Hey there Era! Do you imagine Death Stranding will have the most convoluted story ever and think, "I can do that." Have you been planning the next great Japanese Light Novel in your head for the last few months? Do you need something to distract you from the blossoming sprouts of your seasonal depression? Are you just really inspired by this amazing poster? Then you might be interested in participating in National Novel Writing Month!!!
https://nanowrimo.org/
NaNoWriMo said:
FAQ
How do I write 50k words?
One word at a time. Seriously though, if you can keep up with the benchmark (1,667 a day) you're golden. If you can't, don't panic, just set aside a weekend day or days to play catchup. Or end the month with a manic spree of 10k days. Whatever works for you!
Any other strategies?
If you can, aim for 2000 a day rather than just keeping pace with the benchmark. This leaves you the elbow room for a few bad days later on in the month, which is a huge help for the week 2 and 3 doldrums. Also, try joining sprints and word wars on the NaNoWriMo forums or by following @NaNoWordSprints on the twitters.
How do I update my word count on Era?
Put a "WC" by your total word count. I have to manually edit the leaderboard so updates to it may be sporadic, but I'll try my best to keep it timely! If I accidentally forget to update yours, just send me a message. Cyan left me the nanobot code he used to automatically update the word counts, buuuuuut I'm bad at coding. I'll fiddle around with it and update this part if/when I figure out how to work it. Until then, this format will be fine
Is there any reason to actually sign up on the site itself?
Yes! First of all, you can have your novel officially validated by the site (copy/paste from your word processor into their word counter). This lets you officially win and gets you congratulations and all sorts of fame and glory. Second, by signing up, you will get "pep talk" emails each week from famous authors.
Does my story have to be an original work of genius?
No. It's whatever you want to write. It can be drab literary, roaring fantasy, self-insert fanfiction where you romance Bill Hader. You can write literally anything you want!
Can I/Do I have to share a synopsis or excerpts?
We'd love to see some of your work! While it's not required, please feel free to post excerpts of what you're working on at any time, or plot details, or character stuff, or whatever you want. For excerpts, shorter is usually better but feel free to post whatever you got.
Useful tools
Hangouts
Does it help you to have other writers around you, to pressure you to get some work done (And by other writers I mean me and Nezumi )? Join us for the ERA NaNo hangouts! These will happen every Sunday during NaNo, from 4-6 PM Eastern time. If there's sufficient interest, we can try and get a Saturday Hangout going too.
Hangouts will take place over the Writer's Era Discord server's hangout voice channel. Mics are recommended but you can type along with us in the general chat though be forwarned we are really bad at checking that.
The Writing Era discord server also has a Nanowrimo channel! There's a link hidden below!
Hidden content
Software
Scrivener: a word processor that incorporates scene and character notes, outlines, research documents, and more. You can get a free trial, generally through December 7th, for NaNo. (And a discount on the full version if you win!)
Q10: an alternative word processor which removes all distractions, helping you focus on your work.
Write or Die: start writing in a text box. And don't stop... or else. Give it a try, very motivating. (also has a newer app version)
Plotting
Official NaNoWriMo Prep page: This page has a variety of useful excercises to help you flesh out your story whether it be the plot or characters. Try out some of their exercises!
No Plot? No Problem: a book by the site's founder, intended as an aid for completing your novel and getting through the month.
How to Outline During NaPloYoNoMo: Chuck Wendig sums up a bunch of different outlining methods.
Snowflake Method: a solid plotting method that helps you get from single-sentence summary to detailed outline. (You don't need the software, the whole method is described in full at the link.)
Adoptions: on the NaNo forums, it's traditional to leave some ideas that other people can pick up and run with. Adopt a plot, adopt a setting, adopt a title, and many more! (The link is currently unavailable since the NaNo forums are down but once we get closer, I imagine they will be back up and also my link.)
Sprints and Wordcounts
NaNo Sprints: start your engines! Get off to the races with some NaNo sprints, where you compete with other NaNoers to write a bunch of words in a short interval. This is a twitter page that posts sprints and various prompts to help your creativity roll. We also have a word sprint bot on the Writing Era Discord where when you type in the command it'll start a sprint right there and you can comepete with fellow Era users!
Backwards NaNo: a slightly different way of managing your word count. It's amortized! That means for the first two weeks, you're writing a lot more than everyone else. But by the last day, you only have to write a single word!
The poster Midramble has been generous enough to offer a bet where he'll give a ten dollar steam card to four winners if he himself wins. And if he loses, gonna give a ten dollar gift card to every winner. Check the threadmarks for his post and root for him regardless because we all want to win, right?
Era links
Previous NaNo thread
Past Winners
Current Creative Writing Challenge Thread
PoetryEra Thread
WritersERA Thread
And, of course, this thread! Feel free to post questions here, or show us your awesome excerpts, or just complain about how hard writing a novel is! We're all in this together. Sweating together. Crying together. Popping aspirin cause our hands are cramping up together. That's what this thread is for!
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