by rfreytag on 11/13/23, 6:17 PM with 71 comments
by jdriselvato on 11/14/23, 6:01 PM
So when I got laid off earlier in the year I started working on an alternative to NaNo.
At the moment it's in MVP but it current has:
- Author profiles w/ blogging - Publication cataloging + reader reviews - WIP cataloging with word count tracking - A community feed similar to Goodreads + WIP word count updates
The idea is I think NaNo could be more social post-November. With Pen Pinery's current MVP I think Authors can build a readership fanbase much easier than anything NaNo could do.
In the future I want to also have goal tracking based on pages instead of word count and for editing as well. I also think there's a lot of potential for building out an ARC sign up system.
Pretty much I've self-published 15+ books and I'm putting everything that worked for me into a social author/reading platform.
Authors who use NaNo or are completely against it, I'd love to get some feedback on the concept from a description standpoint. Any thoughts or tips?
---
Since this is YC, the tech stack is Django 4, Postgres and Bootstrap 5; Hosted on DigitalOcean.
by aoanla on 11/14/23, 1:52 PM
I attempted it twice in consecutive years about a decade and a half ago, and not only failed to complete anything, but was also driven into a worse depression because of it. I had to avoid people talking about it in November for years afterwards or I'd start to relapse, too.
by edent on 11/14/23, 2:08 PM
I decided to do it as a series of short sci-fi stories. You can read them at https://shkspr.mobi/blog/TalesOfTheAlgorithm
It was fascinating to me how much like programming it was. So much planning, lots of time trying to figure out what isn't working, and a bunch of spelling bugs!
Well worth attempting this if you have the time to exercise your creative muscles.
Anyway, if you have any feedback on my weird stories, I'd love to hear it.
by tluyben2 on 11/14/23, 1:29 PM
by asicsp on 11/14/23, 1:35 PM
My main goal is to have fun and I did feel great a few times, especially when I thought of something clever or spotted a mistake that'd not work with what I had written a few chapters back.
by blakewatson on 11/14/23, 6:33 PM
It was a good social outlet for me because I have a pretty severe mobility impairment and, long story short, small groups and laid back activities are easier for me to participate in than other things.
I haven't really gotten back into in-person stuff post-COVID, but I still enjoy making November a time to write and hanging out in the local NaNo Discord server. I enjoy perusing the NaNo forums, particularly the Adoption Society, where people offer up plots, characters, running gags, opening lines, chapter-naming schemes, and more for anyone to use.
There's also a bit of fun lore that has developed. For example, if you're stuck, kill a character with the traveling shovel of death ("traveling" because us Wrimos are passing it around). Or find a way to include Mr. Ian Woon (anagram of NaNoWriMo).
NaNoWriMo is different things to different people and I love that about it.
This year and last, I lowered my goal to writing a 20k-word novella. I have difficulty typing and a lower word count makes it a bit easier for me (that makes me a "NaNo rebel" lol I love all the little jokes and stuff).
by tunesmith on 11/14/23, 4:49 PM
One thing I notice is that a lot of people use it as a project to just get words out, regardless of quality. They talk about vomit-drafts, and/or just sitting down to write to see where it takes them, to see what the characters will do. I don't think that mindset is very compatible with story forms that requires mystery or twists or foreshadowing. My story this month has that so it's been difficult. I'm at 11,000 words now and we're late enough in the month that it's telling me I have to write more than 2,000 words/day to finish. Soon I'll be past the point of no return, where it will be practically impossible to catch up; I think the most I've ever written in a day is 5,000 words.
Ah well, it was still good motivation, and I'm signed on enough to my concept that I'll probably finish it even if I'm not done on 11/30.
by eludwig on 11/14/23, 5:05 PM
I wrote one[1] about 5 years ago. It's amateur and too long, but it's my great American novel, for better or worse! It actually took 4 years, but so much fun! The most annoying part was getting it into a viable ePub. I ended up using Sigil, as it was the easiest to use at the time.
[1] https://darladarling.com (free ePub)
by ActionHank on 11/14/23, 2:28 PM
by rfreytag on 11/13/23, 6:26 PM
See the Oct 29, Nov 5, and Nov 12th episodes so far.
by mkerrigan on 11/14/23, 4:25 PM
by leashless on 11/14/23, 11:30 PM
Good luck.
Edit: the novel http://files.howtolivewiki.com/MOTHER_OF_HYDROGEN_NOVEL/inde...
by acheong08 on 11/14/23, 2:52 PM
by drakonka on 11/14/23, 4:23 PM
by phoe-krk on 11/14/23, 1:36 PM
by spiritplumber on 11/14/23, 6:06 PM
by Waterluvian on 11/14/23, 10:14 PM
I find myself with 20 mins here, 40 mins there, and half the time gets spent trying to find a decent short story.
by 23B1 on 11/14/23, 1:24 PM
by harperlee on 11/14/23, 4:30 PM
by deafpolygon on 11/15/23, 3:37 PM
November.
by cfr2023 on 11/14/23, 2:43 PM
However, if you're already someone that is able to maintain a writing schedule and hit daily targets of hundreds of words, and can see your dream works emerge through the simple act of scheduling... I'm gently skeptical of where your motivation to create comes from. Bear with me.
Before we get bogged down in it: Misery and disorder are not requisites for creativity and I'm certainly not advocating that, either.
The issue is that trying to hit some sort of material target by artificially imposing a daily grind on it forces your work into a box created by the work-a-day-world. An undeniably effective one, but for everything?
The global marketplace is what sets deadlines like "by the end of the day!" and "by the end of the month!" where as works of art and creators can both bloom like flowers and get seasoned over large segments of time like waves washing over a rock face.
Your arc as an artist or creator, starting from the discovery of that impulse inside yourself, may be one that spans decades or your entire life. If that's the case, success or failure in NanoWriMo may be a bad indicator for you:
"Oh shit, I missed my 7pm writing alarm and forgot to write ~1700 words, now I'll never be the next Charles Dickens!"
could come from the same writer as:
"After a slow walk through my city on a crisp fall morning, I can sit down and write 5000 words without so much as stopping to stretch my wrist."
and:
"I don't practice art regularly, but sometimes when I get the urge, I will be in the throes for 3 days trying to work out the specifics of an image that has flashed into my mind."
These and many other creative modes are valid and exist independently of schedules, clocks, word counts, time limits and other cops we might invite to sit by our writing desks, easels and computer terminals.