This is an updated version of last year’s 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 I want to. Wait, that’s not good enough? Well, I like challenging myself, and NaNoWriMo gives me an opportunity to force myself to write stuff stuff that’s been stewing in my head for a while. “I’ll do it later” isn’t an option with NaNoWriMo, so it’s a whole month of writing until my fingers fall off.
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.
The first two years, I wrote collections of short stories about my characters in various roleplaying settings. This year hasn’t been awesome for me, roleplaying-wise, so I’m writing one single story set in Final Fantasy XI’s world.
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 realm of fanfiction even though I was writing about original characters. This year is a definite no-no because I’d prefer if Squeenix didn’t sue my pants off so they can meet their quarterly earnings.
Q: Fanfiction? Really?
A: Don’t judge a book by its cover; even if FFXI is not your cup of tea, if you like stories set in a fantasy setting, I think you’ll like this.
Q: Where can I find last year’s manuscript?
A: Nowhere for the moment, mostly because I’m STILL NOT DONE. Eventually, I’ll post the individual stories here.
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.
Drained
Okay
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