On the fence: writing in November

Posted on by Writer of words

I’m on the fence about a lot of things in my life, but my latest struggle is about NaNoWriMo.

The acronym stands for National Novel Writing Month which begins every November 1.

After much pondering over the past few days, I thought I had finally made the decision to sign up.

So on this holiday Monday, I got up before the family did, made coffee, grabbed my macbook, and loaded the website. I wanted to set up the profile, look around, put all the pieces I want together in one place, and get myself ready for actual writing in two weeks.

The website gives you the option to sign in with your google account so I clicked it, and waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

Ugh. 😐

We are not off to a good start here…

Either the website is struggling with some IT issue, or google is. Or my mac is.

I abandoned the mac and picked up my phone. I loaded the site on mobile, clicked the google link and…

Blah. 😞

After signing out and back in again on both devices, the mobile one loaded and I selected a picture. Do people care what someone looks like when they chat in forums?

I have a love hate relationship with selfies. I thought I liked them better nowadays, but maybe I don’t after all…

The picture I selected for the profile was cut off. I tried moving it around, the way you usually can in these sort of profile screens, but it wouldn’t let me. So I deleted it and selected another one.

Same sort of issue. My face is half cut off.

Well whatever. I got fed up and quit, turned on WordPress, and complained to you about it instead. 😂

(sorry not sorry) 😄

It’s a good thing it’s a holiday today which means I can ignore the family duties and focus on fixing this thing, either here on the couch, or back in the bedroom when they kids get up and populate the place with their noise and clutter.

Bonus today? There are a lot of leftovers so no cooking. Only other thing I gotta focus on, beside deal with the dishwasher and some other related clutter, is laundry (we still don’t have a dryer). Rest of the time I hope to be plugged in and figure out this issue and get all my ducks lined up.

Does anyone have any experience with NaNo? If you do, please share it with me, I’m interested! I may end up dropping the entire plan if the website doesn’t make my life easier, and just do my own thing without the disciplinary structure they say they have in place. Or, I may bug you guys here on the blog instead for support. 🙂

29 thoughts on “On the fence: writing in November”

  1. I’ve tried NaNo several times – last year I finally completed it – writing a memoir, as you know. I ripped through it, but I think that was mostly because I used it as an excuse – an excuse to “be writing”. I wrote at lunchtimes, in the evenings, and any other time I could find. Most of my words went into Scrivener on an old iMac, but a huge proportion also went into a web word processor I discovered called “writer.bighugelabs.com”. Anyway – good luck in your journey!

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  3. I had a go at NaNoWriMo nine years ago. The eldest boy was three and the twins were less than a year and I realised, about a couple of weeks in, that this was a really bad time to be trying to hit a word count.

    I keep thinking I should give it another try but I am currently devoid of ideas.

    Good luck if you do go ahead with it this year. The main thing is to bang out the words — the editing has to wait until after you finish your first draft.

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  4. I did NaNo a couple years ago. It’s taxing and all consuming of emotion and will. Only tip: prepare as best with a clear idea of what you’re trying to accomplish. Organize everything. It’s what worked for me. Grind through it. Repeat. I wrote twice a day; in the early morning and late after work. I stumbled through it a day or two early with 50,000 words. More relief than satisfaction. A completed manuscript to show for it, but also a tired, hot mess. Good luck. Keep sane.

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      1. Of discipline, you may have to Monk-It-Out for a month. Working on and at the same time, same place … hard routine with some doable flex in it for sanity’s sake. Please don’t write and drive. It doesn’t work.

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      3. Being tired is the absolute worst. I write more unreadable shit after 9 pm then I do before 5 am. Drinking helps. Always. It enables the flow of truth serum. No moonshine. It’ll just make you write angry.

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  6. Oh – they give you a halo if you do donate. Call me cynical but they only do that so other people will think they have to, also. Don’t pay at all. Feed your kids instead. I only have some money now because I’m just that bit old and decrepit. Someone took a photo of me on her phone in the optician’s when I was trying on new glasses, so I could see what I looked like in them. I don’t care! I can’t look that bad! Yes. I have a thing about photographs also – of myself – everyone else looks okay! Do you think I have body dysmorphia or something? Oh well – getting over it.

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  8. If you do do NaNo – it might not be the right time for you – but if you do, I’m not looking for buddies because I write alone – I’ve had experience of writing with someone else – again through the academic thing – and ‘being in a team’ through that – and I’m a loner. But If you have NaNoWriMo in your title – or whatever comes up in the WordPress Reader – you know, the first few lines – I tend to look in there before my email slot – I’ll look at what you say. I’m following you anyway. But if it hasn’t got ‘NaNo’ in it – who knows – I might actually get into this thing – go for the words, no matter how not-very-good – I might decide (not just with you) to miss posts if I haven’t got time.

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      1. There is trouble with the new website. I was sent over to there from where I was. There was a notice up the top that said the website was doing weird things and it should be better by tomorrow. Looked at the profile – I think I just won’t have a photo – can’t do it. Looked into a forum for newbies. People are nervous. I’m not sure how much time I’m going to have for forums with all the writing to do! I’m laughing, anyway – it’s either nervous laughter or I’m having a great time, already!

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  10. I’m doing NaNo (as you know) but I don’t know. First time for me. I haven’t done the profile yet. Someone said NaNo had set up a new site this year. Don’t know. I got in okay. Found the shop okay. Found some pep talks okay. I have only read Chuck Wendig’s – I like him. I couldn’t get into some of the others, but there is only so much you can read, only so much you can write. Someone on YouTube advised – screw the 50.000 words – just get down what you need to for your novel. It is a bit pushy on the site for you to buy. I know from experience there is only so much you can learn from ‘how to write books’. I’m on my own in it, but a few people have found me, and I am sharing a ‘following’ thing with one person who interests me. She is looking for a buddy, I think, but I am not looking for one. If you have NaNoWriMo in your tags and/or ‘title’ in your WordPress, people will start finding you. I had an email from them once I’d signed up (but hadn’t done the profile) to say something about Announcing – it is an ‘everything’ in it form – how many words, etc – but it’s still the middle of October so, officially, I have none yet. People start prepping for it from the middle of September – this is just information I’ve gleaned from looking into it. YouTube, a few blogs. Someone said to do it regardless – even if it was already November 1 or 3rd – which is where she was – for the experience. Drop anxiety about it. You don’t have to ‘win’ unless you want to. You don’t have to produce a full novel – that is impossible in the time frame – it is just for a rough first draft. Well, I don’t even do drafts. (I didn’t for my academic work, simply because there wasn’t time for that – deadlines were such that you did it – essay or whatever- and that was it – hand it in – I always felt as though I knew how to do the essay once I’d done it – but too late – it had to be handed in.) It’s a long time since I’ve deliberately tried to do ‘fiction’ – it might not turn out that way, I don’t know. But I used to edit as I went along, otherwise I couldn’t move along at all. And so – I’ll do as I like with NaNo.

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    1. I think for me the approach is: do something with what you have started but not completed. I.e. the memoir. Or some of the other stories. It’s more about focus and do it than omg they say I need to produce x words or all that.

      If the site becomes a distraction I won’t follow it anymore. But for the next two weeks I’ll probably dip around in it for fun. Maybe I’ll find you!

      I haven’t donated or bought anything, I’m not paying. I can’t pay, I don’t have two dimes to rub together.

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      1. Yes. I gave the smallest donation – I don’t know how it is going to be. They have given me a halo above my non-picture – it’ll be embarrassing going into forums in that! I’ve asked not to be put on the ‘people who donated page’. I’m only saying here because you mentioned it. Lots of T-shirts in the shop – I won’t want those with my visible nipples! Lots of people in the newbie forum didn’t have halos. I don’t think they should be displayed at all. But I’m laughing. Maybe I am having fun after all!

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      2. You can use anything as a profile pic, take a picture of a pen or your keyboard. Doesn’t matter anyway…I chose a pic I manipulated with filters to make myself think, oh I like how I look in this picture, gonna pretend I look like this now when in fact I look nothing like that picture today… 😉

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