NaNoWriMo Exit Survey 2010 – Results

 NaNoWriMo 2010, NaNoWriMo 2011, Topics in Writing  7 Responses »
Oct 182011
 

Last year after NaNoWriMo 2010 ended, I did an Unofficial NaNoWriMo Exit Survey on December 1st. I didn’t have a ton of responses, but the few I did receive gave some great advice. So here are the highlights from the survey. I will be running an Unofficial NaNoWriMo Exit Survey on December 1st of this year too.

I’d like to thank the 9 people who filled out the survey last year. Your responses were fantastic, thank you so much! I look forward to your comments this year.

 

NaNoWriMo Exit Survey 2010

Question 2: This question was worded weird and I intend to change it for the coming year since it doesn’t exactly ask what I wanted it to. Here are the highlights:

  • I think it is VERY telling that, to the question of “I wish I had prepared prior to November 1st” 3 of the 9 respondents answered yes, while 6 of the 9 responded that they did prepare. Whether the preparation included writing an outline, character bios, or doing research, I think everyone stands a better chance of making it to the end of November as happy and healthy as they went in if they spend some time preparing before the kick-off date.
  • Another interesting response was to “I wish I had written every day, no matter what” in which 5 of the 9 people agreed with this statement. I think this ties into preparation, too.
  • I was surprised by the answers to “I wish I’d gone to a write-in.” I thought this would be higher, but more people seemed disinterested in these than I anticipated. I’d like to know your thoughts about write-ins – Do you anticipate going to any this year?

Comments:
  • Week Three I was pulling teeth all week. Support from Sommer got me through and then the story began to move again. I think week three is “that place” in the story for me where I could drop the ball, all sorts of doubts, a really tough writing spot.

My response: I’ve heard about the Doom of Week Three before, that it can be one of the hardest to deal with. I don’t know who left this comment, but it made me blush. They’d totally get a Christmas card from me this year!! I love being a NaNo champion for others.

  •  Having a very high personal goal but got tired and thus easier to get distracted with other things like life and wii.
  • I kept my eye on the purple bar in the NaNo website graph and made that my biggest motivator – and there was only one day during all of November where I fell behind! I had days where my daily 1667 words came relatively easily, and days where I stared at my computer screen for four hours trying to come up with any excuse not to write, but my obsessive determination to stay on track paid off in the end.
Comments:
  • Completing at least 50,000 words of a novel that I will later finish since 50k isn’t long enough for epic fantasy.
  • I didn’t know a lot of other people doing NaNo, but having just a few buddies to compete with and encourage was a huge help in making me keep going. I’m still a bit in shock that I won, honestly – I am usually a painfully slow writer, so this was a huge step forward for me. When I got close to the end, I was so excited about finishing that I ended up skimping on sleep and hitting 50k a couple days early.

 

6. If you could go back to October 31st and give yourself some advice about the coming month, what would it be?

  • Don’t spend so much time on the boards. Just write instead. And go to the write in the first Tuesday. The blizzard warning turned out to be nothing.
  • Remember that tomorrow is November 1st!
  • Stick close to Sommer’s blog posts instead of working with a serious outline, just throw myself off and see what can happen!Relax and have fun!
  • A couple of days off after 50k is fine but you’ll feel better if you distract yourself by trying to finish the novel.
  • Plan more! More more more! Every time I had trouble, it was because of a big gaping hole in my plotline. I don’t do well when I pants. Also, don’t start the month imagining you’ll have a valid first draft. Yes, it happened the year before, but by expecting it again I set myself for a disappointment.
  • Try to get a decent amount of sleep, even if you are really excited. Don’t panic when characters do unexpected things. Accept that there is no way you’re going to be finished in 50,000 words, no matter how much you try to keep to an outline, and enjoy the journey anyway.
  • Write every day and don’t worry if it’s bad; no one has to see it!

 

8. What resources do you wish you’d had?

  • More motivation…
  • I really do wish I had been able to go to a write-in! I’m hoping next year, when I’ll actually be in the US, I can get involved with more of the in-person activities. I would love to have met other Wrimos.
  • I am honestly rather content with what the site has to offer for Wrimos, though I’m sure there’s people with great ideas for more out there. :)
  • A local writing group.
  • Someone reading bits or someone to comment at end of month on bits. It’s hard to write that much and no one to read and comment.
  • A whole library

 

9. If you could give advice to a brand new NaNoWriMo participant in 2011, what would it be?

  • Go to a write in, meet people, have fun, don’t lose hope. Make an outline if that works for you. Enjoy the journey, and don’t be too concerned with what comes after.
  • Write! Every day, no matter how crappy it is. You can go back and edit it later.
  • Prepare ahead!
  • Have a ball
  • Don’t stress, just write.
  • It’s more about the fact that you write something you want to write, making the actually 50k isn’t as important as just getting further in the story.Have fun. Enjoy your characters and your story, and forget how lame the writing is. The point of NaNoWriMo isn’t nice prose, and even if you have to start over at the end of the month, I promise you’re not wasting your time.
  • Go meet your region. Seriously. The little web of support you’ll create with other Wrimos might save your NaNo. There are people near your home who are cheerful, creative and supportive, and they wait only for you to join them. Do it! The NaNoWriMo community is one of the most open-minded and fun I’ve found anywhere! (Of course I am a Municipal Liaison, so I am completely biased about the region aspect of NaNo, but I *really* gained something from my region. It’s a MUST to me.)
  • Never give up. Write every day even if it makes you want to tear your hair out. Find a couple people close to you and talk them into doing it with you. If you can, choose someone who writes faster than you do – it’s great motivation!

 

10. Do you find NaNoWriMo worthwhile for aspiring writers? Why or why not?

  • YES! This was my first year participating in NaNoWriMo, and it was the first time that I actually got a novel past the first 20 pages. It’s a great tool to get you past the planning stages and into the writing!
  • Yes, I do. One learn to write against a deadline.
  • Yes, absolutely! It shows you, you can write that much! It’s FUN! It gives you a structure that’s over the top, so then, afterward you really can write in a disciplined manner. The more you write, the better a writer you will become.
  • I think NaNo is great for writers who just want to have fun for the sake of writing, or writers who need a kick in the pants and set a deadline. If you’re one of those writers who thinks you can build a career off of writing one month out of the year, though, you might be screwing yourself over.
  • NaNoWriMo is awesome. I think that it can be very encouraging and helpful for any writer, aspiring or published. It can be good to have deadlines and is good practice because that first book may take 4 years or so but the publishers tend to have harsher deadlines if they are going to make offers on future novels.
  • Yes yes yes! No, you won’t get a good draft out of NaNo. You might not even get an average one. But that doesn’t mean you won’t gain anything. NaNoWriMo is an occasion to make writing fun again (not that I think it’s a pain the rest of the year). It’s a perfect time to play around with your story, to try new plot arcs, to discover your characters and explore your setting. Aspiring writers can use NaNo to develop their ideas further and to spot their plotholes. I certainly did, and I believe my WIP matured from it.
  • Yes! It’s a wonderful chance to do something crazy and wonderful with thousands of others cheering you on and sharing in your stress, joy, and frustration.
  • Yes, as long as they don’t think their novel is finished at the end of November! I think NaNoWriMo gives people the chance to write a novel when they thought they would never have the time. The encouragement of other participants and the sense of competition makes them make the time to do it. It think it’s great for new writers, but those who have written novels before, even if they’re not published (like me :P ) seem to do it more for fun or a break from their WIP.

 

Last chance to take the 2010 NaNoWriMo Unofficial Exit Survey

 NaNoWriMo 2010  2 Responses »
Jan 182011
 

I am going to be taking down my 2010 NaNoWriMo Unofficial Exit Survey this coming weekend (I have a new banner coming up! Shhhhh, but I’ll give you a hint: It starts with the letter “blog” and ends with the letter “fest“ :-) ) If you haven’t already filled out the survey, please do so before Saturday. If you know anyone who should fill it out, send them my way.

You can click on the image to the left, the one in the right sidebar under Share + Love, or click on the tab at the top. Or click here. Sheesh, you can click just about anywhere!

For those who have taken the survey, thank you thank you thank you! I’ll share the results next November! I kind of can’t wait, though I don’t want to rush through 2011, I think next November will be a blast.

Happy Writing, writers!

2010 NaNoWriMo Unofficial Exit Survey: Take Two!

 NaNoWriMo 2010  2 Responses »
Dec 072010
 

The two people who filled out my 2010 NaNoWriMo Unofficial Exit Survey are going to kill me, but I’ve had to drop the Google Docs survey I posted this morning and create a new one using a different service called SurveyMonkey. For some reason Google Docs is not playing nice with embedded forms and jumbled some of the responses I received. I also heard the survey was slow and I received some excellent feedback about the wording of some of the questions.

I fixed the wording, dropped some of the questions and I hope made the survey both more user-friendly and more useful. Please take a moment if you can to fill it out (or send others to fill it out!)

Click here! or click on the graphic in the right sidebar.

To the two awesome people who already filled it out please accept my heartfelt and embarrassed apology at having to ask you to fill it out again. I hate when technology messes things up!!! I can’t wait to hear what you have to say though.

I use SurveyMonkey at work though so I know it is reliable and stable.

NaNoWriMo Cookies: Day 30 THE END with Neil Gaiman

 Comics, Fantastic Authors, NaNoWriMo 2010, Story Inspiration, Topics in Writing, Videos  2 Responses »
Nov 302010
 

Day 30.

On the final day of NaNoWriMo I want to share my hero with you. I discovered his writing through a comic book/graphic novel series he wrote and from there I gleefully hunted down his novels, his weird and wonderful graphic novels, and all of his brilliant essays. I chased down hard to find novellas on ebay and I devoured every word he ever wrote. He was the sort of author I wanted to emulate. His dark, beautiful world was the sort of world I wanted to play in. I wanted to try out a hundred different forms of storytelling, just like him.

Neil Gaiman is a legend. He’s done comics, essays, movies, novels, sequels, children’s books, plays for voices, and television shows. He’s collaborated with musicians and artists, sculptors and producers. He’s brilliant and funny and humble and real. He gives great advice.

His essay Some Strangeness in the Proportion: The Exquisite Beauties of Edgar Allan Poe is about the way Poe influenced and mesmerized him which, as it turns out, is nearly word for word the way I’ve felt about his own writing since I was a teenager. I think we all have author heroes, authors we want to be like, and they invite us to experiment with words and worlds and ideas in a way we may not have ever given ourselves permission to do without them quietly influencing us.

Maybe this would have been a good cookie to start out with on November 1st, but what I think we really need is to give ourselves permission and find inspiration to continue exploring the boundaries of our talents and ideas and to push beyond November. NaNoWriMo may be over, but the spirit of creation and imagination doesn’t have to be. Give yourself permission to tap into the excitement of November whenever you need to. Give yourself permission to be awesome. Give yourself permission to suck. Give yourself permission to just see what happens.

So I’ll leave you with Neil Gaiman reading his poem “Instructions” about how to make it through a fairy tale (advice I think we could all use), and his essay on Poe, and it may inspire you or it may not. If it doesn’t, I invite you to find something of your own author hero and post it here. Share with everyone what inspires you so that it might inspire someone else.

I’ll see you all at the finish line at midnight tonight.

-Sommer Leigh

Poe’s stories — even his humourous tales, even his detective stories — are populated by amnesiacs and obsessives, by people doomed to remember what they desire only to forget, and are told by madmen and liars and lovers and ghosts. They are powered by what remains untold as much as by what Poe tells us, each of them split and shivered by a crack as deep and as dangerous as the fissure that runs from top to bottom of the gloomy house inhabited by Roderick and Madeline Usher. -Neil Gaiman

NaNoWriMo Cookies: Day 29 and Writing Spaces

 NaNoWriMo 2010, Pictures, Tools and Resources  2 Responses »
Nov 292010
 

Day 29.

When NaNoWriMo is all over I’m going to redo my office.

For the past month I’ve been camped out with my laptop at the coffee table in the living room because books have overwelmed my office writing space. I decided though that after a month of blogging about NaNoWriMo every day and actually writing for NaNoWriMo every day, I deserve to fix my writing space. So expect pictures in January when I plan to finish buying new book cases hopefully with a little help from Santa.

So because I’m starting to burn out and because I’m so looking forward to redecorating my office, I want to share with you writing spaces to drool over  courtesy of SaucyDwellings on Livejournal. If you have a particularly awesome space, post it in the comments!

You’ve done a lot of work and you totally deserve a prize. What are you going to celebrate finishing NaNoWriMo with?

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NaNoWriMo Cookies: Day 28′s all about book soundtracks and music while you write

 Awesome Nerd Things, NaNoWriMo 2010, Playlists, Tools and Resources  No Responses »
Nov 282010
 

Day 28.

One of the best resources I’ve ever found for writing is a site called Magnatunes.

You might be wondering, A music download site is your best resource for writing? And the answer is yes. I love having music playing in the background when I’m writing, especially if it sets the atmosphere for a scene I am writing, but it cannot have lyrics. There are two reasons for this: 1) I can’t concentrate on my words when I’m filled with someone else’s and 2) If it is a song I like I can’t stop myself from singing along, which totally breaks my concentration. (Also I am an embarrassingly bad singer.)

Magnatunes is a fantastic resource that is sort of like iTunes for artists who aren’t going through big production companies to put their music out there. You can listen to all of the music on Magnatunes for free and if you want to download the music, have limited licensing use of the music for things like book trailers, and the ability to embed the music in your website/blog, the subscription is pretty reasonably priced with a 7 day free trial. But like I said, you don’t have to pay for a subscription to just listen to the music, which is what I’d done for a long time before I decided I wanted to download it. Also, the artists get a huge chunk of royalties for their music, more than they might get with producing music in the traditional way.

Their tag line is “We are not evil” and that is kind of awesome.

Most of the albums have no lyrics and are incredibly ambient. There is a huge range of music from relaxing forest sounds to beautiful classical pieces to lyric-less rock’n'roll.

I discovered Magnatunes after playing the Xbox arcade game Braid, a platform puzzle game by Jonathan Blow. It is one of the most enjoyable, philosophically intriguing video games I have ever played and it shows how much you can do with a tiny budget and a passionate one man staff. Braid  has a very haunting, emotionally spellbinding soundtrack and it can only be found on Magnatunes. I listen to it a lot when I’m writing.

Braid soundtrack:


Music from Braid by Sieber, Kammen, Fulton and Schatz

Another more upbeat and cinematic album is Circles by Darko Saric:

Circles by Darko Saric

NaNoWriMo Cookies: Day 27. Ephemeral Artistry

 Art, Awesome Nerd Things, NaNoWriMo 2010, Things Worth Sharing  No Responses »
Nov 272010
 

Day 27.

After today, there are only three days left of the competition.

I can see how many writers might be staring down the last stretch of days, looking at their mighty lump of words, no longer even sure what they wrote because they followed the advice to just keep going no matter how bad it was or how padded it had become. And maybe they are thinking, “What have I even done after all of these hours?” and more importantly, “Was it worth it?”

I don’t have an answer to either of those questions, but I can put it all into perspective to help you decide for yourself.

Every summer, all over the world, artists hit the beaches and enter sandcastle competitions. There isn’t a lot of money in sandcastle competitions and there certainly isn’t a lot of fame. And yet artists of greater caliber than I go out and create immense, impossible works of art out of nothing but sand and water.

Most competitions give the artists one day to prep their site, one-to-two days to create, and one day for competition. Most competitions allow people to come and gawk and take pictures while the artists work, so not only are they under pressure of a deadline and under the demands of trying to mold nature, but they are also being uploaded to blogs, Facebook, and Twitter at the speed of cell phone apps at every stage of their development. Imagine if 90,000 people were watching your every word being typed in real time. I would be mortified if people knew the many ways I regularly attempt to spell the word “definitely” before I hit spell check.

And after the competition is over these artists maybe have 30 days to hold onto their works of art… if the weather is kind. Then after 30 days their art is manually destroyed and turned back into regular non-magical sand.

30 days.

If you knew that at closing on November 30th, no matter what, your NaNoWriMo work of art would be set on fire, would you still have done it?

Look. Like the sandcastle artists, we set out to create. Good writing, bad writing, or not enough writing, it doesn’t matter. We write because we love to write and we love the passionate, albeit fleeting, craziness that comes from excitement fueled creative sprints. Whether you “won” or not, whether you padded the last 10,000 words with in-text recipes, made up love songs, or pirate ninja zombie battles (because at 3am after 27 days of word pounding there are few things that sound like a better idea) or whether you made it to 20,000 words and decided that was enough, we are the masters of what we take away from this experience.

We didn’t start NaNoWriMo to win anything. There are no real prizes, no real accolades, and certainly no agents knocking down doors demanding to read our NaNoWriMo work of art. Think of the sandcastle artists. Their creations have a shelf life of 30 days, much like NaNoWriMo, and they never think “I shouldn’t do this because it won’t last. What’s the point if one storm could take it all away?”

They do it. They take our breath away. We write. We surprise ourselves with the power of our own tenacity and talent.

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Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia World Championship Sand Sculptures

Click on any picture to make it bigger. And trust me, you want to see some of these bigger, especially the last one.

NaNoWriMo Cookies: Day 26 with cliches make funny YouTube Videos but yawn-inducing books

 Awesome Nerd Things, Movies, NaNoWriMo 2010, Videos  No Responses »
Nov 262010
 

Day 26.

I’ve got nothing charming or witty or wise to say today, I’m afraid. So I’ll leave you with this hysterical video called Trailer for Every Oscar Winning Movie Ever by BriTANicK.com. Cliches facilitate understanding through universal experience. That is also why they are boring as hell. There are few surprises left in cliches. It is also why they are fruitful for mining hilarity for pop culture YouTube videos.

As this video will attest, you can deliver an entire story to an audience without saying anything of substance. And while what  BriTANicK does here is absolutely brilliant, it’s probably not any story you would pay to read.

Enjoy!

P.S. I spelled the word “facilitate” three different ways when trying to write this post. I am so ashamed.

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