I wondered whether any of you have tried NaNoWriMo and, if so how you got on? Did you manage to write 50,000 words? Was it worth the effort?
I ask because I've been playing with a novel idea for a while. (The working title is Brothers at War and it centres on two brothers and a young Jewish woman in Vichy France.) I've got an outline plot and a few characterisations and I've done a bit of reading. But I keep telling myself the project is too difficult and I should abandon it and do something easier. It occurs to me to sign myself up for NaNoWri Mo and just dash something off in November.
I did it back on 2014 and was able to finish a book I was working on. Might try it this year for another if college doesn't get to in the way.
Thanks Lorraine.
NaNoWriMo is great for some, not for all. If you like deadlines, and you have a plot worked out in advance, give it a go.
Just curious as to why you'd give up on a novel idea that you've been kicking around for a while. If it's too difficult, maybe you've over-planned it? Or maybe you're writing about a period of history for which you have to do vast amounts of research. You could use the same character dynamic in a different form and a different period, one that required less research.
The best idea is to write, and then research only what you need to know, rather than to try to learn everything there is to know about the period and then pick out what you need.
Or is it that you want a quick result (hence NaNoWriMo and dashing something off)? Nothing good was ever easily won! What you'd write under those conditions would still need huge amounts of editing, so there's no such thing as a quick result - only a quick(ish) beginning.
Seems a shame to ditch all those ideas; but writing a good novel is hard work, however you approach it.
Lorraine