Charms Novel Writing Month 2012 (Now in January!)

[Sem]

ChaNoWriMo's back with a shorter name! :'D We had some complaints last year over the old name...

I know last year we said we were going to see about moving this to another month since November doesn't seem to work for people. Well. We never got around to that, did we? It's the last day of October and I suddenly remembered this thing.
In order to ring in the new year with style, this year's ChaNoWriMo will take place from the 1st-31st January 2012. This technically gives you all an extra day to write, and no-one can complain about that.

For those who have no idea what this is, ChaNoWriMo is Charms' take on NaNoWriMo, or, National Novel Writing Month, which was started years ago as something to just get people writing, and it's actually observed on an international level now so their name needs changing too.

Our challenge is basically the same, though our page limit is shorter than NaNoWriMo's.

What's the goal?: Your goal is to write a complete 50 paged story from scratch (approximately 25,000 words if you write 500 words per page). It must have a clear beginning and ending. Since that's only half of the original NaNoWriMo word goal, you're free to write more - just don't go overboard and miss the deadline.

How to take part: All you have to do is post in this topic saying you're taking part. Put "[ChaNoWriMo]" in the title of your story when you post it - we'll link to it via this main thread. After that, you're free to update your entry topic as you choose - just let us know when you finish so we can verify your word count, add you to our completion list, and celebrate your accomplishment.

Now, last year most of the participants ended up dropping out and no one actually finished their stories because our forum's full of losers everyone was busy with school and such. Now, that may be the case again this year, and if you foresee school or work or whatever getting in the way of this then I suggest not joining. We did choose to move the Month to January this year, which was supported by most of the people planning to take part, and thus this shouldn't be as much of a problem as before.

It'd be nice to see some finished stories this year but we'll see what happens. Having fun with it is the important thing.

So, if you're interested just post in the topic and let me/Teapot know. We'll be starting on January 1st and ending midnight January 31st, in whichever timezone you happen to be in.

 

[Psycho Monkey]

Re: Charms Novel Writing Month 2011

I'll be joining this year! I'll update this post as soon as the fic is actually posted.

 

[Dark Soul]

Re: Charms Novel Writing Month 2011

I suppose I'll give a try! My writings usually grind to a halt after a couple of pages, so it's worth trying to write something much longer. I did have an idea for a fanfiction...

 

[Linkachu]

Re: Charms Novel Writing Month 2011

After thinking about it a bit more I kinda want to say I'm in this, but I'm not at all confident that I'll reach the limit. Instead I'll just put my interest out there but not post anything unless I finish.

 

[Dwayna DragonFire]

Re: Charms Novel Writing Month 2011

Wow... 50 pages. I've never written anything that long before. I think I'll also post an interest, but no guarantees from me either.

 

[Chadwyck]

Re: Charms Novel Writing Month 2011

I really love this idea, and I'm going to definitely be keeping an eye on the participants. I want to say that I'll even enter, but last year my entry met a swift death thanks to it being made up on the spot... I'm posting an interest and will likely join. Simply because this gives me a reason to write FicWyck and not be bothered by things like proofreading and just have a good old-fashioned jolly time writing.

 

[Rayn_Shyu]

Re: Charms Novel Writing Month 2011

I wrote a couple pages yesterday, so I'll say that I'm trying. If that makes me ahead, I'll end on the 30th rather than in December.

Also, if you need to go by a day basis, it's 834 words a day.

 

[Shiny Motley]

Re: Charms Novel Writing Month 2011

I have no idea whether or not I'll have enough time to do this because of school and whatnot, but I've had an idea of what I wanted to do for a while now. I've always wanted to write a fic, but I never got around to actually doing it myself...

Put my name down as interested, and I'll see if I can actually reach the page limit. ^^;

 

[Linkachu]

Re: Charms Novel Writing Month 2011

I take it this didn't really go anywhere this year. Did anyone actually finish and/or have NoWriMo stories that they're still working on...?

Personally, I didn't even start. ^^;

 

[Dark Soul]

Re: Charms Novel Writing Month 2011

Neither did I, sadly enough. In my case, it was a combination of basically forgetting about it, and the fact I don't have that much time. The fic I was going to use for this is still going up when it's been shaped into something that resembles a first chapter.

 

[Teapot]

Re: Charms Novel Writing Month 2011

I was proposing fairly radical changes in chat some days ago, but then realised they were kinda missing the point.

Still! I'd like to reschedule this for some other month where we can all properly plan for it and be awesome. For once, I actually want to take part this year. I know only too well that you people have never seen my recent writing - mostly because there has hardly bloody been any - but it would be fun to just do a mass write and see what happens. Would anyone be interested in shifting it to, say, January?

And for those that don't like taking part, is there anything we can do to make it more appealing?

 

[Linkachu]

Re: Charms Novel Writing Month 2011

Even though (as Petey already knows) I'm skeptical about moving the month, I agree on one thing: my November this year was crazy from the start and I still want to take part in this.

I'm all for trying this again in January. Hopefully all of the stuff going on in my offline life will be sorted out by then too.

 

[Chadwyck]

Re: Charms Novel Writing Month 2011

I didn't forget about this, I was just waiting for it to officially start, which it never did. Because of a certain someone who will remain unnamed. Someone who suggested that we try this again in the first place

I would be interested in moving it to January; because at least then we don't have to wait until next November to give it another try.

 

[Dark Soul]

Re: Charms Novel Writing Month 2011

January sounds good to me, although I'm absolutely sure I won't make the deadline with the amount of pages. Ah, well, no harm in trying. I'm up for this ^^

 

[Shiny Motley]

Re: Charms Novel Writing Month 2011

November's always the worst month for me to try to accomplish anything non-academic, along with December, simply because those are the months that my teachers pile all the tests and projects in.

January, though, is the start of a new semester, which means that they're much more laid back about the work, and I get more time to do what I want to do. :> So yeah, I'm all for moving ChaNoWriMo to the first month of the new year~

 

[Psycho Monkey]

Re: Charms Novel Writing Month 2011

I was writing papers for Marine Bio all of November to the point where I neither had the time nor motivation to write anything else. I agree, January would be a good time to start this up again. Plus we have one extra day to do it that month! XD

 

[Teapot]

Re: Charms Novel Writing Month 2011

That sounds pretty conclusive to me. January it is!

 

[Teapot]

Just a reminder to any who may have forgotten: ChaNoWriMo is now open for business... as of yesterday. I ttly didn't forget. >> <<

 

[Dark Soul]

Ugh.

As much as I hate to acknowledge and say this, I'm afraid I'm going to have to drop out of ChaNoWriMo. The fic I had in mind has gone under a lot of development, and I can't wait to start working on it. The problem is that, on top of me not actually being able to supply a page a day, even attempting to do so would probably turn it into a hastily written and garbled mess, and that is something I do not want to happen. I'm sorry.

I'm definitly up for next year's, though- I've promised myself that.

 

[Linkachu]

The problem is that, on top of me not actually being able to supply a page a day, even attempting to do so would probably turn it into a hastily written and garbled mess, and that is something I do not want to happen. I'm sorry.

Um... Dark Soul, that's the whole point of this! XD

I know Petey has changed the guidelines somewhat, but don't let the original purpose of National Novel Writing Month be lost - and that purpose is to get people writing and not worry about what and how they're writing it. NaNoWriMo set its word limits high for this very reason. With the amount of pages people are expected to write in a single month they simply can't stop to worry about the quality, they have to keep pushing forward or they'd never finish on time. It's all about output and being proud of the fact that you actually finished a story! (Something many have never done)

tl;dr Don't worry about the quality. If you don't want to write a bad story with one of your current ideas then choose a brand new idea and go with it. |D

 

[Dark Soul]

Data has told me this before, Katie, but the whole point is that I do care. The quality of this fic would be a great deal less if I would use it as my entry, and I know myself good enough to be sure I wouldn't be able to bring up the motivation for an improved version.

No entry from me this year, I'm afraid. Said fic is still going up in possibly a couple of days, if you'd want to give it a read.

 

[Brendan Savem]

Before, I was unsure about whether to take part. Due to time concerns and such. But as it turns out, I've done absolutely nothing for the past week or so, and I'll be doing nothing for another week. After that will have work, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. So who cares if I'm starting late, I'm signing up!

So, in honour of my intense playing of the Ambassador Program GBA games, I'm making a Fire Emblem fiction. I have no idea where I'm going to go after the first chapter, or if I can make it 50 pages long, but I'll just do what I can, and see what comes out of it. Finally, I have something to do that's meaningful!

 

[Shiny Motley]

Will /try/ her hardest to do this. But I can't promise anything, because this month just came as a shock to me... I have too many music-related stuff happening this month, and thus what I thought would be the most relaxed month has just turned into another month of busy work. <<

It'll probably end up as a Maplestory-related badfic, but eh. |D

 

[Linkachu]

Btw, Petey created a new IRC Channel for this. You guys should all drop in, discuss your ideas, tell us how your writing is going, etc. The channel is:

#ChaWriMo

 

[Shocari]

I totally should have made my TOR fic ChaWriMo XDDDD

I'm sure I can come up with something to write about, at the very least. I actually came up with an idea last night that I'd like to expand on, so I think I'll just roll with it. Participation is a go.

EDIT: Nevermind, I can't do it. I just remembered that I have Thespian Festival later this month, so I'm going to be gone for close to a week, and that's really going to hamper things.

 

[Power Metal Maiden~]

I'm going to go ahead and participate. I spend plenty of time at the computer, might as well try making something XD And I have just the story in mind...

 

[Linkachu]

I should probably mention that I only managed to get my story for this started about two-three days ago, so I might be late finishing. Regardless, I'm gonna do the best I can and see how much I can get done by the 31st.

 

[Dwayna DragonFire]

It's already half-way through January and I'm only on Chapter Three. >>;

I'm struggling, but I've done okay so far. Here's hoping I finish before the deadline.

 

[Linkachu]

Haha. Guess it's over. I was holding off posting what I'd written until I'd finished, but didn't even get close. I'm wondering now if I could ever write a full story under pressure, but ah well.

Someone else DID finish!

Dway did! ^_^

Good show, Dway! I'm seriously impressed that you were able to stick to your guns and get this done by the deadline. You're the first person on 'Charms to do so... XD *Throws her a party x3*

 

[Shiny Motley]

Gratz to Dway! Seriously, I'm quite in awe at your ability to be able to not only update on a rather regular basis but also be able to finish your fic on top of having a baby to take care of. :3

Like really, we're quite infamous for being unable to finish anything we start like *coughRPscough*, so this is quite an accomplishment. AND SO MANY WORDS. Dwayyyy you're my new hero :'D

 

[Dwayna DragonFire]

Thanks a lot! It was a lot of work to write 50 pages, and I was almost certain I wouldn't make it, but I managed to finish the last chapter just before midnight. It was a struggle almost the entire way through, as Sebastian is basically a minor character of mine, but I managed to somehow get to the end of the story before the deadline. Luckily I had my husband to help with the baby along the way, and I managed to make it of a decent quality as well.

*parties hard at her own accomplishment*