6 Weeks and Counting 2013

[A. E. Lowan]

I'm not sure if I'm participating as a Rebel or just floating the fringes this year. What's everyone else doing?

 

[Philip Overby]

I'm going to do my first year as a Rebel. I've done 5 years in a row with new novels, all of which have sat in various states of disrepair in my "On Hold" folders on my desktop. Each year I get closer and closer to an actual "real" novel, but it just doesn't seem to be working out the way I've been doing it. I've decided to stick with the novel I'm working on now and just use November to motivate me to get 50,000 words. I've already got about 13,000, so by the time November comes, that may put me at a pretty decent length.

 

[Graylorne]

If I manage it, I'm Rebel again. I did the second half of Shardfall last year. This time it would be the 3rd and final book. Funny how fast time goes. #3, Shardheld, is at 20,000 now, so another 60,000 would finish it.

Posting our daily scores here worked perfectly, last year. So let's do those 50k, Phil.

 

[Rinzei]

If I participate, it'll be as a Rebel. I have too many projects being neglected to add another one to the list! Oddly enough, they're all mostly NaNoWriMo start-ups, too. I need to work on fleshing them out before I start anything else - that is, unless some amazing bolt of inspiration-lightning hits me.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Wow, lots of Rebels this year. You'd think we had some sort of an alliance... >.>

 

[Chessie]

I'm going to be participating for the first time in this. I will be working on a story idea I've been developing for a few months.

 

[Philip Overby]

If anyone is participating, I always like to discuss progress here, as Graylorne said. We do word wars and such over in the Word Warrior group. So if you want to challenge other Mythic Scribes writers and get motivation, we're always doing that over there.

 

[Butterfly]

I haven't quite decided this year what I'm going to be doing.

I'm working on a series, written two books of it, and right now I'm editing the first and am about 2/3 of the way through it. So I have two options for November...

1. Edit the second book for Nano.

2. Start book 3.

I'm kind of veering towards the second option at the moment.

 

[GeekDavid]

I'm giving it serious thought... I hope to have Librarian done sometime in October so November would be a good time to start on book 2.

 

[Amanita]

I'm probably going to participate somehow as well. I'm not sure if I'm starting something new then or earlier though.

 

[deilaitha]

Ever since my sister-in-law participated in 2010, I have toyed with the idea of doing it. I have plenty of ideas, but discipline has always been one of my weak points.

I want to, but in my heart of hearts, I'm afraid to. Mostly because I feel that unless I actually make it to 50k it will not have been worthwhile. I am a bit of a perfectionist all/nothing thinker, so maybe I should do it just to break out of my shell.

Not up on the lingo--rebel? Was ist das rebel?

 

[Rinzei]

Ever since my sister-in-law participated in 2010, I have toyed with the idea of doing it. I have plenty of ideas, but discipline has always been one of my weak points.

I want to, but in my heart of hearts, I'm afraid to. Mostly because I feel that unless I actually make it to 50k it will not have been worthwhile. I am a bit of a perfectionist all/nothing thinker, so maybe I should do it just to break out of my shell.

Not up on the lingo--rebel? Was ist das rebel?

Rebel is someone who uses NaNoWriMo for their writing, but doesn't follow the full "rules" set - such as something that's brand new, 50K words, etc. For instance, some people will use it to do a big crunch on something they've already been working on.

That said, don't feel like it's not worthwhile! I usually start NaNaWriMo with the intent of writing - I usually end up with little writing, but a lot of good brainstorming, plot development, settings and characters, etc - things I wouldn't have had if I hadn't attempted NaNoWriMo. So while I may not have done 50K (or even 10K! I'm terrible!), I've still gotten a great start to something special out of it.

 

[Ophiucha]

Giving it another go this year. Been a couple of years since I 'won', lots of stuff going on in my life, but even though things are still a little hectic, I've been feeling really inspired by this project in the planning stages and I've definitely got a much more manageable life than I did last year, so I'm giving it a try. If nothing else, it's a good time to find some writing buddies and brainstorm.

I'm Ophiucha on the forums, too, if anyone hangs out over there.

 

[Chilari]

I too am attempting this again. I failed miserably last year and the year before but things have changed since then and I'm feeling confident I'll make some progress, even if I don't win. I've got a story that's been swimming around in my head in various forms for a few years, and I think I've finally got things right to tell it. I need to add a little development for characters, but I don't think I'll outline in detail with this - I know how it starts and I have an idea of where I'm going, but I want to keep things lose and let the characters guide things, and I don't want to sap my passion for the project by overdoing the outlining like I normally do.

 

[Philip Overby]

I've "won" every year I've done it, since 2008. Meaning I made the 50,000 word goal. Of all of those, only one ended up getting completed in the end, and it's still in 1st draft form at the moment. Let me see if I can remember the ones I did...

Wall of Dead Unicorns (2008)-abandoned, although I still like the title
Kingdom of Buzzards (2009)-abandoned, although I liked the concept, it got too muddied with no outline
Drink the Wyvern (2010)-abandoned, another one I liked, but just ended up with too much crap going on without an outline
Road of Guts (2011)-saved, but most likely will be re-written completely, I liked a lot of the characters, and I followed an outline this time, but it just was another one that showed I wasn't ready to try an epic
The Sword Eater (2012)-saved, completed, but in 1st draft form, ended up being like 120,000 words a couple of months after NaNo, most of the stuff I wrote during NaNo was pretty bad

So I've noticed each year I've gotten closer to getting an actual, completed novel. This year I'm not starting anything new and I'm just going to keep working on my current novel. I'm not going to break my back to get the 50K, but I am going to give it my best shot.

It kind of sucks to look back and it's been 5 years since I haven't really completed anything despite "winning" NaNo. Oh well. The future is now, right?

 

[Chilari]

I've signed up for NaNo, with a new account this time, username Chilari.