#NaNoWriMo2017

October 31, 2017 9:42 AM

Anyone making a go of it this year? If you are, comment with your profile info, a bit about your project, or whatever you are comfortable sharing. You have hours left to decide.
posted by cjorgensen to MetaFilter-Related at 9:42 AM (37 comments total)

Like I said, I'm in. My project is going to be called Some Dark Place.

Feel free to be my writing buddy.
posted by cjorgensen at 9:53 AM on October 31, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm in, but technically cheating, because I've already started the book I'm going to write (I'm about 3500 words in, but I won't count them towards my total).

Here's mine

I got to about 30k words last year, which I consider pretty decent for November 2016.
posted by quaking fajita at 11:24 AM on October 31, 2017 [4 favorites]

I'm going to do something but as yet am undecided if I'm going to unofficially play and keep working on the novel that's been plaguing me all year, or if maybe taking a month off cold from that and trying to plow through one of my other ideas might be just what the other novel needs.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:38 AM on October 31, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm in, and I even found an Alphasmart Neo with a full-size keyboard to type it on!

I'm gray-duck over there. Feel free to add me! I can't promise that I will finish it (or even start) but as of right now, me and my Alphasmart are rarin' to go.
posted by Elly Vortex at 12:12 PM on October 31, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm goodbyewaffles there, as just about everywhere :)
posted by goodbyewaffles at 12:33 PM on October 31, 2017 [1 favorite]

My outline keeps changing, but I am in (RainJ) and sticking to my one sentence description
posted by RainyJay at 12:38 PM on October 31, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh yeah, outline, about that......

*stares at her 2 sentence description of act 2*

😐
posted by quaking fajita at 12:45 PM on October 31, 2017 [1 favorite]

I promised a friend I would, but I can't decide if I want to do an extremely cracky fanfic that I've been itching to write or the queer werewolf + god proxy war because I'm angry at a lot of urban fantasy.
posted by ultranos at 1:46 PM on October 31, 2017 [3 favorites]

I am going to commit to writing every day in November. Not gonna set a word count for myself because I know I can't commit to hitting it, my schedule is too weird, but I want to take advantage of this opportunity to get back into the writing habit after a few months off.
posted by showbiz_liz at 1:55 PM on October 31, 2017 [4 favorites]

I am planning to, though I haven’t set up my novel yet. I’m also Skycrashesdown on there and will happily friend fellow Mefites. I’m taking a third stab at a prior project that I can’t seem to get off the ground.
posted by skycrashesdown at 3:52 PM on October 31, 2017 [1 favorite]

Also ultranos I am so here for all your queer werewolf urban fantasy.
posted by skycrashesdown at 3:53 PM on October 31, 2017

Year 13 as a participant, year 9 as a local ML, and I will be attempting to write fantasy loosely based on a video game. Emphasis on loosely. I still have no idea what I'm doing, plot-wise, really. I've got what... four hours? I'll be fine.
posted by PearlRose at 4:54 PM on October 31, 2017 [1 favorite]

I want to but am unable to plot, so I don't know what to do with the book I started a while back. I feel like I'd just bail on it with nothing new written. Blah.
posted by PussKillian at 5:32 PM on October 31, 2017

I don't actually know if i'll do this.
posted by and they trembled before her fury at 5:41 PM on October 31, 2017 [1 favorite]

Locked-room mystery set at a haunted resort.
posted by rpfields at 6:25 PM on October 31, 2017 [2 favorites]

In just under the wire.
I'm littledumbguy over there.
This year it's demons!
Paranormal investigator (and expert demonologist) Cal gets her world shaken more than usual and has to reevaluate everything she thinks she knows in order to help her clients, stave off lawsuits, and finish writing her keynote speech in time for the demonologists' convention.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 7:07 PM on October 31, 2017 [1 favorite]

In 2015 I decided that I would translate Madame Bovary into English, having the twin advantages that I'd never read it in English and I don't know French. Plus, I'd found a French-English dictionary in the garbage. I only made it about 6500 words in before I ran out of steam, but maybe I'll try again this year. But do I start again from the beginning or pick up from where I left off two years ago?
posted by moonmilk at 8:14 PM on October 31, 2017 [4 favorites]

Works in progress are allowed...
posted by Mister Moofoo at 8:20 PM on October 31, 2017

Will give it a go, but probably just do it offline in Word. I can't decide which plot bouncing around my head to pursue, so if you have a second, boss me around!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:18 PM on October 31, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm doing it for the sixth year in a row this year! I usually do a terrible fantasy novel but this year will be a a terrible non-fantasy novel.

Basically the main character discovers that a good online-friend they thought boringly average was actually a Mark Zuckerburg figure and all the times they thought they were helping this friend with generic work advice they were developing a permission structure where the faux-Zuckerberg created something truly terrible. That's a long and bad sentence, I'm sorry.

That's the setting, anyway, I'm not sure where the plot goes from there.
posted by Tevin at 6:00 AM on November 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

I did #Acwrimo (the academic writing version of Nano) two years ago and think I might give it another go this year. I don’t have a manuscript to write up just yet, but I could probably stand to start writing summaries of prior work in the field for my future use.
posted by deludingmyself at 7:01 AM on November 1, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh NO what happened to October?!
Earlier this year I was waffling on the format (novel vs. graphic novel) and kept thinking, "Eh, I'll decide in October." Now there's no more time left to choose. Ugh, maybe I'll do half-and-half.

Good luck, everyone!
posted by Sockin'inthefreeworld at 7:05 AM on November 1, 2017

I've never tried writing anything other than poetry before, so here I go with this. It's called "No Such Beasts" and that's as far as I've gotten, okay!?

It has a ghost who wears a flannel shirt and it's set by the beach. It's not too sad.
posted by Krazor at 12:13 PM on November 1, 2017 [2 favorites]

Im currently writing a fanfic that reached 60000 words this week, and am pretty sure it's going to be done before 110,000 words. Goal is to finish it, but not offically signed up because I'm not doing anything original this year and this fanfic is my writing life ATM. (Its a sailormoon fanfic that my childhood self couldn't let go of and I'm determined to finish)

Good luck everyone!
posted by AlexiaSky at 3:41 PM on November 1, 2017 [2 favorites]

I am in because I don't care whether or not the world realizes it needs an Austen mashup novel featuring Sense & Sensibility's offscreen tragic heroine Eliza Williams (Colonel Brandon's foster daughter/childhood love's love child who, in turn, has a child out of wedlock with Willoughby, and has since managed to make herself independent) and Mansfield Park's Tom Bertram, the formerly dissipated but much improved heir who gets drawn into his onetime friend Willoughby's questionable activities after being implicated in W's novel-length, proto-Byronic, poorly anonymized, unexpectedly successful Sad Boner Confessional.

It was, of course, inspired by the Alexander Erin article & Metafilter thread. I was re-reading S&S at the time and thought, Who among Austen's characters would be most likely to write a SBC? And the answer seemed very obvious: who else but Mr. Fucking "I insist on you hearing the whole of it" Willoughby. And he would drag Marianne and especially unmarried/technically unprotected (as well as completely Not In The Mood For More Of This Shit) Eliza through the mud to do it. Then I began thinking of how a woman of that era who had already, against long odds, weathered being socially and economically devastated would handle an additional betrayal of privacy. And here we are.

Good luck to everyone else making the attempt!
posted by notquitemaryann at 6:08 PM on November 1, 2017 [5 favorites]

I haven't done it for a few years, but I'm using this time to clean up and try to publish some of my older projects, and just realized I missed the first day. November really is a lousy month for this, with all the valentines babies and Thanksgiving.
posted by lkc at 2:32 PM on November 2, 2017

I'm in again, with the least amount of organization ever! I managed 2300 words yesterday...and nothing yet today. The love/hate relationship with NaNo continues on.
btw I'm chaoticgood0405 over there.
posted by chaoticgood at 4:53 PM on November 2, 2017

I really wanted to do it this year but I have a very important job interview I need to prepare for, I'm helping a friend with his surgery recovery, my stepdad is turning 80, my birthday is the day after that and and and... I'm unemployed with no kids and I still don't feel like I can make this work. Ugh.
posted by AFABulous at 8:32 AM on November 3, 2017

I'm co-coordinating a young writer's program nano at my school- it's fun to see the kids be super excited and tell me about their (terrible! :) ) adolescent novels when they see me in the yard. The kid who told me "I don't know how I'm going to get this assignment done with nanowrimo as well" in English class was sweet, I had to explain that nano is a sadly a side thing.

I'm also writing! I've set a very small goal (20,000) as this is busy time of the year for us in the southern hemisphere- leading into the end of the school year. Not doing reports this year has meant I've got a bit of free time, but not heaps.

My story is one I failed at in a previous nano- but I'm starting from another character's perspective.
posted by freethefeet at 4:55 PM on November 3, 2017

I'm in! Writing that historical fiction novel finally. Be my writing buddy!
posted by chainsofreedom at 4:01 PM on November 4, 2017

3255 words today, bringing me pretty close (5458) to par (6667).

Probably should have researched babies a bit more before I wrote a story featuring a baby. o_O
posted by quaking fajita at 10:14 PM on November 4, 2017

I just signed up and started today- this will be my first time doing NaNoWriMo! Since I'm starting a bit late, this means I need to write 1923 words a day, but I'm going to try to hit 2000-2500/day when possible. Undecided what I will write, yet - about to start the brainstorming process - but I'm thinking either something about something in the southern gothic tradition. My username is m y g a m e l a n (without the spaces).
posted by nightrecordings at 10:32 AM on November 5, 2017

I'm doing a 'spirit of the law but not the letter' thing. I've written in a journal every day this month so far, and today sat down to get back to the fanfic I put on hold before my job search earlier this year. Now I have the next chapter in decent enough shape that I think I can finish it in one or two more sessions, and after that, I'll move on to revising a piece of flash fiction I got critiqued by my writing group earlier this year. I'd like to submit it for publication before the month is over, which will be the first time I've done that.
posted by showbiz_liz at 10:54 AM on November 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

I am in! On "The Rest Will Follow" which is Potterlock fanfic. (Sherlock is Potion's Master of Hogwarts, John is an Auror retired on injury just weeks before Voldemort is vanquished at Godric's Hollow. He's also this year's Defense professor...) At 15k after 5 days so that will help when things inevitably crash into terror and despair.
posted by hapaxes.legomenon at 10:07 AM on November 6, 2017

Well, we're a week in. Hope everyone is doing okay! I've also been following a "spirit of the law thing" by just committing to writing 500 words each night instead of the 1,300 or however much it's supposed to be. I tried doing the full 50,000 in a month a few years ago and failed. So I decided to cut back to something reasonable this year. And I'm working on a novel already in progress. All I want to do is add at least 15,000 words in November and I've been good for the last 6 days. Best of luck to everyone else!
posted by A Bad Catholic at 10:44 AM on November 7, 2017

11,409 as of last night. Not quite at par, but close! And I've been able to iron out some wrinkles that were bugging me on my commute in this morning :)

If any of y'all are as susceptible to gamification as I am, I have a recommendation. I've been getting a lot of enjoyment out of 4thewords.com, which is an online rpg where writing is the mechanic. It is not free: there is a free trial month, and it does the stupid thing where you buy little blue crystals with real money and then trade them in for game time or hairstyles or whatever. It works out to ~$4 a month. It is a tiny bit buggy.

But! It is a lot of fun, and you get to "fight monsters" by writing words, and I find the calculus of "Ok, I have another half hour before I need to go do a thing, hmm, this monster needs 300 words, or should I try and tackle the 500 word one?" very motivating.

There's a coupon code listed on the nanowrimo site for 25% off if you decide to spend money on it.
posted by quaking fajita at 11:03 AM on November 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm PearlRose, I'm on track to validate tomorrow or Tuesday (Wednesday at the latest), and I hate my novel less than I usually do at this point in the month. It's some kind of NaNoWriMo miracle!

Also, I brought pie to the write-in today, and somebody else brought homemade puppy chow, and it's amazing how many words you can write in a sugar coma when you put your mind to it.
posted by PearlRose at 2:18 PM on November 26, 2017