I did NaNo last year and had a great time- got to 48,000 some words and then my story ended, so I didn't 'technically' win, but I had a week left in the month if I had wanted to find a place to pack in a particularly detailed description of a tree, or something. It's a great way to keep a book and it's ideas foremost in one's mind, which is my main problem, but you do end up writing a LOT of junk, just because in the average normal life of a person there just isnt' enough time to write, re-read, plan, shape, change, re-write 1,667 words every day. Sometimes I wrote while simultaneously doing other things. I ended up writing EVERYWHERE, too- in movie theaters, in the ten minute breaks between my college courses, while the profs were handing out papers- it's amazing how much time you find you can MAKE carving out these tiny little spaces in the day. As a natural insomniac, I also got very efficient at using the time while I fell asleep to think of what I would write the next day.
My hands did not, in fact, develop carpal tunnel or anything like that, probably because my natural sense is to write about 1,500 words and then my imagination dies on me, so I never did marathon writing sessions that would blow my wrists. In addition, as I am very prone to repetitive stress injuries, I tried to split up the writing to do some here, some there, instead of my daily quota all at once, and of course I've got a pad for my mouse hand and wrist-rests and all those good things, too.
Also, for NaNo I did something I had never done before, and worked out my cast of characters and themes ahead of time, so I knew WHO was in the story and WHAT I wanted the story to be about already. I had post-it notes that I would write interesting ideas on spread all over- five months later I woke up and found one in my bed, eerily enough.
It's definitely a disciplined activity, but it is nice to know that at the end of the day you have accomplished something creative and met a goal, that one is actively building towards a completed structure. I enjoyed it, and have signed up for this year... though with two big papers due in November, we'll see if my hands or my mind don't just give out on me. But I already have an idea and I'm using a genere as a crutch, so it ought actually to be EASIER this year. I also plan to outline this year- last year I had no plot, and that was hard.
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My hands did not, in fact, develop carpal tunnel or anything like that, probably because my natural sense is to write about 1,500 words and then my imagination dies on me, so I never did marathon writing sessions that would blow my wrists. In addition, as I am very prone to repetitive stress injuries, I tried to split up the writing to do some here, some there, instead of my daily quota all at once, and of course I've got a pad for my mouse hand and wrist-rests and all those good things, too.
Also, for NaNo I did something I had never done before, and worked out my cast of characters and themes ahead of time, so I knew WHO was in the story and WHAT I wanted the story to be about already. I had post-it notes that I would write interesting ideas on spread all over- five months later I woke up and found one in my bed, eerily enough.
It's definitely a disciplined activity, but it is nice to know that at the end of the day you have accomplished something creative and met a goal, that one is actively building towards a completed structure. I enjoyed it, and have signed up for this year... though with two big papers due in November, we'll see if my hands or my mind don't just give out on me. But I already have an idea and I'm using a genere as a crutch, so it ought actually to be EASIER this year. I also plan to outline this year- last year I had no plot, and that was hard.