I have wanted to write a novel for years so Im considering trying NoNoWriMo this year, which is a yearly competition where you try to write a novel during the month of November.
Anyone up for it? Or got any tips? Perhaps our existing authors
@samzadgan or @Dave_Vader
Problem number 1 is Im not sure what to write about, I would say naturally I'm drawn towards dark / deep scifi but I wonder if that might be too ambitious to keep track of everything for a first project so I'm thinking maybe a Philip K Dick style layered reality / drug influenced thing might be fun too.
ဈǝᴉʇsɐoʇǝsǝǝɥɔဪቌ
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I have several friends in Nano. It's not for writing a good novel so much as practising writing. Quantity over quality.
My mother says that authors generally need to write a million words of unpublishable tripe before they can manage a good book and NanoWriMo is perfect for that. Having said that, one of her author friends writes a 50,000 word shell (a grown-up novel is expected to be 80,000 words plus nowadays) during November and then spends the rest of the year turning it into something worthwhile.
It doesn't matter what you write about. Write about why the dude didn't hold the door for you this morning. Words words words.
No. They need to have a beginning, a middle and an end.
...having said that, if you think about varying vocabulary, punctuation and creative style when you are posting then you are polishing a few of the (iirc) ten skills needed for a good book.
My wife and I met a local "author" recently, and she told us about a group called Concentric that had put on a performance at the local ex-library-now-community-space. She told us we should look up the word "concentric". I understand now why some people become curmudgeonly in their old age. I should have said "Why, has the fucking meaning changed recently?", but I just nodded politely.
Anyway, good luck!
My feedback thread is here.
There definitely was a heavy prejudice against self-published authors. In the olden days so-called "vanity publishing" cost thousands to get a printer to produce a small run that would then sit in a garage until they got eaten by rats. In order to get to that point an author would have to be pretty desperate (usually delusional as well) - and desperation is never attractive. Plus I think that getting published is so difficult that authors are pretty proud of that achievement - they didn't like it when people bought their way into the club (the Crime Writers Association used to be very picky about membership qualification).
Nowadays it only costs a few hundred quid to get an ebook hosted somewhere and some don't even bother getting a real publisher to look at their stuff (there are self-published folk here who can elaborate on cost) so I think it's seen more as a harmless hobby than an attempt to pay to win.
I'm a horror author so I'll come up with something depraved lol.
As for tips, I usually set a timer and see what I can write/brainstorm in that time period then reread it next day to see how it looks.
Twisted Imaginings - A Horror And Gore Themed Blog http://bit.ly/2DF1NYi
Twisted Imaginings - A Horror And Gore Themed Blog http://bit.ly/2DF1NYi
"Write about what you know", as they say. Hmm, maybe I'll try it in November.
My feedback thread is here.
I've been toying with an idea for a ghost story for a while which is what I've chosen for the competition. I'm going to have to tone down the gore though
Twisted Imaginings - A Horror And Gore Themed Blog http://bit.ly/2DF1NYi
"Be fearless".
Nano is an excuse to write things that you don't expect other people to ever read. You'll be a better writer if you write stuff your own way.
My feedback thread is here.