AWKWARD ZOMBIE

So NaNo is coming up. Discuss ideas, progress (when November actually comes, no starting ahead of time, we are zombies with manners, people), and how much you want to kill yourself, the people around you, and your computer for partaking in this crap.

Be sure to make an account if you are doing it, otherwise you miss out on an AWESOME banner you get for winning (because you can't Ctrl + C victory) and having a published copy of your book sent to you.

Main site: http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Oh my god wait what is this nonsense in the spoiler tag I just read I didn't think it would be that serious are you kidding that actually happens what

what is this exactly?

Sandwich. Stop and catch your breath.


It's a writing competition. If Kamak had half a brain, he would have provided a link.

-INHALE-

Okay
So seriously they actually do that
Doesn't that cost a ridiculous amount of cheddar to do for everyone that actually makes it? And since the stories are only looked at as drafts, why would they even do that?

You get a free copy of your book sent to you though a code given to a self-publishing website. They send you a proof for free (rather than what they normally charge), and afterwards you can elect to sell your book through them, Amazon, and Kindle (and you can even order books cheaper through them to distribute yourself). If you're into that kind of thing though, most people just want the proofs.

And goddamnit, I went to go get the link and got distracted by MSN. *shoves it into the first post*

Oh god this is my first year doing NaNo and I'm such a shitty writer oh god

I will start and give up halfway through. It's tradition.

That's... actually really cool.
See now I'm looking at this whole thing in a totally different light

I was going to write some mediocre story that my brain pooped out just so I can have an excuse to do it
But now that this is the case I am suddenly super interested in doing really well
WHOOP~

You don't get a published book for winning NaNo. Indeed you shouldn't even try for this. NaNo is about hammering out 50,000 words without allowing your inner editor to get his grubby mitts on it, meaning it is not even close to what the final form should be, if you so choose to finish it.

Which means that anything made with what's submitted is going to be subpar. Take the 50,000 or more, tighten/finish them up, and have something to be proud of. If all you want is a vanity book, there's plenty of those services around.

Started doing NaNo in 05 and this'll be my seventh year. Haven't won any of them yet due to laziness/school/getting stumped.

So does anyone recommend any writing programs? What little writing I do has usually been organized in yWriter.

OpenOffice Writer. Everything Word does but for free.

Or you can always "acquire" Word. It's what I did when OpenOffice frustrated me too much.

I'm actually considering trying this, not sure if I have enough time though. I would definitely go for it if it was in the summer... but... I'll see.

Basically this. The main prize that they always emphasize is that this is just something for fun and accomplishment, as in "I finally say down and actually wrote 50,000 words" (hence why I put the proof prize in spoilers). Ultimately, whatever gets you to sit down and do this is your motivation (mine is that I want this story I've been thinking up since forever to finally be written down so I can share it), and getting a book published for free really isn't a great reason (mostly because the proof itself only costs like $10 or so, and it's not like self-publishing online is a thriving business (though e-books have made it easier for self-published authors)).

Also, just because you reach those 50,000 words, doesn't mean you want a book copy of the results (I didn't redeem my free proof last year because I barely got to edit my story and didn't feel like having a subpar book). You might be able to come up with something of the general quality of Twilight in your first go (hopefully not too terribly worse than that), but you can ultimately edit it until it's something great. So don't expect to have a national bestseller as of December 1st (Although... people buy crappy novels all the time), it's definitely going to take some work to make your stories shine when you're ramming through it as fast as you can for word count.

And last year was my first year and I'm hoping to plan this out better. I got excel spreadsheets and everything. I'm going old school with Word... mostly because I don't feel like getting to know another program.