National Novel Writing Month - Home

Today's Guest: Ian Dudley, Founder of the Kid-Friendly Write-In

Lindsey Grant — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:04:55 +0000

Q: Ian, what made you decide to start a kid-friendly write-in? Any novel-related hazards as a result of having kids around while writing? With so many kids around, can anyone get anything written?
A: When I became a dad this year, I realized how limited write-in options are for parents who can't find babysitters. We've heard about NaNo widows and widowers, but NaNo orphans aren't an option (unless you enjoy frequent visits from CPS). I noticed other parents introducing themselves in our regional forum and saw a need.

There have definitely been some hazards. One boy is fully mobile and tall enough to grab things, such as my camera, off of tables. He also climbed onto his mom's vacant chair and merrily started 'adding' to her word count before she caught him. (I don't know if she kept the words.) Typing with your laptop on the floor is an even greater hazard, with outright key removal being a risk. Also, kids seem to find laptop displays irresistible when it comes to grabbing. Then there's the dreaded one-handed typing, when you're forced to hold your child in the other arm. That really slows down your typing.

A more common hazard (alas) is finally getting into the writing 'zone' only to have your kid start crying. You have to stop and deal with that, which derails the writing process. (Of course, you run into that at home too.)

Overall, having this event has been helpful. One mom writes far more during the day on her own (if her son is napping), but feels this is a good way to meet other NaNos. Another mom wrote 188 words at our last meeting, which doesn't sound like much until you consider that her daytime word count would otherwise be zero. She says this is the only write-in she can attend, and that alone makes it worth having.

Ian is an ML for the California :: South Bay region, and father to newborn twins.

Big weekend!

Chris Baty — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:29:49 +0000

Good luck on this penultimate weekend of NaNoWriMo. It's going to be a huge two days! By Sunday, I think we'll end up surpassing our collective 1.6 billion word count from last year's NaNoWriMo.

And speaking of Sunday...By bedtime on that day we should all be at—and this number just made me cry a little when I saw it—36,674 words.

Let me double-check that.

Yep. Shoot.

If there's anyone else riding the slow train like me, can we at least make a pact to be at 30,000 by Sunday night? We can surge ahead in the final week, and when we cross the finish line and dump Gatorade all over ourselves it will be all the sweeter because we were so far behind going into Week Four.

This Sunday is also the Night of Writing Dangerously in San Francisco! The OLL office currently looks like a candy bomb went off, as Julia, Elaine, and Carolyn load up goodie bags with books and gadgets, carefully pack raffle prizes in baskets, and test the pyrotechnic display we'll be setting off every time someone crosses over 50K at the event.

If you're going to be there, we can't wait to hug you. If you're not, we'll miss you, and we'll post photos of the event on the site on Monday.

Have a great, productive weekend, everyone!

Chris

Episode 14: More Dares from Tavia!

Chris Baty — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:50:07 +0000

Tavia's back with another set of NaNoWriMo dares!

Tough Worms

Heather Dudley — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:50:51 +0000

Behind? Dose up on tough love
Get an ear worm stuck in your head

Help us embarrass ourselves this Tuesday!

Chris Baty — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:32:50 +0000

You may have noticed the Fund-o-Meter has been getting very colorful lately. We've seen a heartening surge in donations from participants, and we've continued to add our non-donor income to the totals, including all the money from merch sales.

Our goal before December 1 is to fill up all the books in the Fund-o-Meter, pay for both NaNo and YWP, and raise enough money to spend 2010 working on all the improvements laid out in those books, including developing a year-round version of NaNoWriMo.

To make sure we get there, we're going to host an all-day online fundraising drive on Tuesday the 24th. For it, we've set ourselves the crazy goal of raising $100,000 in donations in 24 hours. The most we've ever raised in a single day is $30,000, so this is a little loony.

But we have faith. We also have a very special offer.

If NaNoWriMo and the Young Writers Program can raise $100,000 in donations through our online Donation Station on Tuesday the 24th, I will write a song about the fundraising drive—tentatively entitled "That Beautiful Tuesday"—and perform it on NaNoVideo with staff musical accompaniment and Lindsey doing an interpretive dance alongside us.

This video will be a keepsake that NaNoWriMo participants of all ages can treasure and wince at for decades to come. Better still, your donations will mean we can bring back NaNoWriMo and the YWP for another great year of inspiration and encouragement in 2010.

The drive commences at 12:01 AM Pacific on Tuesday the 24th and runs till 11:59 PM Pacific that night. Thanks for helping us in our wordy mission!

Chris

Today's Guest: Danni Jenkins, Novelist at Sea

Lindsey Grant — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:03:59 +0000

Q: Danni, you and your fellow shipmates are participating in NaNoWriMo during Semester at Sea. Have the rolling waves enhanced your noveling experience, or have some of you been tempted to throw your story overboard?
A: Let’s face it. There’s crazy and then there’s crazy. We’re definitely crazier than most, competing in NaNoWriMo while at sea, because if there is anything just as crazy as writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, it’s sailing to 12 countries in three-and-a-half months while taking a full load of college classes and circumnavigating the globe! What tomfoolery to take on both challenges at once …Does that make us all Tomfools? Is there even any such thing?

But to answer your question, we took a poll and at this time most of us definitely vote for making our novels walk the plank. At this point, with word counts lagging and our travel-weary bodies dragging from rough, turbulent seas and seasickness meds, we are smack dab in the middle of a sea crossing that is the perfect metaphor for NaNoWriMo. The optimistic, celebratory excitement of first embarking on an arduous exploration into the unknown morphs from smooth sailing sunny days to dreary and cloudy ones filled with tidal waves of doubt. Fortunately, rough seas, doubts and all, we press on… and find that just about any obstacle not only can be overcome, but that depending on one’s perspective, each obstacle is a plot twist or amazing idea in disguise.

As we travel along during the month of November, we’ve faced some unique obstacles that double as amazing opportunities. For instance, because of the way Semester at Sea works, we spend two to seven days in each port of call. This month alone we’ve visited Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Hong Kong, SAR, Shanghai, PRC, and Yokohama and Kobe, Japan. In between each stop are our “sea days”, days during which we go to class and participate in the various clubs and extracurricular activities that make up shipboard life. There are only 16 sea days in the month of November. We actually spend half of the month traveling within our port countries. This might seem like a limitation, but it’s actually an opportunity in disguise (or at least that’s what we like to tell ourselves to avoid tears). Time in port is time to write less and think more, time to let the experiences we have in each of the countries we visit teach us and affect us, therefore changing us and our novels as well. Isn’t that amazing prestidigitation? Presto change-o!

Yet another amazing thing that we are doing this voyage is time travel. Yes, you read that correctly. We are literally going back to the future. Because we are crossing the international dateline while traveling in an easterly direction, we actually get an extra day to write! November 28th, for the voyagers on our ship, will happen twice. That’s an entire extra 24 hours to spend buried in our novels, catching up those word counts. Way to find a loophole!

The Fall 2009 Semester at Sea Nanos are a motley crew of diverse individuals sailing around the world as students and staff on the MV Explorer, a cruise ship outfitted as a floating university campus. Our itinerary for this voyage takes us from Nova Scotia to California by way of Spain, Morocco, Ghana, South Africa, Mauritius, India, Vietnam, Cambodia, China, Japan, and Hawaii in 114 days. The program is administered by the Institute for Shipboard Education and the University of Virginia is its academic sponsor. To learn more about Semester at Sea or track this voyage to its completion you can visit our website at http://www.semesteratsea.com.

Sadistic Slogans

Heather Dudley — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:15:05 +0000

Sloganize Your Novel's Title!
Motivate yourself in sadistic ways

Sprinting the evening away

Chris Baty — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:45:27 +0000

We've been doing evening writing sprints over in Twitterland the last two nights, and they've been a heap of fun. We'll be doing them again tonight from 8 pm to 10:30 pm, Pacific. Come join us!

If you're looking for a way to procrastinate on your novel until then, another year of behind-the-scenes NaNoWriMo trivia has been added to the NaNo History page for your reading enjoyment. That page may now officially be the single longest page on the internet, for which we apologize.

See you tonight at the races!

Chris

Novel Illness

Heather Dudley — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:25:11 +0000

Catch OSCS syndrome
Analyze your novel's readability

Today's Guest: Vanessa Raymond, Peace Corps Participant

Lindsey Grant — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:57:10 +0000

Q: Vanessa, you're currently writing your novel in Bulgaria while serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer. How have you been able to balance volunteering with participating in NaNoWriMo? What's the best part about writing a novel in a foreign country?
A: Well, getting started was hard. As a community development volunteer, I had to designate short, concrete amounts of time in between work and evening meetings. I'd get home from a meeting at 4 PM and say to my husband, "Ok, let's go to the bazaar, then from 5 - 6:30 PM I'm writing 1,500 words, then we'll have dinner, then we'll go visit so and so."

But all this changed when during the first week of November the site that I live in, Yambol, declared a city-wide swine flu epidemic. For almost two weeks schools have been closed and large gatherings of people have been discouraged. My usual schedule of seminars, office hours, Scout Troop meetings, language tutoring, school visits, dance classes (it's good networking, I swear!), and planning sessions with colleagues went quickly from a flood to a trickle. Swine flu saved my novel!

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the other volunteers that I serve with have been super-star cheerleaders. They also serve as great character models because they are all crazy, charismatic, and fearless.

Navigating life and work here calls for a lot of on-the-spot thinking. I've been here for only six months so am still learning the language and customs. That being said, I have to wing it through a lot of daily activities... and my newly-honed flexibility, humility, and perseverance have really come in handy when writing.

Vanessa Raymond is a 27-year-old jazz-loving, Samoan-American who is currently serving in Peace Corps Bulgaria. She has two cats named Sasho and Gambolina. She likes blankets, rainy days, and Earl Grey tea.