Welcome to the first day of National Novel Writing Month 2009! For those of you not familiar with NaNoWriMo, you should check out the website (nanowrimo.org). For those of you who have participated in the past, or are joining the frenzy for the first time – welcome, and welcome back!
You may or may not know that Nyeusigrube’s writing community has dedicated a forum to NaNo every year since 2006. Members post their traumas, trials and tribulations (and more importantly, word-counts) in daily rant threads.
In years past, I have set up a section of the site for NaNo, where I have struggled to produce daily writing prompts (with varying degrees of success). This year, I am dedicating my blog for the month of November to NaNoWriMo09. Each day will feature a new post with the quote of the day, prompt, and probably something like a random fact or word. Those of you who have seen previous years’ daily posts will certainly recognize some of the writing quotes, since I’m going to end up recycling a lot of my favorites. I may repeat some prompts I still have around from 2007, too, if they aren't too specific to be reused in a new year.
NaNo will also feature its own Links section on the right side of this blog, with links to the official nanowrimo site, my nanowrimo page, other helpful tools and online gadgets – and of course the message board community, where I hope you will join us!
Yes, I'm pre-dating these posts; no, I'm not writing them in November while trying to write my own NaNo. It's currently September 9, and I plan to work on prompts for the next nearly two months. So you can comment on these posts, but don't expect the next one to respond much.
Now that the introduction is out of the way, on to the Daily Post:
"The scariest moment is always just before you start" – Stephen King
"You can fix anything but a blank page." – Nora Roberts
Prompts of the Day:
Turn on the television. Wait for a car commercial. Base your scene on the setting, characters, or scenario from the commercial.
or
Go to a public setting where people tend to talk (coffee shop, restaurant, park, train, etc). Take out a notebook. Don't try to follow any one conversation, but write down every snippet of conversation you "happen" to overhear. Make up a character, setting and/or scenario based on what you hear.
or
Include the following line(s) [edit pronouns/tense/etc if necessary]:
"She's not the kind of girl
Who likes to tell the world
About the way she feels about herself"
(from Garbage, "The Trick is to Keep Breathing")
Tip of the Day:
Make sure you save frequently!
Many word-processors have an auto-save feature, but relying on it is a really good way to lose work if your computer freezes or crashes. Most word-processors have a key-command, so you can quickly save without your needing to stop and open a menu (ctrl-S or apple-S, for most of them). Absolutely do not trust any kind of web form for any length of time, since accidentally refreshing or hitting backspace can delete the whole thing in a blink.
Prompts of the Day:
Turn on the television. Wait for a car commercial. Base your scene on the setting, characters, or scenario from the commercial.
or
Go to a public setting where people tend to talk (coffee shop, restaurant, park, train, etc). Take out a notebook. Don't try to follow any one conversation, but write down every snippet of conversation you "happen" to overhear. Make up a character, setting and/or scenario based on what you hear.
or
Include the following line(s) [edit pronouns/tense/etc if necessary]:
"She's not the kind of girl
Who likes to tell the world
About the way she feels about herself"
(from Garbage, "The Trick is to Keep Breathing")
Tip of the Day:
Make sure you save frequently!
Many word-processors have an auto-save feature, but relying on it is a really good way to lose work if your computer freezes or crashes. Most word-processors have a key-command, so you can quickly save without your needing to stop and open a menu (ctrl-S or apple-S, for most of them). Absolutely do not trust any kind of web form for any length of time, since accidentally refreshing or hitting backspace can delete the whole thing in a blink.
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