It’s coming up to Nanowrimo again isn’t it? That’s National Novel Writing Month for the uninitiated. That’s when you sign up to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. Or 50,000 words worth of short stories in my case. It works out at about 1660 words a day. I love it. I love deadlines. Even if they are self imposed ones!
I’ve done it for the last two years. I thought you might be interested in some stats. I do love stats! This is what I did last year.
- 25 stories written.
- 17 of those sold to date.
- 5 still circulating.
- 3 still need work so not out there yet.
- Income from stories to date £2985.00
Not bad for a months work. It wasn’t of course really a month’s work because I edited a lot of them in December although I did edit about five in November as well as write them.
But what I really love about Nano is the freedom to just start a new story each day without worrying about the previous day’s. Because I’m writing so many I don’t worry if one doesn’t work out – who cares? I just start again the following day. It’s very liberating.
Am I going to do it again this November? You bet I am. The way I see it you can’t lose. Even if you don’t complete the target – I fell short in 2013 by about 14k – you still end up writing more than you would have done anyway. So who’s in? Will you be doing Nano this year?
And while we’re on the subject of short stories can I just mention that one of my books on writing short stories, The Short Story Writer’s Toolshed, is only 99p for kindle from now (assuming you’re reading this on Sunday 25 October 2015) until 31st October 2015. Just in case you need any inspiration. 🙂
Happy writing!
NaNoWriMo-2014-Winner-Certificate
I love NaNoWriMo, did it last year, managed 32k. Can’t wait to get started this year, aiming for 2k per day although I’ll give myself a pat on the back if I manage 1300 words. At our local bistro – CB2 (Cambridge) we all meet up for write in’s, it’s great to sit with a bunch of people all tapping away like crazy. We have timed races it’s all great fun. Short stories ah, what a great idea, reckon I’ll give that a go in 2016, I’ve already planned this years novel during our ‘planowrimo’ sessions. It’s great to know my favourite author will be tapping away with the rest of us. Happy NaNoWriMo one and all.
Lisa Lisa Writer
Write ins sound excellent Lisa – I think I might have to arrange one of those 🙂
Good job selling so many of last year’s Nano output!
I won’t be doing it – will be busy editing my novel which I hope to have completed a draft of by 31st October.
That sounds very productive Kath, am looking forward to reading it 🙂
I tried it last year but to be honest not all that seriously. I got 5000 words in and lost interest. This year however, I am raring to go. I have prepared properly this year and will be continuing the story I started last year. I have rewritten what I have done so far and I have plotted everything out and have actually given some thought to my characters. I have a notebook full of notes and I’m constantly thinking about the story and the characters. I’ve even bought the NaNoWriMo teeshirt! lol. And, believe it or not the whole idea of NaNoWriMo this year fills me with a nervous excitement. Good luck to you this year. I hadn’t actually thought of doing short stories! That’s an excellent idea and one I might consider for next year!
Good luck to you too – we won’t need luck. We just need to get our heads down – oh and turn off the internet in my case!
What a great idea! Even if we fall short of any self-imposed targets….we are still writing each day! May well join you – but am not sure any of my stories would be published if I submit them. I am new at this and may not get accepted by any of the mags out there.
Yes that’s my take on it too, Helen. It makes me write more than I would have done. It’s a win win situation 🙂
It’s the first time doing NaNoWriMo for me this year, but I can’t wait. I love the idea of writing lots of short stories, that’s a great idea. I might give that a go next year. 😀
Happy writing Cheryl x
That is what I tried to do last year and will do again this year – write short stories, as well as revising a Pocket Novel and maybe publishing a short ebook. I plan to write the stories, and perhaps later in the day start typing them up and print them off, ready to edit and work on in December. Might do the stats this time, like you. Good luck.
Stats are very motivating. Good luck too x
I’ve used NaNo to write short stories in the past. I might do that again, but for this year I’ll be working on a novel.
Excellent, Patsy. I’m going to do a novel one year. Definitely. Maybe next year. Good luck with yours 🙂 x
What a great idea Della. I’ve done NaNo a few times and loved it but have too many projects which are half finished to start a new one for this year. I’ve never thought about doing short stories though and this is a great way to get your output up. Have you been doing lots of planning so that you don’t run out of ideas? My fear would be that half way through I’d run out of new stories. I think I might give that a go myself next year.
I don’t mind if I run out of ideas. I’ll still do a lot more than I would have done if I hadn’t started 🙂