Curious

[ithildin]

So, this NaNo thing, and those of you who are doing it -- what's the attraction? I have RL friends who do it every year, I know dozens more on the internet, and now it seems half my f'list is participating. Me? I've never been even remotely tempted to do it. So I'm curious as to what the draw is. Just because [g]

Comments

[endaewen.livejournal.com]

I tried it one year, with no success. I'd like to do it again, but I don't have the time.

I'm inclined to think one of the reasons to do it is the challenge factor: "Can I do this?".

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

Makes sense.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Weeeeell, for me it's partly about working under deadline. I could go forever with "oh, I have a vague idea for thus-and-such-a-book" and I might do some planning and a little bit of writing, but the honest truth is that I'm afraid of my original work, so I never work on it much.

NaNo gives me several things that help with that - a specific time to work only on my original stuff, encouragement in the form of loads of other people doing the same thing at the same time, a deadline... and an excuse for it not to be a brilliant, Pulitzer-quality piece of literature. Because, hell, I wrote it in a month! Nobody expects sheer genius at 50,000 words in a month. So I'm safe from my own neurotic self-expectations. ;)

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

And that makes sense too!

[ariestess]

Honestly? I like working under a deadline. And this kind of deadline is the best to get me completely mental... *g*

[amand-r.livejournal.com]

I agree. The deadline is the most enticing thing. Plus, I like hanging out with the nano people at Borders. We have writing parties every week, and do things like, "write for thirty minutes and whoever has the biggest word count gets a prize", and the prizes are neat NaNo things that the founders send each regional director, like stickers and t shirts.

At least, that's what it was like in Orlando. Pittsburgh's nano group, from what I've heard, is disjointed and meh.

[ariestess]

I haven't actually done any of the meetups. I just like the concept of this challenge...even if I end up writing fanfic [which I have all years but 1]. It's a challenge to accomplish, period.

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my RL friend has a physical group she meets with every week. That much social interaction makes me twitchy even thinking about it [g]

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

Seems the deadline is the most common reason.

[ariestess]

Not surprising...

[sophiedb.livejournal.com]

Because I'm a glutton for punishment! And have never tried it before. Challenge factor, I suppose.

I am slightly disturbed that my first chapter is drifting in the direction of chick lit though. I don't even read chick lit. Much. Was aiming for mainstream or adventure, bugger it. Ah well, there's 29 more days to go. Plus the whole of December to rewrite edit.

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

Chick lit huh? Well, maybe it can be an adventure chick lit [g]

[carenejeans.livejournal.com]

It's become a highlight of my year. Better than Christmas!

I do it for one of the main reasons given on the Nanowrimo website -- the deadline and the insane word count means that you have to write lickety-split, and there is no time to listen to Radio KFKD (that's the station that broadcasts your Inner Editor whining about how bad your writing is and how you'll never be as good as [insert fave author here]).

And I've found that I'm an "exploratory" writer -- that is, I write to find out what I want to write. I mean, I'll have an idea or at least an inkling (or, you know, a prompt for a challenge *g*) but when I really get deep in the writing, stuff appears out of... somewhere deep in my little grey cells. I LOVE that.

Nanowrimo is perfect for this. This year I'm really taking it on faith and jumping off a cliff into freefall. All I know is there are *stories* in my childhood (which was weird) that I can mine and plunder and remix. I have a few ideas for "chapters," but mostly my plan is to write to pry the stories out of my memory. It looks like it might work; this morning I just started *describing* my grandparents' house (where a lot of the weird stuff happened) and came up with the first glimmerings of a LOT of stuff to mine &tc.

I've also found that I like writing in groups (which really surprises me!) and we're having Sunday write-ins at the bookstore. Fun times!

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

It's cool you get so much enjoyment from it :)

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

Confession: I hate the Nano. Half my friends list quits posting fic to entertain me with!

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

LOL!! I don't read much fic these days, so I wouldn't notice a fall off, but I can see how it would happen. It's been interesting reading everyone's reasons. Pretty much why they like it is why I wouldn't go near it [g]