NaNoWriMo :: NaNoWriMo Blog

I saw this quote at the bottom of one of those corporate newsletters that I get via email and thought of my dear NaNoPals.

A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the word you first thought of.

by Burt Bacharach

Oh, man that it so true. I can't imagine a better way to expand your vocabulary than the search for substitute words that are easier to spell!

It's the last great weekend of November which means spectacular word count feats are being attempted by those who are sadly behind.

I admit to being one of those people at this very moment and feel comfortable divulging that Chris Baty is also a bit behind.

Yesterday Chris and I went to a favorite coffee house of mine in Hollywood, Sabor y Cultura and had 30 minute word wars until we both got 5,000 words into our novels. (And then another thousand for good measure.)

The reward for good noveling is to meet up with other novelists. This morning we got up bright and early to check out a fun coffee house in Studio City called Lulu's Beehive. At ten after nine AM it was wall-to-wall with novelists. Every surface covered with laptops and notebooks. (Well, there's one table with two guys talking lawyer stuff and contracts.)

There are so many distractions to novel-writing somehow going someplace distracting makes concentration that much easier.

Get out of the house this weekend and catch up with your novel. Think of it as a romantic date with your imagination. With coffee.

Back at NaNoHeadQuarters on Sunday we tried to figure out how many words were written at the Write-a-Thon on Saturday night. While we had everyone sign in with their word count, somehow we were so hopped up on sugar, vegetarian lasagna and the idea of sitting in a room with 120 other novelists toiling away that we totally forgot to have people give us their ending word counts.

However, we did an informal poll of the Municipal Liaisons in attendance and extrapolated an average from that an estimate that over 200,980 words were logged from The Womens Building Ballroom.

No matter how many words that made it into nascient nascent novels, or how many novelists were there, it was an awesome night because our proximity to each other made us feel connected to everyone else in NaNoLand.

It's a little after 6 PM and the writers are still filing into the ballroom of the Women's Building in San Francisco.

They sit poised to make history (or NaNoHisToRy anyway) ... the largest number of words written per square inch in 6 hours.

While we know that not everyone could be with us, we're so grateful to everyone who has supported NaNoWriMo with donations and of course their wonderful supportive spirits that have spurred fellow novelists past the 25K mark already.

Please enjoy this set of photos (we'll post as the evening progresses ... so long as the wifi holds out).

Seriously, you think that some noisy people at the library are distracting? That a neighbor's dog is keeping you from getting your daily goal done?

Check out Last Night who has a healthy tally of 12,945 words and won in '05 & '06.

(I just want to know where I can get my own goggles, helmet and a serious sound dampening headset like that!)

GhostwriterIt's that spooky time of year ... and NaNoWriMo is certainly not immune. What could be spookier than a ghostwriter?

Beautifulword found a posting on Elance.com and posted about it in the forums last week. Elance is a freelancer site where people can post jobs for bidding. Someone posted an interesting project (click on the thumbnail to see the actual posting):

I'm looking for someone to ghost write a 50,000 word novel for me during the month of November. Must start on November 1st and finish on November 30th. Must be able to send your written progress at least 5 days a week.

Hmmm ... sounds like a familiar project. A bit like, well, NaNoWriMo! Could someone out there be looking for someone to write their NaNovel for them. The bidding is closed now, you'll just have to take your winner status as your payment for your new novel next month.

I have trouble believing anyone would pay for a first draft of any of my novels sight unseen, I hope everyone else greets such offers with similar doubt. Besides, I'm guessing if you agree to ghostwrite you're giving up your copyright to the novel. That'd be sad. Especially at an average bid of $10.84 an hour.

Laura Rainbow Dragon may be writing a novel during November, but that doesn't mean that she's going to abandon her virtual life. In fact, she's going to be sporting her own virtual NaNoWriMo Tee Shirt in Second Life.

Are you a Second Lifer? Check out her blog for SecLiNaNoWriMos ... and find the rest of your crew on the forums in the Groups & Clubs section for Virtual Worlds.

So what are the other MMORPG folks wearing to show off their noveling?

(Of course the best piece of virtual headgear any wrimo can don is the timeless halo you get for donating to keep NaNoWriMo here year after year.)

It's true, we have many reports of NaNo Forum Withdrawal Syndrome NaNoFoWiSy). Symptoms include twitching, general aches, tendency to send very long emails to friends and of course scribble furiously into a notebook.

I know, it's hard to be without the forums just as we're ramping up into the prep month.

Here are a few ideas for ways to distract yourself for the next week:

1. Proofread your junk mail ... then send it back to them in the postage paid envelope!

2. Plan your wardrobe for November.

3. Plant your own coffee tree.

4. Get ahead on your sleep.

5. Start cooking Thanksgiving dinner now.

6. Re-decorate your workspace.

7. Create a backup plan for your writing.

8. Make more suggestions for productive procrastination here.

See the New York City wrimos profiled in this article from the New York Times:

For a Block of Writers, 50,000 Words in 30 Days
By PHYLLIS KORKKI
Published: December 2, 2006