Is anyone doing National Novel Writing Month now NaNoWriMo is dead?

[CatrionaGrace]

Cleverly opportunistic of Scrivner. I think I'll pass.

I'd play on this site for a month, though I wouldn't join the showcase part.The idea of pre-edit sharing anything I wrote that fast gives me the screaming green mimis.

Is there anywhere we can find those cute little graphs like Nano had? Those were the main reason I signed up. Oh, how I liked to watch that graph line rise.

 

[Trish]

Proudly sponsored by Scrivner!

You mean pro writing aid? It says you can track in scrivener and Google docs, but it's not sponsored by them that I see? I tried pro writing aid, made it like 2 pages before I deleted my account. It's awful.

 

[big soft moose]

You mean pro writing aid? It says you can track in scrivener and Google docs, but it's not sponsored by them that I see? I tried pro writing aid, made it like 2 pages before I deleted my account. It's awful.

yep PWA like Grammarly and Autocrit tries to make you write its way rather than your way... i sometimes use it as an enhanced spell checker with about 95% of its options turned off

 

[Louanne Learning]

I have a suggestion to make it a daily challenge novel writing month - with a different word count for each day. It's something different to make it our own. Smaller goals are always easier to manage, than just saying - "do this in a month"

I've made up a November calendar to show what I mean (I can't seem able to attach the Word doc)

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
NOVEMBER	DAILY	NOVEL	CHALLENGE			1 write 1000 words
2 Write 500 words	3 Write 700 words	4 Write 800 words	5 Write 1000 words	6 Write 700 words	7 Write 500 words	8 Write 900 words
9 Write 700 words	10 Write 1000 words	11 Write 600 words	12 Write 800 words	13 Write 500 words	14 Write 1000 words	15 Write 500 words
16 Write 900 words	17 Write 600 words	18 Write 700 words	19 Write 800 words	20 Write 500 words	21 Write 1000 words	22 Write 900 words
23 Write 600 words	24 Write 800 words	25 Write 500 words	26 Write 1000 words	27 Write 700 words	28 Write 500 words	29 Write 600 words
30 Write 700 words	TOTAL	WORDS	FOR	THE	MONTH	>22,000

​

 

[Luxuria]

I have a suggestion to make it a daily challenge novel writing month - with a different word count for each day. It's something different to make it our own. Smaller goals are always easier to manage, than just saying - "do this in a month"

I've made up a November calendar to show what I mean (I can't seem able to attach the Word doc)

​

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
NOVEMBER	DAILY	NOVEL	CHALLENGE			1 write 1000 words
2 Write 500 words	3 Write 700 words	4 Write 800 words	5 Write 1000 words	6 Write 700 words	7 Write 500 words	8 Write 900 words
9 Write 700 words	10 Write 1000 words	11 Write 600 words	12 Write 800 words	13 Write 500 words	14 Write 1000 words	15 Write 500 words
16 Write 900 words	17 Write 600 words	18 Write 700 words	19 Write 800 words	20 Write 500 words	21 Write 1000 words	22 Write 900 words
23 Write 600 words	24 Write 800 words	25 Write 500 words	26 Write 1000 words	27 Write 700 words	28 Write 500 words	29 Write 600 words
30 Write 700 words	TOTAL	WORDS	FOR	THE	MONTH	>22,000

​

I appreciate your thoughts, but i think the uneven amount each day will cause more stress than fun. But it does make it interesting.

 

[Louanne Learning]

but i think the uneven amount each day will cause more stress than fun.

How so? can't say that I agree. New day, new goal, and all that.

 

[Louanne Learning]

Small steps are more attainable, and are less overwhelming. They create momentum. Setting a goal at the beginning of each day makes success obtainable on each and every day. Success breeds success.

 

[Luxuria]

Small steps are more attainable, and are less overwhelming. They create momentum. Setting a goal at the beginning of each day makes success obtainable on each and every day. Success breeds success.

That's a fair point. I suppose it comes down to how different people work. Because the daily goals feel stressful to me. However, if this is how you want to approach the challenge, go for it.

 

[Louanne Learning]

That's a fair point. I suppose it comes down to how different people work. Because the daily goals feel stressful to me. However, if this is how you want to approach the challenge, go for it.

Obviously, I'd like to hear from other members, as well.

 

[Homer Potvin]

I have a suggestion to make it a daily challenge novel writing month - with a different word count for each day. It's something different to make it our own. Smaller goals are always easier to manage, than just saying - "do this in a month"

I've made up a November calendar to show what I mean (I can't seem able to attach the Word doc)

​

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
NOVEMBER	DAILY	NOVEL	CHALLENGE			1 write 1000 words
2 Write 500 words	3 Write 700 words	4 Write 800 words	5 Write 1000 words	6 Write 700 words	7 Write 500 words	8 Write 900 words
9 Write 700 words	10 Write 1000 words	11 Write 600 words	12 Write 800 words	13 Write 500 words	14 Write 1000 words	15 Write 500 words
16 Write 900 words	17 Write 600 words	18 Write 700 words	19 Write 800 words	20 Write 500 words	21 Write 1000 words	22 Write 900 words
23 Write 600 words	24 Write 800 words	25 Write 500 words	26 Write 1000 words	27 Write 700 words	28 Write 500 words	29 Write 600 words
30 Write 700 words	TOTAL	WORDS	FOR	THE	MONTH	>22,000

​

We're going to keep this as simple as possible for the first go-round. No dailies or weeklies or anything like that. As little engineering as possible until there's proven interest. Like I said, there never has been in the past.

 

[Tallyfire]

Obviously, I'd like to hear from other members, as well.

I do like daily goals in some cases, but I need flexibility from week to week. Some days I’ll have a couple of hours to write, some days only 20 minutes, some days no time at all. So my word counts will be very uneven from day to day. Trying to match what I write to a specific word count each day wouldn’t make sense for me.

NaNoWriMo put down a daily guideline to help you stay on track, but in the end all that mattered was that you had 50K at the end of the month.

 

[defaux]

We're going to keep this as simple as possible for the first go-round. No dailies or weeklies or anything like that. As little engineering as possible until there's proven interest.

I can fully appreciate that idea. I'm sure none of us want you to invest that much time and effort into something that may not have legs. That said, I'm posting here (finally) as showing my interest and support for the idea.

Are we still talking about a nano section or a general forum dedicated to novels?

To be honest, I think there could be place for both, a general novel section and one specific to the challenge (maybe temporal as suggested elsewhere)

Regarding that, what are you looking to use it for?

Personally, I would find it useful to have a discussion space about novel specific techniques, even if its just a single forum space along side the other writing technique stuff. There is something different about trying to translate what I can do (hopefully respectably well now) in a couple thousand words into something 10x, 20x or 50x longer, and still maintain interest and tension. While creating believable and engaging characters, plot and setting can apply generally to all prose forms, I feel like the marathon form that is a novel requires skills I have yet to master.

I have a suggestion to make it a daily challenge novel writing month - with a different word count for each day. It's something different to make it our own. Smaller goals are always easier to manage, than just saying - "do this in a month"

I actually really like this idea, for a short sprint period, a series of small goals could really help build engagement and momentum. That said, I definitely relate to the other comments about if being potentially stressful - I have days where I don't get to write at all. Personally I feel like a weekly target would offer more flexibility to hit something like 5k but spread it over the days I have available time, and still reach the same goal at end of month.

NaNoWriMo put down a daily guideline to help you stay on track, but in the end all that mattered was that you had 50K at the end of the month

I'm in support of shorter options, as a 10/15/25 k word goal feel a lot more attainable for a first attempt while not doing it full-time. It would be great to have some tools to help calculate and break down your selected monthly goal into weekly and daily targets, and that adjust based on your logged progress - like, "you have 17k of 25k remaining". Even if it's not this first year. Having a visual display of daily progress that you can keep pumping up towards the total could be really motivating.

Now that I'm thinking about it, would anyone else find it useful to have tools like that available for tracking overall progress on a novel just generally? Maybe folks already use fancy writing software that does this?

 

[Raven484]

I have done Nanowrite 5 times over the years and have enjoyed it. The first time was the worst though. I met my goal of 50k, but for the next 8 months I could not put a sentence together. I talked to a friend, and he was able to give me some solid advice. I am an outliner when I write and discovered I was not prepared at all for it. Once I committed to doing the month, I would then outline everything I wanted to write before it started. This helped me reach my goal every time and left me feeling fresh afterwards.
I use writeitnow5 as my software which is a pretty good program if you are an outliner.
I would be very interested in joining and I am now starting my outline process to be ready.

 

[Tallyfire]

I met my goal of 50k, but for the next 8 months I could not put a sentence together. I talked to a friend, and he was able to give me some solid advice. I am an outliner when I write and discovered I was not prepared at all for it.

I had a similar experience last time I did NaNoWriMo. I had a vague idea of a story and just rolled with it and wrote the 50K, but hated what came out in the end. It was a whole load of slop, and not much of it was useful. It put me off the story and off writing for a while. I'll be planning a LOT this time.

Having a visual display of daily progress that you can keep pumping up towards the total could be really motivating.

I like that too. The NaNo webpage did a nice job with their graphs so you always had an overview of how you were doing over the month.

 

[Trish]

yep PWA like Grammarly and Autocrit tries to make you write its way rather than your way... i sometimes use it as an enhanced spell checker with about 95% of its options turned off

Maybe I did it wrong, then. I tried shutting off everything I could and it continued to try to write for me and make horrible suggestions. I got rid of it and went to scrivener, which I'm really enjoying now that I've gotten the hang of it. Even Word has gotten really intrusive and annoying. I can't say I've tried everything but out of what I have tried Scrivener is the only one that isn't intrusive. It kind of goes the other way, and I've had to teach it words that aren't even obscure lol. I prefer that over constantly suggesting things or wanting me to review everything.

 

[Trish]

Now that I'm thinking about it, would anyone else find it useful to have tools like that available for tracking overall progress on a novel just generally? Maybe folks already use fancy writing software that does this?

Scrivener has a progress bar you can click on. You set the WC target and it will tell you how far you are. You can also add a deadline date and it will calculate daily minimums needed to reach deadline, which I like, but I know that's too much pressure for some folks, so you don't have to use it if you don't wish to.

 

[Tallyfire]

Now that I'm thinking about it, would anyone else find it useful to have tools like that available for tracking overall progress on a novel just generally? Maybe folks already use fancy writing software that does this?

Scrivener has a progress bar you can click on. You set the WC target and it will tell you how far you are. You can also add a deadline date and it will calculate daily minimums needed to reach deadline, which I like, but I know that's too much pressure for some folks, so you don't have to use it if you don't wish to.

Just to add another option into the mix, I use Ulysses (Apple-only). The display and your workflow can be as minimalist or as complex as you want it to be, really. (Scrivener always looked too busy for me so I went for the minimalist option.) Ulysses also lets you add a word count goal with a deadline and will calculate daily word counts you need to get you there.

 

[Catrin Lewis]

Thanks for the mention! Yes, I would still be down for a 50K Event. I think maybe it could be better paced if it was in 3 months, not 1. I would love to be part of a 50K Group. The math comes out as: 555 words a day if you write 50,000 words in 90 days. The other reason I say 90 days, because the holiday season is upon us. One of the issues with NaNo, that would be brought up every year, was that it happened during Thanksgiving season.

If you have any thoughts, or ideas, let me know. I would be happy to brainstorm with you. Also, I was thinking that if we did a thread, at the end, I think we should post the first chapter of our work? Or make some kind of showcase? I donno. But I want to really support and grow the amount of novel writers on here.

I heard they stuck it in November partly to prove to us (Americans) that we could produce 50,000 words in 30 days, holidays, family obligations, family, and all.

I'd be interested, if this gets going. I have a couple of new projects in mind that I could use a kick in the pants to start and make good progress on. The novella, probably, even if it comes in at under 50,000 words.

 

[Trish]

Just to add another option into the mix, I use Ulysses (Apple-only). The display and your workflow can be as minimalist or as complex as you want it to be, really. (Scrivener always looked too busy for me so I went for the minimalist option.) Ulysses also lets you add a word count goal with a deadline and will calculate daily word counts you need to get you there.

It's a little overwhelming at first for sure. It does have a minimalist option you can click as well though, where it's just the screen and your words.

 

[Homer Potvin]

I suppose good 'ol pen and paper could still be an option? Start with the number 50,000 and just subtract what you write each day?

50,000
48,978
46,522
44,231

Too much?