No, Mr Bond, We Expect You To Fail. OOO.

[erastes]

I have to sit on my hands sometimes—because I really like to JOIN IN. I was terrible in fandom, I’d scramble around to join communities. I remember positively stalking the moderator of Pornish Pixies just to get accepted into that, and if the cool kids were joining up with a writing fest I’d join too.

it’s the same with Nanowrimo. Everyone’s getting all geared up for it, so many of my friends are doing it—and I’m thrilled to bits to hear about their projects and their plans.  And so I’m literally forcing myself not to join in because I KNOW that for me it’s just a Licence To Fail. Yes, I can write 1666 words a day, I know I can; but right now even 1000 a day is a struggle, and I’m managing to do that. If I push my luck and try to do 1666 a day for 30 days I’m going to fail, drop out, get despondent, and I Knew Him will probably get bogged down until December which will mean I won’t get it finished by end of year, and even that’s looking worrying even being ON course.

Excuses? Yes, probably. But I think I’ll stick to the self imposed targets for now. I was thinking about doing a short story, but the one I was thinking about submitting to—I think the deadline is end of October, so that’s no good for Nano.

But good luck everybody, I shall be cheering from the sidelines!!! *waves writerly pom poms*

What I think galls me about Nano the most is that everyone calls it “write a novel in a month” which is certainly isn’t. 50k isn’t a novel; it’s a novella at best, and I feel sorry for all the editors and publishers who probably dread December coming around when they get all these terrible first draft submissions of 50,000 words.  What I would say it’s good for is doing novellas, or getting started on that novel that you’ve been planning—or, if you are super speedy, and you can break 70k in that month, then all the better! But unless you are writing for Mills and Boon—50k ain’t a novel. It’s too late really, but I wish they’d change the name.

Words done today, so that is good. On track.God knows how, really, as Dad has been very hard to deal with today, if we’ve had the same conversation once, then we’ve had it 20 times. There comes a point when I just can’t bear to have the same conversation one more time.

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Comments

[changeling72.livejournal.com]

I'd be joining in too if I didn't have an essay deadline in early December.

And, yes, I was thinking earlier that 50k is a novella.

[semioticwarrior.livejournal.com]

Hee hee

Editors must roundly curse December 1 and the NaNo founders.

[m-barnette.livejournal.com]

This is my fifth year doing NaNo. It's the only time of the year when I have scads of online friends doing the same thing I do on a daily basis: write a book. (Not that I'd done much writing at all this year...)

50,000 words is 'category' length for romance novels, at least the way Harlequin does them. If you look on Wikipedia, typical length for books tends to vary widely by genre. Animal Farm was about 30,000 words whereas Dune was 185,000.

Personally I've done 81,000 words in 23 days--ah I miss being able to do that--and 105,000 in 30 days, not including 5 days of research.

I'll be shooting for at least 50,000 words, probably more as I don't plan to do a lot of cooking or cleaning during November.

Clicked the dragons.

And now I'm off to do some preliminary character building and plotting for the book. Only three days to go before this madness that is NaNo kicks off.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

yes, - mills and boon is what you guys call Harlequin of course, which is what I was saying - but most publishers will want more than 50k for a novel, unless one is George Orwell or the like!!

[m-barnette.livejournal.com]

Really it does depend on what you're writing and the publisher involved. Some of the smaller print presses don't want huge books, not all the big publishers want huge books from new authors. Most everyone I know who is serious about being published go much longer than 50,000 words during NaNo, others call that 50k their 'draft' and flesh the books out later. Either way, the book does come out longer than the 'NaNo Goal' of 50k.

Keep in mind for most casual writers--those doing NaNo for fun--50,000 words is a LOT of writing, especially for the kids who are also participating.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I don't push myself. If I make the 50K great. If I don't, I still have a lot more words than I started with.



20K is a novella. It is 50 manuscript pages and about 90 paperback pages.

50K is most definitely a novel, by the guidelines of the SF Writers of America.

Short Story: less than 7,500 words;
Novelette: at least 7,500 words but less than 17,500 words;
Novella: at least 17,500 words but less than 40,000 words
Novel: 40,000 words or more
http://www.sfwa.org/archive/awards/rules.htm

50K=125 manuscript pages or 220 mass-market paperback pages. I still consider that novel length. 220 is a nice little novel. Most midlisters go 80K, which is about 350 pages.

(400 words to the manuscript page, 225 to the mass-market)

[essayel.livejournal.com]

This is my first time officially and I'm 99% certain I'm going to fail. But if I do 30K that'll be 30K I wouldn't have had otherwise. It's exciting to be PART of it rather than being one of the supporters and I have NO intention of doing anything with the result other than finishing it, I hope, and giving it away to the 3 or 4 people who usually read my stuff. I just hope they enjoy reading it as much as I'll enjoy writing it.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

i think that's a great attitude, as you say, that push to write more than you normally would is great - good luck! :D

[essayel.livejournal.com]

Thank you *hugs*

I have to be realistic - I'm a very slooooow typist - but I'll have loads of fun writing Sellars and Yeatman pirates and seeing how many cliches I can pack into the story :D

[enolabloodygay.livejournal.com]

I'm hopeless! I misread what you wrote and thought you were waving writerly porn-porns.
D'oh.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

hee! I re-read that as porn myself when I saw it posted.

[aishabintjamil.livejournal.com]

I've never gotten the appeal of something like NANO. I'm enough of a perfectionist that I can't bring myself to write words just for the sake of writing words, and if I'm trying to make a word count like that, that's what I'd be doing. When things are flowing, I can do 2K in a night. But I don't get to write every night. I have a day job, and a social life.

Nor am I willing to drop all my current projects in order to start something brand-new which qualifies for Nano. (I see a lot of people treating it as "write 50K words in a month", but if you go read the web site, it really says write 50K words on a novel, on which you've written no actual text prior to Nov. 1.) So everyone who says "I'm using it to jump start my current novel, or I'm writing a set of short stories, etc. isn't really playing by the rules.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly - and no matter what the sfwa say, 50k to me isn't a novel. Some people even count blogging as words!

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

I share your reservations about NaNoWriMo, but I do find picowrimo very helpful for getting my head around a new project (even if it then stalls sometime in December). I can see where the weak points are, and bear them in mind for when I pick the project up again at a later date).

[erastes.livejournal.com]

That does look useful!

[crawling-angel.livejournal.com]

The conversation things IS hard, I know. At work, there is always someone with Alzheimer's/dementia and I wish I had a pound for every time I've said the same thing. One of the saddest things is when they think their children are small and they start to panic because they think they must be alone at home/have to pick them up from school etc etc. Black is white and it doesn't matter what you say, they are right. Patients hardly shut their eyes and are more often than not worse at night...keeping others awake/getting into beds which aren't their own/moving furniture. You certainly need eyes in your elbow to keep an eye on them.

I'm glad Dad is still at home but there will come a time when this isn't possible. Please remember there are others out there who can help you when this happens. Far too many ppl suffer in silence when they shouldn't.

<3

[erastes.livejournal.com]

did you see the deer staring olympics! Hee hee!

[crawling-angel.livejournal.com]

Was this on the animal thingy? No, I missed it.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

it was just about the only funny part, I have to say.