Free Book: NaNo for the New and the Insane

I remember this from last year! It was awesome, I just bookmarked it. :) Thanks again.

Cheers,
Syka

I said it when you posted this before the forums went down, and I will say it again: this is the best thing to use when explaining to people what NaNo is.

Ooh, I must have missed this last year, but it looks useful...thanks! :-)

This is a great resource for the new and eve for people who've done it before but want to try a fresh approach, but I disagree with what you said about the kinds of people who it isn't for:

"[If] you tend to linger half a day over the proper placement of a comma - don't even look at the site."

On the contrary, that's exactly the kind of person that Nanowrimo is for. If you're the kind of person who can pound out a rough draft any old time without compulsively rewriting every over sentence, then you don't really need Nano. You might enjoy it, sure, and the dedication of pumping out a high word count every day will be a challenge, but it's the "One Day Novelist" who really needs to do this; the writers who never finish a story because they editeditedit the first three chapters to death and never get any further.

I am a comma-lingerer. From December to October I rarely write more than 2000 words all together. I write drabbles and ficlets that almost never top 500 words, and usually sit at 100 flat. But in November, I can force myself to write a story that I *cannot* write the rest of the year.

Ah, but see -- you can write without lingering over it. I know far too many people who think that lingering over the comma for a few hours makes them better writers than the hacks who write a 1000 (or more) words a day. This site is not for them.

(grin)

Lazette Gifford
http:/lazette.net
Eight Year NaNo Participant
NaNo Blog: http://zette.blogspot.com/

Thanks Zette, that's awesome! I will definately be taking a serious look at that over the next few days.

Wow - it looks very snazzy!

...and I've only checked out the table of contents.

Thanks! Definitely gonna read!

Three year winner here, but I'm definitely checking it out since the last two were -agony-.

Thanks for the link! :D

Chiming in with another recommendation for this book. It's an awesome read for anyone taking part in NaNo. Thanks, Zette, for putting it out there for us, and for reminding me to dig out my copy for a re-read!

Read it last year, my first nano, and finished my 50k in 18 days. Obviously I recommend this book, like I'd recommend breathing.

I will definitely give this a read, since my first attempt last year didn't go very well..at all.

I knew I should have paid more attention to the forums last year!
Thanks for the resource!

I loved this book last year, Zette, and I think made a big difference in my success. I'm in the process of rereading it for this year, just to see if there are other helpful points for this year that I may have forgotten or not picked up on last year.

Have you thought of updating the listing on pages 14-15 of your Nano successes? It would be neat to see how you've succeeded in the years since 2005. :)

Thanks so much! I downloaded it.

Will be a great help for me i'm sure.
I'm a little worried that i'm not going to make it this time

Thank-you

Er, since I'm sort of a noob to this, I don't see how it could hurt... thanks!

Thank you so much. I love your site :-) Keep it up.

I remember this from last year. I think.

Are you the one with that special outlining method? I think it was phase outlining?
(I remember because I named one of my characters last year after it XD)
Either way, I used the method last year, and it really worked.

Thanks for posting the link again.

Yes, that would be me! Glad it helped!

Oh, nice name for a character. I'll have to remember that one in the future.

Must have missed this last year as well. Although this is my fourth year, I'll check it out!

Thanks for posting!!

As many others have said, I must have missed this last year, but this looks great! Thank you - it's much appreciated!

Zette,

Thanks for this - downloaded it, read it, and now feel vaguely more confident about my ability to do this crazy thing!

(Yes, this is my first year...)

Thanks for putting all the effort in!

Melanie

Somehow, I missed this last year. However, after looking at the book, I'm sending the link to my new-to-NaNo friends.

I also love the "phase outlining" method. I have never gotten any use from traditional outlines, but this is more like brainstorming, which works for me. Thanks! I've been using it to plan this year's NaNo novel and it's great. I may actually have a plot worked out before Nov. 1 for a change.

I read the thread about this book before the forums were erased, got interested, checked it out, and discovered overall I liked it (and I wasn't even all that new!). There was just one thing that bothered me. Hopefully this can get resolved on this thread.

One part of the book talked about how a person submitting their story for publication got it rejected because they used "was" and "were" too often. I can understand that being a problem if there's a much better way to write the sentence, but sometimes "was" and "were" are appropriate, not to mention the only obvious way to make a sentence make sense. It's not that this part killed the entire book for me, but I just didn't agree with it for the reason stated above.

First, the was and were 'corrections' are things that can be done after NaNo -- that is in the 'post-NaNo' section for people who are thinking about publishing, which doesn't really have much to do with the fun of NaNo itself.

But in general....

Yes, was and were are good words when used appropriately. When they are used five or six times in a paragraph, that's too much.

Here, look at this (just off the top of my head -- not the best story!):

I was heading for the beach with some friends and we were in Mark's car. There was this car in front of us that was from out of state. There were three people in it, and they plainly didn't know where they were going and they were driving way too slow. We wanted to go around them, but there was no way, so we trailed behind and were making rude comments all through the canyon roads.

That is four 'was' and five 'were' in 76 words. That means about every eight and half words is either was or were. It makes the paragraph dull.

I headed for the beach with friends, and we drove in Mark's car. Another car cut in front of us, and we noted the out of state plates. I could see three people in it, and from the way they slowed at every curve and flashed pictures with their cameras, we could tell they came from out of state. They drove way to slow and we couldn't see a way around them, so we trailed behind making rude comments as we traversed the canyon roads.

That's the same paragraph without a single was or were. It's far more lively and engaging.

If you want to draw the attention of a publisher, you have to make the writing exciting. The first paragraph is not exciting.

That doesn't mean that you have to cut out every single use of was or were. They're good words, but they often mark lazy writing when they're used too often in a story.

I will still reject stories for overuse of those words or any others that make the story dull when it's read.

This is not something to worry about in the first draft while you are doing your NaNo story. It is something that is really very easy to fix later, and something that will become easier the more you write and think about it. But don't worry about it while you are participating in NaNo!

Thanks for clearing that up. It also brought up a new question, which is: Once an author finishes their novel, don't they usually send it to an editor before trying to get it published? If there's a lot of potential problems with what they've written (whether they see it for themselves or not), I would think that makes sense.

Lazette,

I say it every year (or, at least think about saying it--sometimes I get shy) so I'll say it again: you're about the most awesome thing, ever. What better way to gear up for NaNo (or to procrastinate when you -really- need a break)? I for one intend to go through this book again before NaNo. It's a great reminder of just what I'm getting myself in to.

Thank you for making this available for NaNoers both new and old.

I will definitely check it out. Thanks!

Thank you very much!

I missed this last year. Just downloaded it. Can't wait to check it out.

Nicole

*is downloading*

Thanks muchly!