Published by deborah.woehr on 26 Sep 2008 at 05:36 am
2008 NaNoWrMo on the Horizon: Are You Ready?
Looking at the NaNoWriMo site, it’s hard to believe they’ve been around for ten years. Check out their history, if you’d like. If you’ve never participated in this writing contest, I urge you to check it out. If you can leap over your inner critic and bang out 50 thousand words in 30 days, this will be a fun venture. There are no prizes, except peer recognition and a banner to slap up on your blog or website.
I’ve participated in three contests, never once making it to the goal. But I’m thinking about giving it another shot. Never mind that it’s taken me eight months to reach the 50K mark with my current WIP. I want to see if I can make it past last year’s 30K achievement. The year before, I reached 20K before I tanked.
Anyway, I experienced several lulls at work yesterday. Everybody was at their meetings or their cubicles, and I was sitting at the front desk all by myself, trying to think of how I could keep myself busy when there was nothing to do. Someone had reminded me of this year’s contest, either on a blog or on Twitter. I forget which and suppose it doesn’t matter.
I sat at that desk, coaxing my mind to come up with some brilliant and unique plot idea. The hamster refused to get that wheel turning. I had nothing. Finally, I decided to wait until I got home to open a partial outline that I’d started before last year’s contest. I never did finish that outline, preferring another idea that popped up at the last minute. That means I have 35 days to finish it or come up with a new idea for the 2008 NaNoWriMo contest.
How about you? Are you going to participate? If you didn’t make it to the 50K goal, do you have a plan that will bring you closer to the finish line this year?
Benjamin Solah on 29 Sep 2008 at 2:28 am #
It’s actually ten years. I’ve got the 10th anniversary tshirt and it looks real nice.
I said I wasn’t gonna do it this year, just too much on, but a writer’s forum sucked me into the buzz again. The hype and atmosphere is just too good to miss. So, I’m gonna start working an old novel idea from my first NaNo, using a modified goal coz 50k is just too far out for me atm.
deborah.woehr on 29 Sep 2008 at 5:30 am #
I’ll have to get that T-shirt.
I know what you mean about getting sucked into buzz. There’s something about this contest that draws me. My goal is to be last year’s 30K mark and get up to 40K.
Karen Lee Field on 29 Sep 2008 at 4:16 pm #
I’ve done the 50,000 words twice and I did a mini-nano and reached the 25,000 words. This year, however, I’m not doing it because I’ve just developed a comfortable writing routine and don’t want to ruin it.
Good luck to everyone who participates.
deborah.woehr on 29 Sep 2008 at 5:25 pm #
Congratulations on those goals and establishing your writing routine, Karen.
And, thank you.
Pamela K. Kinney/Sapphire Phelan on 16 Oct 2008 at 8:36 am #
I plan to do it to write the sequel to an erotic urban fantasy I have coming out in January by Phaze Books. Figure why not.
deborah.woehr on 16 Oct 2008 at 8:41 am #
That’s a great idea, Pamela. Hope your first book in the series is successful.