I originally got into NaNo because I hadn't written fiction since high school, and I hoped it would inspire me to have some fun with a story idea that I had poked at to no avail. I won despite starting a week late, and it was so much fun that I came back in subsequent years whenever I had enough of an idea to produce 50K of something - even if it was more of an idea farm to inspire a later planned draft, which was definitely the case with my first NaNo.
For a while, I focused on poke-at-my-own-pace short stories, which taught me a lot about writing but didn't help much with the process of penning long narrative. Last year, I got an idea for a challenging novel and decided to fast track its requisite research and planning in preparation for NaNo. I wanted to ride my enthusiasm for the project, enjoy the social aspects of the event (I hadn't participated in meetups or online discussions before), relearn how to push past blocks and crap or get off the pot, and get a sense of what pace I could sustain over the long term. I got all of that, plus a bonus education on how much more R&D I needed (a ton) and the limits of what I could BS on the fly (which also had to do with not knowing the setting well enough to extrapolate conflicts and other structural whatnot in a hurry). I'm returning to the same project with much more knowledge under my belt and a far more solid outline because the NaNo atmosphere is just too much fun. And hopefully this time I can continue the resultant rough draft instead of having to dismantle and redo it.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2012-10-24 02:50 pm (UTC)For a while, I focused on poke-at-my-own-pace short stories, which taught me a lot about writing but didn't help much with the process of penning long narrative. Last year, I got an idea for a challenging novel and decided to fast track its requisite research and planning in preparation for NaNo. I wanted to ride my enthusiasm for the project, enjoy the social aspects of the event (I hadn't participated in meetups or online discussions before), relearn how to push past blocks and crap or get off the pot, and get a sense of what pace I could sustain over the long term. I got all of that, plus a bonus education on how much more R&D I needed (a ton) and the limits of what I could BS on the fly (which also had to do with not knowing the setting well enough to extrapolate conflicts and other structural whatnot in a hurry). I'm returning to the same project with much more knowledge under my belt and a far more solid outline because the NaNo atmosphere is just too much fun. And hopefully this time I can continue the resultant rough draft instead of having to dismantle and redo it.