Is anyone doing the "National Novel Writing Month" in November?

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The month of November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo.org) and the challenge to is write a book of 50,000 words in one month.

It’s about 2666 words a day for 30 days (I probably write that much on CAF on days when I am home sick!).

Is anyone doing it? Anyone thinking about doing it? Anyone planning to write that Great American Catholic Novel this month? 🙂

I wish it wasn’t in November. That’s a really busy month for me, because choirs (I accompany 5 choirs) are getting ready for the Christmas concerts, and families (like ours) are trying to get preparations underway for the holidays. I wish it was in July, when nothing is going on and it’s too hot to be outside much (for me), and there’s nothing on television to distract me.

I don’t have a solid plot in my head, or I would probably give it a try. I spent at least an hour a day online, and I could use that time to write another novel. But without a plot…:confused:

I think what I’ll do is spend any down time (e.g., driving, doing chores, etc.) trying to outline some plots in my mind. I do have ideas, but only ideas. No compelling conflict that would actually keep someone reading until the last page.

Anyone else?
 
Actually, it’s 1667 words a day… and I’m in it! I’m hoping to get the first draft of my fourth mystery novel (or at least a real good start on it) done by November 30!

I have no idea why founder, Chris Baty, chose November instead of, say, April which also has 30 days, but is far more manageable, but I’ve done NaNo for 10 years (even though I only “won” twice) and it’s a great motivator for me!
 
I’ll be doing something 👋 though after my first 2-3 NaNos I realized November is just not a good choice of month for me. It’s starting into the busy holiday time, I tend to get depressed in November, reasons reasons reasons. So I do it on a casual basis and don’t sweat the word count.
 
Hope it all goes well. Has anyone published any books they’ve written in November?
 
I’m totally doing it! I’ve done it the past 3 years, but only finished two. I usually add a priest in as a character; it helps a lot on the word count when you have a chance to describe the liturgy :D. I was thinking about using seminarians as some main characters this year, but I’m still not 100% sure…

As for November being a busy month, I totally agree, but I think that’s what makes it fun, and it helps lend urgency to the story; you just HAVE to get it out. There is no time for it to sit in your head.

Good Luck!

Stephen
 
I was a ‘winner’ last year, my first year taking it seriously (I lasted two days the year before), and am looking forward to taking it on again this year. I haven’t settled whether the story I have in mind is more a western or a fantasy, so it may be a little of both.
 
Potter said:
I was a ‘winner’ last year, my first year taking it seriously (I lasted two days the year before), and am looking forward to taking it on again this year. I haven’t settled whether the story I have in mind is more a western or a fantasy, so it may be a little of both.
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That sounds like an interesting mix! 🙂 A traditional western and traditional fantasy mashup, or a Steampunk western?
 
3DOCTORS said:
That sounds like an interesting mix! 🙂 A traditional western and traditional fantasy mashup, or a Steampunk western?
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Oh, those both sound too respectable! I The essential idea is that there exists a city, a community, set in a land or world far removed from ‘civilization’. If it’s strictly fantasy, there would have been a great collapse. There are little pockets of sanctuary, but the land is wild and filled with danger. There is memory of higher things – passed down through legend, in a fantasy world – and the citizens attempt to recreate the institutions that seemed most valuable. There are knights, for instance; not men in plate metal jousting, but men of strength and religious devotion sworn to a strict code of honor who defend the right with their lives. In the western the language used would be different, but the idea would be the same. Something happens to endanger the peace; a feud between the ‘mayor’ and the sheriff, once personal, threatens to turn into a civil war, as most of the townsfolk favor one or the other. It’s up to a young ‘knight’ to find a way to keep the peace, but he and his comrades are few in number.

In developing this, I first imagined a 19th century~ish kind of town, but then I realized that without connections to other places, they couldn’t be wealthy or intellectually developed enough to sustain that kind of material prosperity, So I let them get more medieval, and my imagination got carried away to the point that I’m drawing inspiration from classical civilization. Either path I choose, I need to establish more detail for the surrounding region…
 
What a great idea! I hadn’t thought about this in years! What a wonderful thing to do after the November elections, when the political robocalls cease to occupy one’s thoughts, and and peace and quiet return. It is a fun challenge.

In 2007 I began NaNo writing, and wrote a really neat first several chapters, then put it down when I had a medical issue. Mine was a gothic mystery in an Old West setting in the 1870s. I took it up the next year on my own, in large part as a SAHM “me-time” occupation during nap times. Then work took me overseas and the draft lapses to this day on my external hard drive. The NaNo people are right; the DEADLINE is the secret of successful novel writing.

Maybe I should finish it in November. Or, maybe I should scrap it and write a new one start to finish in November.
 
KS_Housewife said:
What a great idea! I hadn’t thought about this in years! What a wonderful thing to do after the November elections, when the political robocalls cease to occupy one’s thoughts, and and peace and quiet return. It is a fun challenge.

In 2007 I began NaNo writing, and wrote a really neat first several chapters, then put it down when I had a medical issue. Mine was a gothic mystery in an Old West setting in the 1870s. I took it up the next year on my own, in large part as a SAHM “me-time” occupation during nap times. Then work took me overseas and the draft lapses to this day on my external hard drive. The NaNo people are right; the DEADLINE is the secret of successful novel writing.

Maybe I should finish it in November. Or, maybe I should scrap it and write a new one start to finish in November.
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If you are still on a roll with it, I’d suggest being a “NaNo Rebel” and going ahead and finishing it. But I’m the kind of person who starts zillions of things and then has trouble finishing. After my first three NaNo years I had three novels which still aren’t finished! :o So I decided “That’s it! No more new ones till these are done!” :tsktsk: Doesn’t mean I don’t jot down ideas or play with smaller pieces - in fact that’s what I’m going to do this year, a quick fanfiction, and for the reasons you mentioned - it’ll be a good de-stresser! :whacky:

Looking at your username, if you’re in the Wichita area we have write-ins and a Facebook page.
 
Joy2day said:
Hope it all goes well. Has anyone published any books they’ve written in November?
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👋 Me! I’ve had my two mystery novels that I started as NaNo projects be published. The first, “End of the Road”, was my 2009 project that ended up at a paltry 20k words that year… I showed what I had to my husband and his sister and they both said I needed to finish it. So I did and in 2011, I started shopping the finished product around. In 2012, I heard about the Dark Oak Mystery contest sponsored by Oak Tree Press. A mystery author by the name of Mike Orenduff (author of “The Pot Thief” mysteries) encouraged me and it won the 2012 contest and gave me my publishing contract. It was published in July 2013. That year, “No Lifeguard on Duty” was my NaNo project and that was published this past April. The third book, “No Vacancy”, is in its final editing stages and book four will be my NaNo project this year!
 
I would not worry at all about having someone interested in reading what you write, at least not right now. NaNoWriMo is more of a time to get your ideas down, for a rough draft. Things can change later, and if you don’t think too much, and just write what you can, even if it gets messed up during it, that’s okay. A small idea you have now, can grow while you write, and you won’t know if it will until you start and keep going.

I’m hoping to do it! I always do, ever since 2009. I’ve “won” every year. I mainly write fantasy, but in the past several years - I guess ever since I became Catholic - I’ve been thinking more and more about it and creative writing - about if it’s worthwhile or not, or what should I be writing? Does writing “this” certain story take too much of my time away from God? Away from my family? Away from more important things? This is what I struggle with a lot now. I find it hard to have peace with what I write and the amount of time I spend doing it, because I want to be doing things that are leading me to love God and others more, not just myself. At the same time, it’s so hard to give up writing completely, and it’s hard to know what God would want me to do.

I had an idea a couple of weeks ago, to write a story based off of some fairy tales, because that’s all I can think of and what I feel most like writing, and I actually have more of a plot for it, but now I am starting to think, what if I should really write something else? Something that could have more meaning? Perhaps a Catholic themed novel? It would allow me to not be so distracted from real life - although that is what I like about writing, to escape - and maybe I could give up my desire to “win”, and just see where I might go if I were to try a Catholic novel - I have no idea if I can even write more than a few thousand words for one though.

And that’s why I suddenly came here to look around these forums, I was looking for ideas, and thought also that I would see if anyone else on here is talking about NaNoWriMo!

There’s a Catholic group on NaNoWriMo in the forums, if you didn’t already know, you might like to see it.
There is also Camp NaNoWriMo which takes place in April, June, July or August - usually twice a year in two of those months.

I was thinking a story about someone who prays novenas might be a good idea - but that’s all I got for an idea. Maybe it could be called 99 novenas. Their journey through praying 99 novenas and what happens along the way. Or a story about a rosary maker.

It’s hard to think about writing a catholic story right now though, because I feel so distant from God and church - because of my health, I can’t get to Mass and I do not receive the sacraments - it’s been a year and a half - and I’m still trying to figure out my situation to change this, but I don’t know what to do. For now I remain stuck and a bit lost.
But I still feel such a strong desire, about how the world needs to know God more, and especially the Catholic church - because it’s such a treasure. Stories have such a big impact on people too, it would be great if there could be more Catholic ones out there that could spread the truth about our faith and the goodness of it. The value of people, and family. Joy and simplicity. Prayer and meaning in suffering. Inspiring others to grow deeper in faith, and to follow God, wouldn’t that be wonderful?

Good luck with the writing, hope you can find the time. 🙂
 
I never did this one but I gave the 3 Day Novel Contest a shot a number of years ago. It was a brutal Labor Day weekend, about 5,000 words each day.

The happy result was I won and they published “O Father.” (A (shhhh!) Catholic novel.) After it went out of print it was reborn as an e-book.

Even as a longtime novelist, I’m sure NaNo is too much for me. I do best with a daily word count of 500, writing six days a week. Once I’m in that pattern, the book just moves along at a pleasant pace.

It’s what I recommend for new authors in “How to Write Your Novel in Nine Weeks.”
The co-author is a sock puppet and he got top billing on Amazon’s site. (That’s good for the humility.)

I apologize for loading this reply up with my books but I do want you to know you can write a complete novel. Really. That’s how you learn. And then you can write your second one, and it will be better than the first.

Just keep writing.
 
joyfulseraph said:
I would not worry at all about having someone interested in reading what you write, at least not right now. NaNoWriMo is more of a time to get your ideas down, for a rough draft. Things can change later, and if you don’t think too much, and just write what you can, even if it gets messed up during it, that’s okay. A small idea you have now, can grow while you write, and you won’t know if it will until you start and keep going.

I’m hoping to do it! I always do, ever since 2009. I’ve “won” every year. I mainly write fantasy, but in the past several years - I guess ever since I became Catholic - I’ve been thinking more and more about it and creative writing - about if it’s worthwhile or not, or what should I be writing? Does writing “this” certain story take too much of my time away from God? Away from my family? Away from more important things? This is what I struggle with a lot now. I find it hard to have peace with what I write and the amount of time I spend doing it, because I want to be doing things that are leading me to love God and others more, not just myself. At the same time, it’s so hard to give up writing completely, and it’s hard to know what God would want me to do.

I had an idea a couple of weeks ago, to write a story based off of some fairy tales, because that’s all I can think of and what I feel most like writing, and I actually have more of a plot for it, but now I am starting to think, what if I should really write something else? Something that could have more meaning? Perhaps a Catholic themed novel? It would allow me to not be so distracted from real life - although that is what I like about writing, to escape - and maybe I could give up my desire to “win”, and just see where I might go if I were to try a Catholic novel - I have no idea if I can even write more than a few thousand words for one though.

And that’s why I suddenly came here to look around these forums, I was looking for ideas, and thought also that I would see if anyone else on here is talking about NaNoWriMo!

There’s a Catholic group on NaNoWriMo in the forums, if you didn’t already know, you might like to see it.
There is also Camp NaNoWriMo which takes place in April, June, July or August - usually twice a year in two of those months.

I was thinking a story about someone who prays novenas might be a good idea - but that’s all I got for an idea. Maybe it could be called 99 novenas. Their journey through praying 99 novenas and what happens along the way. Or a story about a rosary maker.

It’s hard to think about writing a catholic story right now though, because I feel so distant from God and church - because of my health, I can’t get to Mass and I do not receive the sacraments - it’s been a year and a half - and I’m still trying to figure out my situation to change this, but I don’t know what to do. For now I remain stuck and a bit lost.
But I still feel such a strong desire, about how the world needs to know God more, and especially the Catholic church - because it’s such a treasure. Stories have such a big impact on people too, it would be great if there could be more Catholic ones out there that could spread the truth about our faith and the goodness of it. The value of people, and family. Joy and simplicity. Prayer and meaning in suffering. Inspiring others to grow deeper in faith, and to follow God, wouldn’t that be wonderful?

Good luck with the writing, hope you can find the time. 🙂
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Hi 🙂 I hope things get better for you with being able to get back to Mass and sacraments - that would be a tough situation to be in.

As far as writing - I think if we have a creative talent of any kind we shouldn’t let those fears get to us of it being a “waste” of time somehow. True, we need to consider prayerfully the balance in our schedule and the mental energy a project will take. But plenty of folks who are against our Faith are getting their creative projects out there (and I’m not saying they’re all bad, but some may be vehicles for an agenda opposed to Catholicism), so we need to make our presence felt as well.
 
Fellow Wrimos! Here’s a bit of information that might help you make it through the month.

If 1,667 words per day seems daunting, think of it this way:

It’s less than 140 double spaced pages (12 pt. Times New Roman font) to finish by November 30.

Somehow, that seems to make it more doable for me!

How’s everyone doing so far?
 
bluerose said:
Fellow Wrimos! Here’s a bit of information that might help you make it through the month.

If 1,667 words per day seems daunting, think of it this way:

It’s less than 140 double spaced pages (12 pt. Times New Roman font) to finish by November 30.

Somehow, that seems to make it more doable for me!

How’s everyone doing so far?
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Oh, sure! My ‘winning’ piece last year was only ~70 pages single spaced.

I’m doing well so far, at 9500 so far. I’m trying to build up a good head of steam in anticipation of setbacks later in the month. Right now I’m operating under a FINISH AS SOON AS POSSIBLE mentality.
 
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