Every years for the past 7 years (except one) I have participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I was wondering if any fellow simmers are also fellow NaNo-ers. If so, are you doing it this year and what will your story be about? Are you using the Sims to create characters and story world with? Also, feel free to seek NaNo-ing help here!

If you don't know what I'm talking about go here: National Novel Writing Month. Basically, NaNoWriMo is where you write a 50,000 word novel in one month (November). It's super crazy and incredibly awesome. Anyone who's ever wanted to write a novel or has written one should try this.

This year I'm 75% sure that I'm doing a YA fantasy called Autumn Hunt. "Tabitha is a 16 year old who is eagerly awaiting her transformation to become like the rest of her family, a wolf hybrid. But on the night of the Autumn Hunt when human pups are selected for transformation, Tabitha is deemed unworthy. She must prove herself by accompanying her brethren on the hunt. What she discovers that night is that the unworthy aren't joining the hunt, but being hunted. Beyond the forest is a world at war between pure blood humans and hybrids like Tabitha's family. She may bear their name, but she isn't genetically one of them. She can find another route to becoming a hybrid or join the human ranks of slayers... if she can survive the relentless hunt."

The 25% of interference comes from a mystery/thriller titled Countdown to Decimation that I'd toyed with making into a sims story during the summer but didn't have time to get around to. "Every generation of the Francis family has died out in the city of Oppela for the last hundred years. When John Francis wakes up in Oppela without memory of how he got there, he knows it's only a matter of time. He's not alone. There are several others in the town who's families suffer the same curse. The only way to save them all is to figure out who or what wants entire families dead so badly that they're willing to take out generation after generation and what is it about Oppela that they must die here. As the last of his bloodline, if John fails, the Francis' will cease to exist and whoever lusts for their total decimation will finally succeed."

I'll figure out what to do by November! (Hopefully)
What about you?

I try every year but I always fail :x

I've never heard of this, but I love it. I've always loved the idea of writing and I started a proper story once when I was in a programme with the National Autistic Society, but I left and never finished it, but what I had written got a lot of praise.

I don't know if I could write a whole story in one month! But I might try this, I have so many ideas!
Are we allowed to start planning now?

I only succeeded 50,000 words half the times I've done it! Even getting 10,000 words out is a success as most people don't even get that much done in one project in a month. At that rate of 2500 a week, you'd have a finished novel in at least 5 months (depending on how long the story is). You may not win NaNo, but could commit to a monthly goal with November and other NaNo-ers giving you that initial push. Plus, you'd have CampNaNo in April to give you that final burst for the end! Slow and steady also wins the race.

@SuperSimoholic: October is the perfect time to start planning!

I always have a lot of problems with people. A lot of people around me aren't exactly sympathetic towards devoting an entire month to writing, so I always get the whole "party pooper" "no lifer" treatment when say that I can't go out because I have to reach my word count.
That has seriously got me demotivated enough to stop on more than one occassion, and it's pissing annoying.

I'm gonna try my best to participate this year (might even do a Sims story) but this has been my most stressful semester since I've started college so I'll probably start but I wont finish it in a month XD

I'd love to do that. Might be time to get cracking!

ETA: I came up with this when I was ten..here is..something, at least.

I have an ipod nano somewhere?

Good luck!

I've considered it in the past - I think I even signed up last year - but unfortunately I have way too many other things to do that precludes me sitting down and writing for a month. Besides, I'm busy with a final cleanup on my 110k-word novel and then I need to start querying that and writing the sequel.

I am curious though. Do you outline ahead of time or just begin with the idea in your head and then either outline or straight write from there? I can't outline; I find way too many ideas come into my head while I'm writing so it probably takes me longer to write than others because I end up doing a lot of editing to make the story fit.

I've tried a few times but never gotten very far. I just signed up, though, because I might as well. I've always loved writing and I've got a lot of ideas, but I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet. I've got one idea that I've been mulling over for several months but haven't started yet, and I'll probably go with that.

EDIT: Anyone else have a profile on the site? I'm PlacentalMammal, add me. Let's be writing buddies!

I'm writing about a drama queen with a complex for older famous men and her never-ending routine of going to the therapist on a new moon or full moon.
I got a head start while waiting to be seen at the therapist.

EDIT: To clarify, her melodramatic moments are more laughable than annoying and I based her off my own issues. She does improve in the story, but how she does is part of her fight with herself.

This will be my second NaNo, and hopefully my second win! I've had my idea since late September, and have been developing and fleshing it out since then.

Good luck to all my fellow wrimos Let's write our best novels this November!

Uh, how do you start writing a story? *blush*

ETA: I meant to that website. I know that you can't, now!

Well, first you just need inspiration. Like from a game. Or something from real life. Then you choose a topic. Then you either take pen and paper of go on a computer and just write down whatever comes to your mind.

I'm on the second chapter in my Skyrim fanfic, so there.

Er, are you asking because you want to expand the blurb you posted above into a story/novel? The best advice is to start writing.

But how you get to that point depends on how much work you want to do beforehand.

Some people outline the entire thing.
Some people follow the snowflake method.
(I'd say those two are not as necessary if you're only writing a short story.)

Some people only have a vague idea what they're getting into and make it up as they go along (helps to know character and general plot points ahead of time otherwise you'll end up with bland word soup...unless you're Stephen King or something ).

I've tried outlining but I just can't do it. I start with a general idea (main character, supporting characters, the conflict, the stakes; though in my case all I began with was 'A prince wants to go on adventures; can also talk with his horse.'*) but most of my best ideas come to me when I'm actually writing. For instance, I killed off one character halfway through the book when I realized she wasn't needed beyond that point (even though I had originally planned for her to be in the sequels) and that her death would seriously screw with the MC (plus, since this is 'fantasy', I know how she can come back later). I also found the twist in my plot when I was writing it on the fly. My story takes place in an entirely fictional world so I don't need to worry about researching criminal law or police procedures or any other things that happen in the 'real world' so I can just sit down and start writing and let all the little details come to me.

I'd also make sure that your story isn't too similar to something famous that has been done before. I have not read this series and obviously I don't know all the details of your story, but just reading your blurb suddenly brought it to mind...

TBH, I made this when I was 10 or 9- I made the whole story, but it was more me role playing or thinking about it in my head. I have a fair idea of what it's about...
I honestly never heard of that book before. I could always do what some people do and expand on mythology and say that Sand is the Sandman- I honestly don't have a clue about that graphic novel.

That's cool. If you're just writing for fun then you don't have to worry about it. If you were actually trying to submit to agents, publishers, magazines, you would not want to submit something that's very similar to something famous already out there (and again, I don't know if it even is!).

Good luck with your writing!

Yeah. You write it on whatever word processor you like. Then, during the last week of November, the site will have a word validation box that you can copy/paste or upload your story to. When you submit it, the computer will scramble the letters in the words you've written to ensure that no one can take your work and it calculates how many words you've written then it deletes your story from its system. That's how it's determined if you've written 50000 words or more. If you have, you get a certificate, giveaways & discounts from the site and from their sponsors, and the last few years a publisher has printed winning novels so that you can have a hard copy of your draft!
Don't worry too much about your story. Every idea's been done. It's the details that make a story unique. Being like an idea isn't the same as being the exact same story! (Twilight's been re-done a kabillion times so a good, or profitable, idea will sell! ) If it's too close to another story you can always change it up in a rewrite.

ETA: Found out that this year it is CreateSpace: "Two free paperback copies of a finished book for NaNoWriMo winners" and Blurb: "All Coffee & Quill members who successfully complete NaNoWriMo will receive a coupon for a free copy of their book in softcover 6×9 Trade format and a reflowable ebook for Kindle. (Plus, you could win free editorial services, too!)" There are some really good offers from sponsors including a publishing contract with a $15,000 advance for YA romance from Swoon (if picked)! Check out all the current offers under the "Inspiration" tab then "Sponsors Offers".

@Mammal: added you as a writing buddy! I'm arnis1 (if anyone else wants to be buddies)
@darthesp: I can't just sit down and write. I'm not very good with pantsing. But I can't have too much of an outline either or I'll get bored, stressed or just start writing. I usually get down my MCs, antagonists, goals, ending, and important scenes. Good luck with sanding and polishing your manuscript and getting started on the sequel. That's an awesome place to be at!

I wish I could, but November is finals time and attempting to write 50,000 words would be a joke. I'm swamped as it is with school, work, clubs, and other stuff. I hope those who are doing it have fun though!

Creative writing is kind of difficult for me to be happy with. The first thing, of course, is freewriting. Then, when I actually read the page, it looks like a 2nd grader's sociopathic narration as he recreates an internment camp with swap meet, copyright-sidestepped superhero action figures and McDonald's Toy Story Happy Meal characters. Lot's of unmade up words and like "Rosemary-Kennedied" and "fillet-bustered" but mostly empty filler content. Like a high school paper done 30 mins before it's due. Pretty much 5-10% of the page has potential and the rest is just repetition and redundancy or junk.

So the potential parts have to be reworded into actual English and moved around, and that's when I start structuring it like journalism and it becomes stilted and too vocabularized, and contained ( short ). So yeah, I couldn't imagine working on something long enough to need continuity and that needs to not sound like an Amazon.com item review. Much envy to those writers here who can weave thoughts and transfer them straight into the reader's head naturally. The book I read this October was The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee: Observations on Not Fitting In by Paisley Rekdal. Or rather, I ate the book. The author is a master weaver and word-flinger. Why can't movies be like this?

This has been so useful! I've even got my tagline!

"In another world, a young girl embarks on the pursuit of mystical knowledge and power."

Can I ask everyone here what they think?
Is this a good tagline/hook? If you read this, would you be interested in finding out more about the story?

I think that's a fine plot, but it doesn't say enough about what makes your story unique. Can you say more about the protagonist or the journey itself? Why is she undertaking the journey? Who is she?

I've got a longer summary up on my NaNo page, but I guess my one sentence summary would be: "A luckless, 20-year-old artist is thrust into a magical, criminal underworld after her roommate's disappearance." Ha! 15 words exactly.

Hmm... While my current project needs more work, there is a story idea I outlined but never got around to writing. Essentially, "High school bully gets telepathy, then saves the world by becoming a supervillain." I've always had other projects to focus on, but I think it could be interesting to work on while I'm figuring things out for my masterpiece.

Heh. I might actually do NaNoWriMo this year.

Most of the time, I'm too worried about things to do it. Part of me goes "Yes! Let's do this!" and the rest goes "No, I can't write it yet! I haven't finished the conlang! And I haven't written an outline! And I haven't researched the amount of power it would take to keep a planet on a deliberately erratic orbit to fool a long-dead empire into thinking it doesn't exist!" and then the war between the part of my brain starts, which finishes sometime in November, when I realize that it already started and I missed it.

But this time, the story is already outlined and I don't need research, so I have no excuses! I will do this!

Ooo I've never heard of this but I think I might give it a try

This is the think keeping me from properly starting a story I've had in mind for years! The story I wrote the tagline for. I feel like I can't write anything without the language because everything is going to need names

I literally just realised I could just use place holder names for now and name them later.