Welcome to a tour of my blogs written for the A-Z challenge.
Today is April 16th and the Nervous letter N
In November I participated in NaNo.
In order to “win” a person has to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Now technically someone could write one word such as “it” 50,000 times and win since the submissions are not read, but what’s the fun in that?
I used the challenge as an opportunity to learn the ending of my current WIP, the Soul Collector’s Second Chance (formerly called the Misfits). I prepared sections of the story ahead of time so that I had a sort of plot line. I’m not a plotter but a panster (write by the seat of my pants) and I wasn’t sure how this technique would work.
It worked very well. I would select a section that I had outlined, and within that framework I just wrote. I selected sections somewhat at random and ended up with files called: Leftovers and Miscellaneous. The information in the two files would be incorporated another time when I figured out what to do with them. I came away with the most amazing scenes, dialogue and plot twists. I still did not amass sufficient words for a novel, but sometime, if I ever edit it, I do have the basis of a good short story. I have plot, sub plot a beginning, a middle and an ending.
That’s the other thing about NaNo by the way, you’re not supposed to edit as you write. So spelling, grammar, quotation marks, paragraphing are not the priority. Only the words.
I met my goal. Something that I never thought I could do.
Have you participated in NaNo? What did you think of the experience?
Nosing around your N posts
sassyspeaks 
I’ve done nano a couple of times – it’s how I wrote the first draft of Shades of Gray in fact 😉
I’ve never participated in NaNo only because of timing issues. Glad it’s worked out for you. I tend to write and edit at the same time, which THEY say is bad for the creative process, but I just can’t seem to help myself.
I have participated by not in November. Mainly because I’m just not motivated to be that…motivated. Ha! Thanks for stopping by my blog today and leaving such a nice comment!
i LOVE November 😉
xx
I participated in NaNo twice. I succeeded with 50k both times but came to realize the “throw it up on the page” process doesn’t work for me. Maybe because I am a pantser and not a plotter, self-editing, shaping the words, exploring different plot lines while I write allows me to get at my best story. I can’t imagine I’ll participate in NaNo again. It normally takes me a year to finish a novel. My NaNo novel took two years! 🙂
I did NaNo for the first time last year. I’m a planner so I had an idea for my novel in mind. Because I hate waiting until the last minute to get things done, I pushed myself and wrote as much as I could each day. I was done within two weeks. However, what I wrote will need a lot of revisions!
Have fun with a-z.
My N post was about NaNo too!
I participated in August Camp NaNo last year and managed 53k in the end. Love that it brought me so much of a first draft and I managed to finish it during September. I’m a planner so I’m starting to formulate my next novel for the July Camp NaNo.
Happy writing and enjoy the rest of A to Z
No Never Nanoed at all….
50 thousand words is a lot to do… not write but a lot to read… not my favorite chore in life… lol
not sure if I’m a planner or not…
what I do is think of an end and then do the writing… if that’s planning … then I’m a planner!!
loving this ride Sue… 🙂