NaNoWriMo 2016 (+ alt challenge: NaProWriMo!)

Posted 7 years, 6 months ago (Edited 7 years, 5 months ago) by Isoprene

It's almost time for National Novel Writing Month, everyone! Prepare yourselves!!

Q. What the heck is a NaNoWriMo?

A. NaNoWriMo is an event that happens every November where throughout the month you write a 50,000+ word novel; about 1,667 words per day!

Q. Whoa! That's way too much!

A. I mean, you don't have to write 50,000+ words! Really, the point is to get people to sit down and write their ideas out and maybe finish something! Don't pressure yourself to win, just embrace this excuse to finally write something! I've never completed anything, myself - I've been doing this for, like, 6 years and the furthest I've gotten is halfway! - but it's always fun to give it a shot and get something out there!

Q. I dunno, I'm not a full-on novel kind of person...

A. That's cool, too! There's a whole group of people who are "rebels" who just write a bunch of short stories or maybe try and write a game instead. Which ties into the challenge referenced in the title...

Q. What's this "alternative challenge"? What the heck is a NaProWriMo???

A. That's what I like to call National Profile Writing Month! For those who aren't interested in writing novels, why not use this event as an excuse to finish your unfinished profiles? If you're anything like me, you've got a lot of OCs who still need to have their profiles created/finished. Making a profile is writing too, you know! So, why not write one profile a day? Or if you don't have that many (or just don't have the time for a full profile per day), split things up! Maybe you just write one section of a profile per day - one day is someone's personality, the next day you work on backstory, etc.

So, even if you don't think you can write a novel, NaNoWriMo is the perfect excuse to develop some of your OCs!

Q. Are there any other alternative challenges?

A. There are! There's one called NaNoMangO, which is dedicated to creating a comic every day! More info here! (Thanks, arbitrarydelight!)

Q. I don't really have the time for this, unfortunately, so I don't think I'll bother.

That's alright! But keep in mind that the NaNoWriMo forums are full of cool idea threads, RPing, places to talk about your characters, and an entire forum dedicated to people who can help you with stuff that requires research... so definitely check it out! You should also totally follow this thread and support/help out your fellow Toyhouse users who are participating!

Q. Whoa, geez! There's only a week until November? Couldn't you have brought this up earlier so I could prepare?

hey buddy pal i'm only human alright

Q. So... what's this thread for?

This thread is to alert everyone to NaNoWriMo, propose NaProWriMo, and to help/support everyone who's in it! In this thread you can ask for help, get writing tips, show off your writing, take polls to see whose profile you should write next, get or give critique (if someone requests critique), brag about how awesome things are going for you, vent about how writing is a horrible vortex of horrors you regret tossing yourself into, etc.!

If you're participating and you'd like to be featured in this directory, fill out the following information and I'll stick you up here!:

Username // NaNoWriMo Username (if applicable)
Which Challenge?: (you can do multiple!! intense...)

|| - Participant Directory - ||

Aarca // Aarca
Which Challenge?: NaNoWriMo!

araneko // AranekoChan
Which Challenge?: NaNoWriMo and NaProWriMo (but I wont be counting NaPro bc reasons)

astriferouskazz // Amy Serket Kazz
Which Challenge?: NaNoWriMo,but I'll try to get done the character profiles for the novel comic I'm doing this year.

Elissinia // elissinia
Which Challenge?: NaNoWriMo!

ElithianFox // Elithian
Which Challenge?: NaNoProMo

Galaxycreations // No account
Which Challenge?: NaProWriMo

Hane // Feather Weather
Which Challenge?: Game Designing & Profiles (and maybe short novels idk)

Isoprene // GreenSweatshirtGal
Which Challenge?: Unsure, leaning NPWM but have an idea for NNWM...

Kree-Kat // Kree-Kat (yep its totally the same, consistency and all that haha)
Which Challenge?: im going to do NaNoWriMo but the profi idea is really interesting and fun!

MathewMii // No Account
Which Challenge?: NaProWriMo to complete my antagonists in Monster Within and develop more of Vengeful Hunt and Cattle Cats.

memeduchess // no account
Which Challenge?: NaProWriMo

Minty-Fivestar // LadyLatias
Which Challenge?: NaNoWriMo, here I come!

pax // Templarius
Which Challenge?: NaNo/ProWriMo, but I also intend to do NaNoMangO now that I know that's also a thing.

starpowder // moonusagi
Which Challenge?: NaNoWriMo

TheLadyAnatola // No account
Which Challenge?: NaProWriMo

tori34 // tori34
Which Challenge?: NaNoWriMo

you-are-butt // internal flailing lord plz save me if you know how to changer your un let me know fam
Which Challenge?: Gonna try(?) both ;; Also trying to catch up in all of my rps in the meantime ;;

Have fun, everyone! Good luck with all of your writing endeavors!

Isoprene

I was planning on doing NaNoWriMo, but since coming up with NaProWriMo I feel like that's something I'd like to do instead. I have soooo many profiles I need to finish, and while I don't think I'm ever gonna win NNWM I feel like I could totally knock out 30 profiles in 30 days!

If I do decide to go back to NaNoWriMo, my novel idea is actually a collection of short stories centered around a certain cult that has a lot of influence in my overarching OCverse. Could be fun! Though the problem is that a lot of spoilers would be innately involved, which makes things tricky. There's also the fact that I don't think it'd be enough to last me for the month, but I dunno. I think I might start with NaProWriMo, and if I beat that I might start cranking out some short stories! Or I might kind of do both?

Not sure how I'd plug all of this into NaNoWriMo proper, too... do I want to upload the word count of my profile - tricky because I'd have to copy and paste fields and links too - or do I want to upload 1,667 words for each profile I complete - tricky because it's technically dishonest? I might ask the rebel forum... I'd like to still keep using the site; I don't want it to look like I skipped a year!

Anyway here's a placeholder list since I'd like to plan out the order of profiles I'm going to write, generally prioritizing adopts since those are uploaded and yet don't have finished profiles:

x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Ophelia Diaphaneitas???
x
x
x
x
Corone Violaceous
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x

I might try and double/triple up some days, too... some of my placeholder bios are actually so in-depth that all I need to do is correct capitalization and punctuation, really! But we'll see.

owlhari

I've got a great idea for NaNoWriMo that I'm really excited about. But I've created ten more OCs for the universe the story's in so it's gonna be work! I don't care though, I've been waiting for a long time to write something like it.

@Aarca // Aarca
NaNoWriMo or NaProWriMo?: NaNoWriMo!

ElithianFox

I actually like the NaNoProMo! I am too busy to write 50k words and my insecurity would kill me, but my profiles do need work. I even considered writing my profiles for OC October but uni kept me too busy. How does one even come up with a story plt, sob

ElithianFox // Elithian
NaNoWriMo or NaProWriMo?: NaNoProMo

(Is there a way to participate on the NaNoWriMo site when doing the profile one?)

tori34

tori34 // tori34
NaNoWriMo or NaProWriMo?: NaNoWriMo

I like the idea of a profile one! A good idea for those too busy for a full NaNoWriMo :)

Isoprene

@Aarca Story of my life, tbh... I can't stop making OCs for things, I'm too easily inspired... that's always way I've never finished anything, honestly, I keep adding characters to universes and with that the story tends to end up changing!

ElithianFox I always struggle with that, too... for a lot of my stories I have individual backstories and a developed setting, but I'm not sure what kind of plot I would make to connect them. A lot of my settings have wound up being kind of open-ended, which is great for RPing and short stories but always ends up getting me when it comes to NaNoWriMo...

Anyway, when the event proper starts there'll be a thing at the top of the site that lets you update your novel's word count: I figure for people doing NPWM you'd just kind of use the 50k as a 100% and update your word count based on how many profiles you've completed. EX. if your goal is to complete one profile per day you'd add 1,667 to your word count for every profile you complete.

Not totally sure though... I'm gonna try and look around to see if that's the best method for that kind of thing!

Either way, though, the forums are open to everyone even if you're not writing anything at all, so you can participate there as well! Gotta take this opportunity to show off the Adoption Society... it's always been my favorite board! I've gotten a lot of ideas and characters out of it... I gotta find my old "Adopt a What-If" list so I can dump it into that thread again!

Isoprene

tori34 Thanks! A lot of my friends are always too busy for NaNoWriMo or have other things keeping them from writing a whole novel (self-confidence, mental health issues, unstable home lives, etc.) but they also have a lot of incomplete character profiles... so I kind of figured NaProWriMo would be a good way to get the idea out there to write something smaller and more divided! Plus when you have your characters all planned out and written down somewhere it might make any future noveling a lot easier since you can go back and reference stuff at a moment's notice!

arbitrarydelight

I've heard of NaNoWriMo before but I've never participated since I don't really see myself as a writer, unfortunately. NaProWriMo is a great idea though, it sounds really interesting! I have so many unfinished profiles that I should finish but keep holding off on, maybe this'll finally get me to finish some of them. I need to get around to finishing them soon too since I'll need them for reference...

Writing profiles is so relaxing, and there's that feeling of satisfaction when you finish one... I think I'll have a lot of fun doing NaProWriMo, if I can find the time!

As a side note, have you heard of NaNoMangO, a NaNoWriMo alternative for those that prefer art, where you draw 30 comics in 30 days?

Waltz

I don't think I'll have time to participate this year, but good luck to everyone! Out of the 4-5 attempts I've made I've managed to complete it at least once, so I know it can be done xD

Maybe I should try the profile option though whoop

TheLadyAnatola

I doubt I'll ever actually try NaNoWriMo for real with the account and all that, mostly because my writing process is pretty solo and I wouldn't make use of any of those resources anyway. ^^; Also have a handful of irl friends that try it every year and they always crash and burn not even a week in... I figure I'll just be a lot more productive if I just forget the whole thing and write whenever the heck I want. XD

Probably will try the profile writing thing though. I've only got 63 unfinished profiles left to work on (it's sad when that's a relatively big number and it's "only 63" ...I'm horrible), and of course they're the ones that I never feel like working on because they're minor or require me to redesign their outfit so I can fill out their clothing description... This might force me to actually get them done. Or maybe I should just make 30 fresh profiles instead. I dunno. ^^; I should do something at least.

pfmzkz

Oooh,this sounds too tempting,I just wanna get my 200+ profiles done...but I'll pass.I'll be cheering on spirit to everyone who dares to take any-or both- challenges!

@astriferouskazz // Amy Serket Kazz
NaNoWriMo or NaProWriMo?: NaNoWriMo,but I'll try to get done the character profiles for the novel comic I'm doing this year.

Caine

I'm doing NaNoWriMo! But I'm also in a group that tries to write 10,000 words extra either to the novel or to something else to get the final count of 60K or more so I might slip into working on character profiles after that

Isoprene

Iso's Epic Writing Tip of the Day: One thing that always helps me is writing things out casually and stream-of-thought...ly. That's a word now. Anyway, I mean not worrying about your grammar or writing style or capitlization or anything like that - just spitting your ideas out on the page and going back over them later! When you just write like you're naturally thinking you end up with something you can refine later with ease!

For example, check out Adhil's profile here. I wrote that all in one session and wound up coming up with a lot of stuff on the spot because I just let myself stop caring about quality. What I wound up with is something where I can pretty much just go back and capitalize things, transfer all of the info onto my new profile template, and he'll be done! ...I should probably do that before NaProWriMo huh

Yuudai might be a better example: his profile is written way more casually and will require a little more work to finish, but that profile isn't empty - I have something! It's not very professional, but I have facts down that I don't need to worry about forgetting and, instead of having to start from scratch, whenever I go to make my final draft I have a rough draft to work from! Plus when you make "draft bios" like this it helps you pick out the things you need to think about and work out before you write a final draft!

Stay tuned for more EPIC DAILY WRITING TIPS, folks!!!

arbitrarydelight Agreeeed, I love writing profiles! I especially like filling out fields and links and all of the misc. little things... it's a lot of fun!

And I've actually never heard of NaNoMangO before! Is that during the same month, then? If so I'll put that up in the first post as well for those who are interested!

you-are-butt SAME I've been wanting to change my username for so long but there's no way to do it... I haven't worn a green sweatshirt in years! I can't in good conscious call myself a green sweatshirt gal anymore! My favorite color is blue!!!! I've seen admins suggesting that they might make it a possibility someday, but for now I am trapped in a metaphorical green sweatshirt forever... I could just make a new account, but I've had my current one for 7 years and would rather not give up everything associated with it...

Waltz Congrats on your win!! It's not easy to crank out 50,000 words in 30 days! You should totally do the profile one, though, I need more bios to read!! Give me the OCs!! I feed off of OC information... it's my lifeblood. It's true, ask my doctor.

TheLadyAnatola Yeah, it's not for everyone! I always like to give it a shot even though I usually drop by two weeks in when I start getting behind, since at least I'll have a handful of chapters I can upload somewhere!

And saaaaaame... even after revamping my "official" character list to just count the important people I still have around 700 OCs and only keep making more... so 63 sounds huge to some people but isn't even 10% of my OC count! So even if I do NaProWriMo every year and only wrote profiles then I'd have to keep doing it for over 20 years. Worth it.

@astriferouskazz heck yeah another for the "drowning under incomplete profiles" squad *high-five*

castra Holy guacamole! That's pretty impressive - I hope you reach your goal!!

Pinky

in the days of my YOUTH i used to be able to manage... one year i got super far, didnt actually finish a novel but exceeded the word count

these past few years havent been in a place where i had the time/mental state 2 do it but this year... i'm ready.... idk which story imma do tho. i was hoping my witches but i just did a major storyline revamp and i dont think i'd be able to do them, im still tinkering and it would probably lead to me getting stuck at parts. i got a horror story i've already started/got the whole storyline done so it's just a matter of writing, and then i have a fantasy story that i wrote many eons ago (the one i actually exceed the word count with back in the day LOL) that i've been working on revamping and would like to rewrite so... prolly gonna be one of them two. i'll decide which one Nov 1st, gonna sit down and just u know... let jesus take the wheel...