I feel like every other post I see here now is some kind of “crawl”, rather than discussion of NaNoWriMo or writing challenges/writing as a whole; is there maybe a chance that these can be consolidated into a weekly thread or something?
I'll admit I felt a little lost when I heard the organisation had shut down. November has been my writing month for years. The site, the badges, the word count graph, the little purple bar creeping toward 50,000. All of it was part of the ritual for me, and for a few days I wasn't sure what to do with the month without it.
Then I started thinking about what I actually liked about it. The website was convenient, but it was never really the point. What mattered was that for thirty days, a huge number of people decided to write at the same time, and that shared decision made it easier for everyone to show up. That part isn't owned by anyone. It's still ours.
So I'm making my own rules this year. I'm aiming for 1,000 words a day on weekdays, none on Sundays, and a goal of a messy but complete draft rather than exactly 50,000 words. I've picked a character-driven story, a quiet one about two sisters selling their family home, and I'm using Preptober to work out what each main character wants and what she's hiding. I'll post a few progress updates in my writing group, because accountability is half the magic.
I'd love to hear how others are handling it this year. Are you doing a community challenge, running your own, or going solo?
One of my beta readers got back me today mentioning that one thing that I should improve on would be descriptive writing. I've always struggled with including these so if you have any exercises or any other thing you do to have descriptive writing in your writing send it my way!
Hi everyone! Based on community feedback, I've added a "Crawl" flair for word crawls and an "Adoption Center" flair for adoption threads. These are both based on NaNo forum traditions.
"Word crawls" originated with this sprint challenge themed around a pub crawl. A number of others popped up and were reposted yearly on the NaNo forums, often themed around specific stories/fandoms. I believe all the crawls that have been posted so far are originally from the NaNo forums, but you are also welcome to create and post your own!
"Adoption Center" was originally a NaNo forum category for threads along the lines of "adopt a plot" or "adopt a character" and so on, where people could share ideas they weren't going to use for others to "adopt" and write into their own story. You can post threads along those lines or just ideas you're putting up for "adoption" under this flair.
If you have any other ideas for flairs that might fill a similar purpose to specific NaNo threads/traditions, please discuss in the comments! I would be interested in adding more.
I am not the writer of this crawl. If you know who is, please let me know, so I may give them proper credit. Posting for those that may be searching for this. Hope you enjoy!
CARVING TIME: Time to carve your pumpkin. Have fun pulling out those slimy pumpkin guts. Sprint to 250 words while you scoop*.*
DRESS UP: You are ready to put on your costume. There were so many choices but you finally made a decision. If you chose…
A Superhero: complete a 5 minute word war.
A costume of the opposite sex: write 300 words in 10 minutes*.*
A Disney character: Sprint to the nearest 1000*.*
FIRST STOP: You are brave and head to a haunted house. While you wait in line and try and not look terrified roll a die and multiply it by 100. Write that many words*.*
STEP INSIDE: It’s very dark inside and you feel someone or something touch your shoulder. Before you can turn around to look you hear a shrieking scream. If it’s you that’s screaming do a 15 minute word war*.* If it’s not you screaming write at your own pace for 10 minutes*.*
RECOVERY: You survive and make it out alive. While you take a break and wait for your heartrate to return to normal take the last 3 numbers from the number of people on the site right now shown at the bottom and write that many words*.*
TRICK OR TREAT: Now you are ready for some candy. You grab your flashlight and head to the first house. Ring the doorbell and while you wait for some goodies write for 20 minutes*.* If you write 1000 or more words you receive your favorite candy. If you write 600-999 words you get a stick of gum. If you write 1-599 words you watch 5 pennies fall into your bag.
PARTY TIME: Time to party. You head to a friends for a costume party and some frightful food. You notice across the room that someone has the exact same costume on that you do. Write 500 words at your own pace while you figure out what would have been a better costume*.*
MOVIE TIME: You wind down the evening with your favorite scary movie. If you watch… Halloween-do a 10 minute word war.
Paranormal Activity-roll a die and multiply the number by 50. Write that many words.
Saw-write to the nearest 1000.
LIGHTS OUT: You finish watching the movie credits. Then just as you turn off the tv and shut off the lights you hear a scratching at the front door. You wonder if it’s last minute trick-or-treats, or something worse. Too afraid to check you run to your bed and hide under the covers to wait for daylight. While you wait take one last look at the number of people online and write the same number of words as the last three digits of that number. Sleep tight!
Got a rough outline, my writing desk is ready and my typewriters are serviced! What and where do you write? Do you write to music or in silence? What is your word count goal this year?
This might be a long shot, but my favorite thing about the old Nano forums was the “Adopt a Plot,” character, magic system, etc. threads where people shared ideas that they abandoned that others could try in their projects.
I never actually adopted anything, but it got me thinking creatively for the planning phase. So maybe something similar where people share ideas without the “adoption” aspect might work too.
Anyone know of other sites that fill this niche? Thanks!