I’ve thought about doing this several times but never made the commitment. 30K words might be possible. I appreciate your method. Why not! Let’s do it!
I’ll use my website. I’ll come back and drop the link later!!
Thanks for sharing your ideas! I’ve never tried NaNoWrMo but I may try it. I wrote a 50k word rom com in the summer in five weeks (to submit to Harlequin but it was rejected for too many characters) so I think it’s possible to have something rough.
I’m doing a writing challenge that an author friend put together for her community. Her husband is building a basic website for us to keep track, but I’ll track my own words as I always do.
Oh wow. What wonderful idea. Thankyou for all the suggestions. I've wanted to do this since I was young. Your inspiration is just what I needed to finally do it :)
Tried to do NaNwWriMo three times. First time I just was unable to set the time aside and got about 12k written. Second time I actually got a (crappy) 60k novel done a day before deadline. Third time I realized I had written the opening paragraph a month before and it was better that time so it was not really valid, and I really was not sure where to go with it so set it aside. This one is currently my only "successful" story on ScribbleHub now, I think seven years after the third time I set it aside
Great ideas, Simon. I’m also in the middle of several projects, so I won’t be participating in this year’s NaNoWriMo event, but I do have some valuable tips on my own Substack from three years of winning the event, if anyone’s interested: https://gleaningwords.substack.com/nanowrimo.
Another great event (if NaNoWriMo is a bit too much for anyone at the moment) is A Round of Words in 80 Days. It’s a quarterly event and is much more manageable with word counts than a whopping 50K in a month, so it’s easier to go at your own pace.
I highly recommend writing sprints on Twitter or places like http://mywriteclub.com. These are great for getting you unstuck from writer’s block or similar ruts you find yourself in throughout November.
P.S. Love the mountain climbing image. Spot on.
P.P.S. Happy Birthday 🥳! 44’s not too bad. I turned 44 back in August. You’ve still got plenty of writing to do!
Your only knowledge of Britain's second-most-famous legend is "Robin Hood: Prince of Indiana?" Not even the Errol Flynn version, or the 2004 TV series? I'm flabbergasted.
There’s a sort of base knowledge of Robin Hood from when I was a child — presumably it was in enough early reader books etc and general cultural awareness for me to pick up on the essentials.
Ah, Men in Tights. Not Mel Brooks' best, but, at least you saw a Robin Hood with an English accent. Also Amy Yasbeck, who was always underrated as a comic actress, and who was quite pleasant to look at.
Robin Hood, like Arthur, is an interesting myth - everyone knows, "the fundamentals," (in the case of Robin, "Rob rich, give to poor, forest, Merry Men, Sheriff, King John, archery contest,") but so much of the story changes over varied tellings over a millenia.
Actually, after watching the 2004 series I said to Laura someone should really do a prequel. Then I sketched out the barest arc, sketching out 3 seasons, ending with Robin returning from the Crusades. Season 1 was all Robin running the estate when his Father - Earl of Locksley - went to fight in the Holy Land, would have set up Robin's friendship with someone who would later be Sheriff... And I kinda started Robin out as a dick, figuring, after word comes of his father's death and Robin runs off to the Crusades (thus abandoning his land, and setting up the classic tale of Robin losing his title) in the Series 1 finale. Season 2 would have seen Robin gain enough acclaim to come to the attention of Richard the Lion Hearted, seasons 2 and 3 would have seen Robin stop assuming everything medieval, Christian, and English was "good," and he'd have found respect for the peoples of the Middle East and Africa as Robin becomes not-a-dick, and attains an anachronistically modern tolerant viewpoint.
Season 3 would have seen Robin come into conflict with Richard, since Robin would have called Richard to task for holding more traditional views at the time (meaning Richard is a bit of a a dick), leading to Richard stripping Robin of his rank (he'd have been Richard's personal guard by then), and sending him home.
Robin ending up with an antagonistic relationship with King Richard - traditionally they are allies - would have been my modern deconstruction, and, as hinted above, this prequel would have had themes relating to acceptance and tolerance of others, using the backdrop of conflict between three religions - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - which all share the same holy book (at least parts), and same deity, but have fought endless wars with each other over centuries over differing interpretations of the same damn Pentatuech.
Anyways, I think I planned 3 seasons of ten episodes with the, basically a paragraph or two per episodes. Had a bunch of side characters, and, figured, hypothetically, season 4 could have transitioned into a traditional Robin Hood tale, but with actual backstory, instead of, as is typical, Robin comes home from the Crusades and finds England has gone to shit. My Robin would have recognized his own culpability for the situation by abandoning his lands to a steward, and joining a bunch of nobles who had travelled a few thousands miles to fight Muslims for no good reason.
I had other subplots, characters, blah-yadda, but, y'know, Substack comment. 😀
Didn't see that one. I vaguely remember "Robin and Marian." Hell of a cast in that. Sean Connery, Audrey Hepburn, Ian Holm, Robert Shaw, Nicol Williamson, Richard Harris...
I'm definitely using my website! In my case, I'm writing the three novellas of a 25-novella first season of a mystery serial and planning out the first two novellas of a prequel series.
I'm wondering if I should also share on YouTube and TikTok. I don't have a lot of views on my website, and I only released my website almost 2 months ago, and my YouTube channel over 2 weeks ago.
If you have the time, there’s no reason not to! However, I wouldn’t anticipate much traction there: algorithmic platforms are increasingly difficult to tap into, and even if people choose to subscribe/follow they still might never see your material.
So yes, if you have the time resources I’d say go as wide as possible. If you’re short on time, you have to then evaluate which platforms are worth it.
Thanks! But I actually decided I'm going to switch to a different project, and I think I might just post my updates on Substack! I think I'll also bring my reaction series to Substack as well in December! That's when my YouTube videos will really start to come out!
I’ve thought about doing this several times but never made the commitment. 30K words might be possible. I appreciate your method. Why not! Let’s do it!
I’ll use my website. I’ll come back and drop the link later!!
They have another one in April that is 30K instead of 50K.
But who wants to wait?!!!
It is always in inconvenient. November is the worst possible month in my country.
Thanks for sharing your ideas! I’ve never tried NaNoWrMo but I may try it. I wrote a 50k word rom com in the summer in five weeks (to submit to Harlequin but it was rejected for too many characters) so I think it’s possible to have something rough.
Manierismo Is about a very rough first draft.
I used to share my NaNoWriMo updates on my Blogger account years ago.
Out of about 5 years of participation, I have reached 50k maybe three times.
What a fab idea and resource - thanks Simon!
I’m doing a writing challenge that an author friend put together for her community. Her husband is building a basic website for us to keep track, but I’ll track my own words as I always do.
Oh wow. What wonderful idea. Thankyou for all the suggestions. I've wanted to do this since I was young. Your inspiration is just what I needed to finally do it :)
Tried to do NaNwWriMo three times. First time I just was unable to set the time aside and got about 12k written. Second time I actually got a (crappy) 60k novel done a day before deadline. Third time I realized I had written the opening paragraph a month before and it was better that time so it was not really valid, and I really was not sure where to go with it so set it aside. This one is currently my only "successful" story on ScribbleHub now, I think seven years after the third time I set it aside
Great ideas, Simon. I’m also in the middle of several projects, so I won’t be participating in this year’s NaNoWriMo event, but I do have some valuable tips on my own Substack from three years of winning the event, if anyone’s interested: https://gleaningwords.substack.com/nanowrimo.
Another great event (if NaNoWriMo is a bit too much for anyone at the moment) is A Round of Words in 80 Days. It’s a quarterly event and is much more manageable with word counts than a whopping 50K in a month, so it’s easier to go at your own pace.
I highly recommend writing sprints on Twitter or places like http://mywriteclub.com. These are great for getting you unstuck from writer’s block or similar ruts you find yourself in throughout November.
P.S. Love the mountain climbing image. Spot on.
P.P.S. Happy Birthday 🥳! 44’s not too bad. I turned 44 back in August. You’ve still got plenty of writing to do!
44 FTW!
Good to see there are so many alternatives now. So many options for writers!
Wonderful, insightful encouragement as always, Simon, thank you. And happy birthday!
https://vocal.media/writers/na-no-wri-mo-for-newbies
Did it successfully in 2016. After that registered but no time to start. Still considering whether I should do it again.
Good checklist and - WAITAMINNIT!
Your only knowledge of Britain's second-most-famous legend is "Robin Hood: Prince of Indiana?" Not even the Errol Flynn version, or the 2004 TV series? I'm flabbergasted.
I did watch a bit of Robin Hood Men In Tights.
There’s a sort of base knowledge of Robin Hood from when I was a child — presumably it was in enough early reader books etc and general cultural awareness for me to pick up on the essentials.
Ah, Men in Tights. Not Mel Brooks' best, but, at least you saw a Robin Hood with an English accent. Also Amy Yasbeck, who was always underrated as a comic actress, and who was quite pleasant to look at.
Robin Hood, like Arthur, is an interesting myth - everyone knows, "the fundamentals," (in the case of Robin, "Rob rich, give to poor, forest, Merry Men, Sheriff, King John, archery contest,") but so much of the story changes over varied tellings over a millenia.
Actually, after watching the 2004 series I said to Laura someone should really do a prequel. Then I sketched out the barest arc, sketching out 3 seasons, ending with Robin returning from the Crusades. Season 1 was all Robin running the estate when his Father - Earl of Locksley - went to fight in the Holy Land, would have set up Robin's friendship with someone who would later be Sheriff... And I kinda started Robin out as a dick, figuring, after word comes of his father's death and Robin runs off to the Crusades (thus abandoning his land, and setting up the classic tale of Robin losing his title) in the Series 1 finale. Season 2 would have seen Robin gain enough acclaim to come to the attention of Richard the Lion Hearted, seasons 2 and 3 would have seen Robin stop assuming everything medieval, Christian, and English was "good," and he'd have found respect for the peoples of the Middle East and Africa as Robin becomes not-a-dick, and attains an anachronistically modern tolerant viewpoint.
Season 3 would have seen Robin come into conflict with Richard, since Robin would have called Richard to task for holding more traditional views at the time (meaning Richard is a bit of a a dick), leading to Richard stripping Robin of his rank (he'd have been Richard's personal guard by then), and sending him home.
Robin ending up with an antagonistic relationship with King Richard - traditionally they are allies - would have been my modern deconstruction, and, as hinted above, this prequel would have had themes relating to acceptance and tolerance of others, using the backdrop of conflict between three religions - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - which all share the same holy book (at least parts), and same deity, but have fought endless wars with each other over centuries over differing interpretations of the same damn Pentatuech.
Anyways, I think I planned 3 seasons of ten episodes with the, basically a paragraph or two per episodes. Had a bunch of side characters, and, figured, hypothetically, season 4 could have transitioned into a traditional Robin Hood tale, but with actual backstory, instead of, as is typical, Robin comes home from the Crusades and finds England has gone to shit. My Robin would have recognized his own culpability for the situation by abandoning his lands to a steward, and joining a bunch of nobles who had travelled a few thousands miles to fight Muslims for no good reason.
I had other subplots, characters, blah-yadda, but, y'know, Substack comment. 😀
Maid Marian and Her Merry Men was another touchpoint, courtesy of BBC kids' TV in the 80s (or was it 90s?).
I think you'd like TK Hall's retelling.
Didn't see that one. I vaguely remember "Robin and Marian." Hell of a cast in that. Sean Connery, Audrey Hepburn, Ian Holm, Robert Shaw, Nicol Williamson, Richard Harris...
I'm definitely using my website! In my case, I'm writing the three novellas of a 25-novella first season of a mystery serial and planning out the first two novellas of a prequel series.
www.godwinokojieii.wordpress.com
I'm wondering if I should also share on YouTube and TikTok. I don't have a lot of views on my website, and I only released my website almost 2 months ago, and my YouTube channel over 2 weeks ago.
What's your advice?
If you have the time, there’s no reason not to! However, I wouldn’t anticipate much traction there: algorithmic platforms are increasingly difficult to tap into, and even if people choose to subscribe/follow they still might never see your material.
So yes, if you have the time resources I’d say go as wide as possible. If you’re short on time, you have to then evaluate which platforms are worth it.
Thanks! But I actually decided I'm going to switch to a different project, and I think I might just post my updates on Substack! I think I'll also bring my reaction series to Substack as well in December! That's when my YouTube videos will really start to come out!