Young Writers Society

Since summer vacation is coming up, I'm embarking on a semi-insane project: 360,000 words in 90 days. The reason I'm doing this is because I've got five fleshed-out novel ideas, and haf the experience of having my first novel take three years (one draft, not draft & edits), so I'm hoping to push myself this summer and really get it done. I figure that if I stick to my goal, then I'll have five 72,000-word first drafts by August.

I was wondering if anyone else had ever done anything like this, and what their experience was. I know lots of people on here have done NaNo, although I myself haven't done it. I've always wanted to do NaNoWriMo, but the month of November is always crazy (five birthdays, two anniversaries and Thanksgiving) and it's never happened.

So, any advice for a crazy writer?

I think the reason it's in November is because it IS crazy. And then you've got thanks giving! (for the Americans)

I've done NaNoWriMo four times, sort of. This past time was a major failure, so I almost don't count it. But I've always made it. The last year I won, I wrote 112,000-something words.

My experiences were wonderful, it feels great. I won't lie - the manuscript you come out with is terrible. It's almost not salvageable for me. It's like a giant plot outline, only even the plot is wrong. But - this is just me!

I'd say my biggest thought about your project is that you're doing five novels ... You'll have to switch gears fast. You might get burned out quick. I get burned out in just a month, three months? That's a lot...But these are my thoughts.

Good luck with it. =) I'm trying to write 35k this month, which is a small amount, but I also don't have my whole novel drafted and I don't intend on just focusing on quantity. I'm going to try and get quality plot down too.

My reasoning with the five novels is that I have trouble writing on one project consistently (for me, I get burned out trying to focus too much). I'm hoping that they're different enough that I don't have any confusion between plots. I'm probably biting off more than I can chew, but its better than not writing for seven straight months, which is what happened this past year.

I've done NaNoWriMo... Oh, goodness. *goes to check.* At LEAST four years. And I've won... Twice, I think. Or is it three? I think, two. XD This year and last, at the very least. The first time I won it was only by a little, and then that story died off. This year, though, I made it to 76,817 words. I got to 50,000 words by day 15. And then THAT novel died off.

Then shortly afterward, I wrote a 135,000-some novel in two and a half months. My friend did the math, and apparently that's winning NaNoWriMo two and a half times. Subsequently, I realized that novel was crap.

My experiences doing stuff like this have been awesome, at least while I'm doing the actual writing. Not making any more statements about how I felt about it later. It's a blast, and I live for boasting about my word count to people who really don't care. XD

As for advice... 360,000 is a big, impressive goal, but it also seems like it could get a bit overwhelming. Figure out exactly how many words you'll have to write a day to reach that goal, and take it one day at a time. If you don't reach your quota one day, make up for it on the weekend, and if you can surpass the day's goal, DO IT. Try to stay ahead of it. I actually have a spreadsheet filled out to keep track of my wordcount for every NaNo. (1,667 words a day <3 <3 <3 I've gotten crazy stares for knowing that off the top of my head. XD)

Dude, summer is ending for me but this sounds like an awesome idea.


Of course, I'm not delusional and I don't think I can do 360k in 90 days, but I'm a competitive person who's inspired by other people's success, so would you mind if I joined you on this or something? Like...maybe we can PM each other our word counts so I'll be shamed to write?

As for advice, I have one - BIC. Butt in chair. Fingers on keyboard. This one time I finished a gargantuan 100k novel in one month, which is a lot for me since I'm an underwriter who tends to forget description. (The first draft of Catharsis was a pathetic 40k. I've since upped it to 62k, but since I'm rewriting everything I expect it to go down again.)

Also, stay off the internet until you finish writing whatever you wanted to write. Don't open minesweeper or solitaire or anything. Unplug the modem if you have to. Just open microsoft word and don't stop typing until you've hit your goal for the day. Also, don't hit backspace. Don't reread what you wrote. That's gonna make you want to hit backspace.

I also have quite a few novel ideas that I want to get down on paper, so can I please please please join you? *puppy-dog eyes* Even if I don't finish all three (four?) novels, I can at least finish two if I join this.

Oh goodness that's hefty load. I did NaNo but I dropped out, the lack of quality was annoying and I hated working on it.

This summer I plan on writing the second novel to me series. It took me seven years to write the first and I like to have the second one finished within the summer. I have about nine other novels but I'm not going to work on them until I have that done.

I also plan to outline completely the third and fourth book and create bios for every character I have ever created throughout all of my novels. I mean this is going to be extremely detailed. I calculated it to be over 400 pages.

So I too will have a very busy summer. I agree with Kara in order to complete such a task you're going to have to remain focused. I disconnected the Internet to my computer when I really need to get something done.

I also agree with Kara that you should have others to talk to through pm that will motivate you with competitive word count counting. PM me if you wish with your progess.

Kara--it would be awesome to have someone else doing this too. I figured it out to be 4,000 word per day or 1,000 word son four stories a day. I don't know how long your summer break is, but mine is long enoguh that I can do it without counting weekends.

Without counting weekends? o.o I envy your summer vacation... T-T

I lived in a state where school never started until after labor day - in September. Then last year I moved to one that started in August. So I'm a little depressed. XD

Plus, I'm spending most of my summer staffing at a camp, so I won't have very much time to write at all. :'( Ah, well. Should be fun anyway. ^^

First, I'd like to commend you on your bravery.

But also, how fast can you type? I'm a pretty fast typer (around 100 WPM, usually) but it still took me an average of two hours just to complete the 2K needed for NaNoWriMo.

I don't know how it is for you, but you may want to time yourself and figure out exactly how much time you're going to half to spend, and then decide whether or not you want to make that commitment.

That said, I don't want to discourage you because it sounds like this could be a really cool project. In fact,could I maybe join you and Kara? I won't be tackling anything so huge, but I would like to pound out another fifty-thousand word draft and we could trade nagging PMs or something. Let me know.

And good luck! I hope it works out well for you.

Lupis

Go for it!

I have not done that challenge specifically, but crazy writing sprees are far too much fun. If I were to give any advice, it would just be to take breaks occasionally and walk around and stretch. Lots of caffeine helps. Get somebody to hold you accountable for your time and not let you surf the internet instead of writing. And keep writing, even if you feel like your writing is awful. That is what editing is for. And most of all, don't give up!

Write until your heart's content and then take your wordcount and decide if you need more. If flows faster that way.

Good luck!

Haha my summer break is over. So in a way I'm slightly more insane than you are. ^^ But my uni schedule has tons of free time, so I think I can do this. xDD Or at least, try.

I'm doing something like that, only not as much. I don't think I'm as talented as you. I'm just doing 85,000 words by August 31. That's a safe enough number for me that I think I'll actually get done. Good luck!

You are brave indeed, my friend!

Personally, I know that I need an extremely detailed outline to even attempt something like this. But that's just me. Some people can sit down and scenes fall together the first time (lucky!). Which is all to say that you're really best served by knowing your own strengths and weaknesses.

I know, I sound like a bad HR meeting. But seriously. My advice would be, for example, if you can only write during the day, don't write at night (just write like mad during the day ). It's been my experience that you can sit there and bang at the keyboard all you want, but if it's not your thing, you'll be miserable. And probably counterproductive. And that's never good!

Multiple projects at once sound like fun though, and I wish you the best of luck!

Ah, another writing spree lunatic. Excellent, good luck!
I myself am going for six novelettes and one novel until July 11th. Yeah, even if it all turnes out crap, it's still valuable in teaching the body and the mind the valuable speed techniques which will come in useful later on when we're all famous authors, ahem
Only one suggestion from me: why not divide your five plots into an ascending scale? As in:
a novella (15), a big novella (30), a short novel (50), a medium novel (80), a sprawling novel (120)? That way you can gather momentum, and build attention span. By the time you work your way to the sprawling novel, you'll really be able to do it in one go without distracitons. I think.
Anyway, good luck and don't forget to update. You too, all of you who also admitted to doind something similar

I'm afraid I'm not quite as insane as I sounded at first, as I'm counting the word counts already in each project. Together they total about 18,000 words out of the 360,000.

P.S. Thanks for the soviet heavy metal in your sig, napalmerski. Very enjoyable.