end of the story is not in sight so I've signed up to NaNoFiMo ( "Finishing Month" ) to carry on for another 30,000 words in December. And plan to use NaNoEdMo in March to edit it. Might have something fit for public viewing in April! :lol

Good luck in the last few days of NaNo!
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I passed 50,000 on the 23rd, and I'm up to 55,913 words as of the moment.

Good luck to the rest of you who are still in.

And for all of you, it is better to try and fail than to never try at all. Whatever you get out of it, you've gained from the experience.

If you're doing NaNo, you may find yourself tempted by the offer from CreateSpace of a free copy for yourself. Don't take them up on it unless you've first considered what it will mean. I've posted more generally about things writers need to be concerned about - including using CreateSpace or LuLu, under any circumstances. You can read that here: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp3206856.html#3206856

Well I did it!

I wrote my 50,000 words, got my winner "badges", etc, and am starting NaNoFiMo tomorrow.

The site is still moribund but when the NaNoWriMo forum opens its "December and Onwards" forum on the 2 December with "How to keep Writing" etc sections I will post the NaNoFiMo link ( if noone else does! ), and hopefully the FiMo site will wake up a bit! Maybe see some of you there!

How did everyone else do?
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Congratulations!

If you're interested in Scrivener, don't forget to go back on the 2nd and get your coupon for half off; Mac (v 2) or Windows (valid when that releases in the spring).

I got my 50,000 words on the 23rd, and validated as soon as it went live. This is my fourth win, out of five tries. 2007, well, I was crazy to even sign up that year. But, on the other hand, at least I tried...

Congratulations! (I had to look up what "NaNoFiMo" was ) I won today! Very exciting. I'm intimidated about editing my novel, which has a ton of plot holes and loose threads. Maybe it would help me to step away for awhile. At any rate, this is the longest single piece of fiction I've ever written, so that's something to be proud of.

Congratulations! Yes, writing something as long as 50,000 words is definitely something to be proud of - and doing it in a month is like running a marathon in a time that will at least make every other runner respect you, even if you didn't come in first. (I happen to know two people who won in the first week of NaNo. Day seven, they were both over 50,000. I really doubt either of them is human: I think they must both be bots. )

Editing can be tough, especially if you aren't used to it. Chopping and hacking away at that manuscript you're so proud of can be painful... But after I finally got the hang of editing myself, I figured out one thing - if you can get through the process with a respectable result, that is an even greater feeling than just finishing the first draft.

A few suggestions on how to approach editing, though. Don't try to do it right away. You need at least some perspective first. Some people only need a month or so, others need a year or more. When you do look at it again, don't get depressed. It will read like total crap compared to what you remember. That's normal. The trick is to treat it like a block of marble: there's nothing much there but a hunk of rock until you chip away all the rough spots and useless bits and create a statue. One more thing: don't, whatever you do, show it to anyone else and get their opinion, unless they are very, very good at the editing process, or you know how to make the right use of a beta reader and know that they are a good beta reader.

You see, this is your story. No one else can tell the story you want to tell. That is the one unique thing you can offer the world as a writer. And almost anyone you show it to will think you should rewrite the story the way they think it 'ought' to go. Even experienced editors make that mistake. But experienced writers need to learn to accept certain things might not be quite right - but ignore what they 'should' be and figure out the correct fix on their own. Sure, you can take suggestions on how to fix a gaping hole in the plot, or whatever, but only if you're prepared to sift them, to reject even the cool ones, and to keep looking until you find one that not only works, but works for your story.

Oh, and one more tip. Since I doubt you have the hang of editing yet, you are at risk of making your manuscript worse, not better, if you fiddle with it too much. The best thing to do is this. Keep a copy of the original draft. Edit a copy of that. Keep copies of every draft, every different route you try out. That way, if you decide what you're doing at the moment has just drained all the life out of your story, you can go back to a draft that still has life in it. I wish someone had explained this to me, years ago... But, at least I learned. The more you do, the more you'll learn, just like with anything else.