I'm not doing NaNo for the first time in several years. My current work schedule just doesn't leave enough room for it. But I will be cheering all of you on as you race to your goals!

Ah yes, tomorrow is the plunge!  Brace for the challenge, remind yourself that this is a Good Thing (a la 1066 and All That) and sharpen the (virtual) pencils.  Which is funny, really, since I always used a pen, back in the ancient days when I wrote my first two books--longhand, with pen, on looseleaf foolscap.  Those days have gone, to return no more, and I am pleased to have rehabilitated my dead tablet, an indispensable tool for the challenge.

This will be my seventh attempt (is that supposed to be lucky, or something?  But then I don't believe in luck--hard work is more like it!) It is thanks to the NWeb community that I started doing NaNo, so at least I know who I can blame....  

Twas the night before NaNo

And all through the writer's brain

Not an idea was stirring

The plot was not plain.

I exaggerate but not by much. I've got a few ideas and impressions I'd like to turn into a cohesive story but we'll see what happens. 

Good luck, everyone! I'm hoping to do it this year- it will be my 13th November participating. I have a bunch of other stuff on the go (chiefly I'm doing some online calculus courses, and I'd love to finish those before Christmas, and I have an active 9 month old baby) so have serious doubts about how well I will do, so I'm okay with just an attempt. I also don't have any plot, and I'm normally the type to plan out almost every single aspect of my novel. So we'll see. 

If there's anyone on Nweb doing NaNoWriMo for the first time, I wish you all the best! It is a wonderful event, and I hope that your novels come together easily and well! 

Happy first day of NaNo, all! How are you all doing on your word counts? I'm just under 1,000k, and I fully admit that I'm here to procrastinate for a bit.

Posted by: @mel

I exaggerate but not by much. I've got a few ideas and impressions I'd like to turn into a cohesive story but we'll see what happens. 

I'm in a similar boat. I basically have a setting, a basic magic system, and a main character who, admittedly, is quite interesting to me. But I don't really know what happens. Oh, but I know pirates are going to show up later. So there's that. 😉

Good luck, Mel and aileth! ForeverFan, I hope you get an opportunity to continue your NaNo streak, though it sounds like you've got quite a bit on your plate - completely understandable if you don't want to add more. stwin, I'm sorry you won't have a chance to participate this year. 🙁 But thank you for the encouragement! Good luck with your current schedule!

I'm not actually sure how many times I've done NaNo (or began it and failed it ), but I've done it at least 5-6 times now. I've only succeeded on a full NaNo once, and that was by the skin of my teeth. I haven't touched it since, though I've scavenged some of the ideas for a different story.

I'm thinking of experimenting this year with writing the story out of order. I usually write them sequentially - admittedly, mostly because I'm mostly a discovery writer (with some outliner tendencies) and I don't always know where I'm going - but I've found that this tends to lead to a lot of days where I get completely stuck and make up an argument or something to finish my word goal. For example, the one time I actually finished NaNo, it took me about two-thirds of the month to finish establishing things because my characters spent so much time repeating the plot thus far.  

All right, enough stalling. My main character has run out of introductory exposition, I need to get her to the action already. 😉

I'm also just under 1,000 words, and I'm going to call it a night. I thought I knew what my opening scene was, but I started writing and it went in an unanticipated direction. So I went with it.  

1,666 words, and that wasn't even deliberate.  Chapter 1 is finished, and I'm already learning stuff about my characters that I didn't know.

Nice job to those of you who are off and running. I first learned about NaNo from NarniaWeb and have participated for quite a few years - though lately it's been more informal, with less pressure to get to that magic 50k mark, and just to use the event as motivation to write something, even if it's just a few words.

A few years ago I came up with an idea for an adventure/swords and sorcery type of setting, and since have written some stories set there (the first was the longest, and is now about 97k words long, though that is over the space of several years). I've also written a couple short stories set there and have done some world-building (with some emphasis on the calendar and the moons of the planet, because that's the kind of geek I am 😉 ).

@aileth, it can be a good thing when characters start telling me stuff about them I didn't already know. Except when it's inconvenient because I happen to be writing a prequel and ought to stop and think if this new twist or comment meshes with what I've already written.  

@stargazer, calendars and moons sound like neat world-building details! Is that separate, or did you incorporate that into short story form?

Does anyone have stories about spell or grammar check? I was writing today and what came out was the phrase: "he wrangled his luggage." The blue underline suggested "wrinkle" for "wrangle" which completely changes the meaning of the sentence.  

"Wrinkling luggage" sounds like something amusing to work into a story.

Mel, I included some passing remarks about the moons and calendar into the story (something like Tolkien's occasional mention of moon phases), but spelled out some technical details in a separate appendix at the end of the story.

How are everyone's stories coming along?

Well, I'm at almost 21K, which is... not great, considering tomorrow is the halfway point. I think I'm going to have to do some catching up Thanksgiving week, since I asked for a lot more time off than I'm going to end up needing. The main thing is that, while this main character is fun, I'm continually staring at the page wondering, "Okay, now what?" I don't think I thought this idea through far enough when I started.  

I also broke the cardinal rule of NaNo: I went back and edited. ? Mainly, there was just a specific point where I did something dramatic to make the story move forward, and I... realized that it was going in a direction that I did not like. At all. And I didn't want to continue writing that story. So I went back to the point where things went the wrong direction, cut the whole thing out, and saved it in a separate document as a "deleted scene". (Admittedly, I'm keeping the word count. 😉 ) I decided that's okay because... well, because otherwise I'd be tempted to just give up on the story instead of having to retcon a major event.

Posted by: @aileth

1,666 words, and that wasn't even deliberate.  Chapter 1 is finished, and I'm already learning stuff about my characters that I didn't know.

Wow, that's great, aileth! How've you been doing since then? 🙂

@Mel, ahhh yes, the joys of grammar check knowing better. I've been wrestling with it it repeatedly not liking how I use commas, but its suggestions clearly indicate that it has no idea what I'm trying to say. (Unfortunately, I don't have any great examples on hand, but I'm sure I'll find some in the near future. 😛 )

@stargazer, I'm tempted to steal your idea of an appendix at the end of the story for worldbuilding details that don't come up in-story. What? Noooo, this absolutely isn't an attempt to pad my word goal! 😉 (Admittedly, part of it is just so that I can keep track of things I decided but didn't end up writing down in the moment. The addition to the word goal is just a nice bonus. 😉 )

Posted by: @mel

@aileth, it can be a good thing when characters start telling me stuff about them I didn't already know. Except when it's inconvenient because I happen to be writing a prequel and ought to stop and think if this new twist or comment meshes with what I've already written.  

Does anyone have stories about spell or grammar check? I was writing today and what came out was the phrase: "he wrangled his luggage." The blue underline suggested "wrinkle" for "wrangle" which completely changes the meaning of the sentence.  

The benefits of not having published yet? (I'm working on that, too, but that is an entirely different story.)

I abhor spellcheck only slightly less than I despise autocorrect.  Except occasionally--with me being in complete control.  It does sometimes have amusing "solutions;" it's great when it takes a perfectly legitimate word or phrase, and turns it into something weird.  And don't get me started on proofreading OCR, and stealth scannos, and people relying on spellcheck while proofreading OCR.  Arrrgh!

Posted by: @stargazer

Mel, I included some passing remarks about the moons and calendar into the story (something like Tolkien's occasional mention of moon phases), but spelled out some technical details in a separate appendix at the end of the story.

D'you do that, 'gazer, so the reader finds out, or so that you'll remember?  I have a "character encyclopedia" for my own use, to keep track of who's who, since my series are intertwined with each other and characters from one book have cameos in another.  It is not quite up to date right now (two books behind, I think?)  Fie, for shame!

Posted by: @ryadian

I also broke the cardinal rule of NaNo: I went back and edited. Mainly, there was just a specific point where I did something dramatic to make the story move forward, and I... realized that it was going in a direction that I did not like. At all. And I didn't want to continue writing that story. So I went back to the point where things went the wrong direction, cut the whole thing out, and saved it in a separate document as a "deleted scene". (Admittedly, I'm keeping the word count.) I decided that's okay because... well, because otherwise I'd be tempted to just give up on the story instead of having to retcon a major event.

Hey, why not?  The word count's story's the thing.  Seems to me that that is well within the limits of NaNo expectations.  Glad you can go back and rewrite--my beastly protagonists often won't let me, rage as I might.  I usually find a way to sneak in what they were supposed to say or do, in some other way, but I have to be stealthy, or they might revolt (Mea culpa: I edit as I go, using [] brackets to sequester removable items.  But it might just be micro editing--it doesn't involve whacking out great hunks of text and throwing them into the incinerator.  But oh, for her unborn Seller of Dreams! Got to have an L.M. Montgomery reference in there somewhere.)

The actual writing?  At 26,000 words today, we're a leetle bit ahead.  Not 100% safe, but comfortable.  Story is going well, which is the main thing.  Every once in a while I panic, "What do I write next?" but so far the next scene has come along just in the nick of time. 

So happy writing, everyone!

*cheers on @aileth and @ryadian * My word count is not as substantial as either of yours. As of this writing, I'm sitting at 18K. I got all the characters introduced, and the situation set up, and was feeling content with the opening pacing... and then I reached the middle, where stuff had to happen before the climax, and I'm still poking at that. 

Previous years, I've jumped forward to work on the interesting parts, but I didn't want to do that this year. Why did I decide that was a good idea? Ah, yes, because I wanted to be sure I cared about the characters I was putting through the emotional wringer. Not sure it's working so well, but there's a couple of weeks left before I need to panic at the very last minute.  

...I guess it's time to go back to my word document and ask answer the question of why one of the characters has a debilitating limp, and is that plot relevant?  

@aileth, my calendar appendix could be for both those purposes: first, to help me get it sorted out in my mind and to keep track of events. It's also my way of figuring it out without a big info dump at some point in the story. Most readers might not be too excited about the technical details, but dropping a hint every now and then helps ground the story, I think. Also, one of the main characters comes from somewhere else entirely, so she's not familiar with the calendar. The readers can learn about it along with her - but in small pieces rather than massive exposition (ideally, at least).

@ryadian, I don't think a world-building appendix is solely a ploy to pad word count, and not only because I've done that. 😉  Like you said, if it helps keep things straight in our mind and in our story-telling, it's all good.

The word count is embarrassingly low, but I'm not really aiming for 50k this time around. I'm one of those that writes a scene if the inspiration strikes, even if I skip over things to get there. Now I'm fleshing out some of those things that were skipped.