This is basically an information post for those of you who are only just visiting and have no idea what the heck I’m talking about.
November is almost upon us, and that means I’m about to go absolutely crazy. I’m talking about National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, and like last year, I’m participating in it. Here’s a quick FAQ to explain what this entails…
Q: Why NaNoWriMo?
A: Because as an avid roleplayer, I have a lot of stories that simply never get told, such as character origins, side-stories that really wouldn’t fit in the main plot, and aftermaths. It’s a great opportunity for me to tie up loose ends and to inspire new roleplay plots.
Q: What do you have to do for NaNoWriMo?
A: Write 50,000 new words between November 1st and November 30th. I can’t use any words that I’ve written before (e.g. I can’t take Mirror to the Soul and paste it in my novel and have it count), but I’m allowed to use outlines.
Last year, I wrote nine short stories (this is allowed according to the rules) to make up the 50,000 words. I’m planning to do the same this year.
It doesn’t need to be good. Strangely, this writing exercise promotes quantity over quality. It encourages you to tell your inner editor to take a flying leap and to write, write, write. Get stuff on paper and sort it out later. Also, you don’t have to finish the novel; if you’ve written 50,000 words, you’ve won. If you’re not done with that, then write more! But 50,000 is the minimum you need to write in order to win.
Q: What’s the prize for winning?
A: The satisfaction of writing 50,000 words in one month. And a shiny certificate that you can print out and frame if you want, but that’s icing, really.
Q: That’s it? No prize? That’s stupid.
A: The greatest prizes of all aren’t always tangible.
Q: How do they check to see if you’ve written 50,000 words?
A: Between November 25th and 30th, a participant can run their manuscript through NaNoWriMo.org’s word counter. This is called “validating”.
Q: So they don’t read what you write?
A: Nope.
Q: So you could, say, write the word “crap” 50,000 times and still be a winner?
A: Sure. But I’ll know.
Q: Are you going to publish?
A: Not the NaNo stories, no. Reason for this is that they fall into the ugly realm of fanfiction even though I write about original characters. But save for one story last year that was set in an original setting, all of the events take place in worlds created by multi million-dollar corporations who would probably sue my pants off if I tried to publish.
Q: Where can I find last year’s manuscript?
A: You can find it here. Note the subject matter isn’t for everyone. (If you cringe at the notion of there being a Digimon story in there, then really, don’t read it.)
Q: How can I support you?
A: Feel free to comment in this blog. I’ll likely be doing daily posts whining about how hard this is and wondering why I signed up for it again. 
Q: You’re an idiot and it’s stupid of you to do this.
A: Well, uh, your mom. Seriously, if you don’t like it, don’t read it! Sheesh.
That’s about it. Any questions I haven’t covered, feel free to post here.
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