Fanfic Writers' Virtual Water Cooler

[fems]

I haven't participated myself but A Karswyll told me about it a few years ago, when she participated. I thought about joining too but one look at the fic(s) I was working on showed I already wrote more than 50K words a month, so there really wasn't any reason to try. Perhaps it would have been different if I wanted to work on an original work, but so far I'm just focusing on fanfic.

[Whytewytch]

Here's a good, solid reference that answers your basic question. I will quote the relevant portion, but I highly recommend you read the entry. There is a lot of good advice on this blog; its author is a former literary agent who really knows her stuff. Note: Because what most of us here on GW deal with is scifi and fantasy, I've taken the liberty of setting her references for this genre in red. Note too that she says herself that material written strictly for e-book publishing rather than dead-tree publishing is not as subject to the same upper limits on word count, because there is no consideration necessary for shelf space or printing costs, as there would be in a physical book.



When attempting to translate the word count in a Word document to 'book pages', a good rule of thumb to remember is that a typical paperback comes in at around 250 words per page, so you can divide your total word count in the document by 250 to get a rough estimate for how many pages it would be in a physical book. There will be some discrepancy, however, as Word calculates 'word count' slightly differently than the way an agent or a publisher would. Also, bear in mind that in an actual book with chapters, you will occasionally have a page that is partly blank, due to its either being the final page of a chapter or the first page of a chapter.

As for writing goals, I know a number of novelists who set themselves a minimum goal of ~1,000 words per day.

Some even go as low as 250; my local RWA has a 250/day challenge, which is not to say you can't exceed that, but if your life is in chaos, you may not be able to reach 1,000. Better for your psyche to set a small goal and reach/exceed it than to constantly fall behind on a larger goal. The idea is to set a goal, any goal. 250 a day is still a page a day, which would have you a full MS ready for editing and revisions within a year. And try not to edit as you go--just write. I've heard Nora Roberts credited with saying, "I can edit garbage; I can't edit a blank page."

BTW, if anyone's interested, I've started up a sprint page, for those who like writing "in community" as it were.

Oh and if you want to track your progress, check out this excellent tool. It's free and fabulous! (Track down the page about 1/3 of the way to find more NaNo and general writing tools.)

Thanks for the fabulous reference, SF&C!

[Whytewytch]

I haven't participated myself but A Karswyll told me about it a few years ago, when she participated. I thought about joining too but one look at the fic(s) I was working on showed I already wrote more than 50K words a month, so there really wasn't any reason to try. Perhaps it would have been different if I wanted to work on an original work, but so far I'm just focusing on fanfic.

With two kids involved in school and various outside activities, a hubby with a crazy work schedule, a household to run, and a home business that takes anywhere from 40-80 hours a week of my time, I needed NaNo. I've also recently started taking a course a month on Savvy Authors to try to improve my writing/learn about publishing, started hostessing a sprint, am soon going to be in a volunteer position with my local RWA, and my business hours will be leaning toward the 80 hours from any day now until after Christmas. NaNo is the only way for me to reach that many words in a month, although I could wish for a better month--November is not only Thanksgiving (which I often hostess nowadays), but my wedding anniversary, my parents' wedding anniversary, my hubby's birthday, and my mom's birthday.

[fems]

Well, we don't celebrate Thanksgiving and November is actually one of the few months with no birthdays for me so it allows me a bit more spare time.

By the way, I checked out your sprint page and thought it might be handy to post a link like this for all the non-Americans to see what time you're actually talking about! I wasn't sure if I could pollute that thread with the post so I figured I'd post it here.

[Whytewytch]

Oh, no--that's fabulous! Please do post it there for me.

[fems]

Okay, done!

[Amara D'Angeli]

I participated in NaNo several years ago and then haven't since. Between work and school and being the only set of hands on deck for, well, everything that gets done in my world, it proved to be too much.

But I'm really looking forward to this year so I think I'm going to give it another go.

Sorry I jumped in too late to answer your questions, selene0789, but it looks like you got them answered anyway.

[Whytewytch]

Okay, done!

Thank you!

[Whytewytch]

Twenty minutes to go. Anyone ready for a sprint?

[selene0789]

I suppose I could clock in for a half hour or so... I've been tidying up my novel (what I have of it so far). Does it have to be the first part of a story, or can it be whatever I need to get done next?

[Whytewytch]

I suppose I could clock in for a half hour or so... I've been tidying up my novel (what I have of it so far). Does it have to be the first part of a story, or can it be whatever I need to get done next?

It's whatever you need to get done--fan fic, original fic, editing, writing, blog entries, cover letters, agent queries, whatever, so long as it's writing-related.

[Starfist]

Hi all,
Whytewytch I have a quick question for you. Nia in your Avatar and sig pic looks familar. Who is the actress/woman in the picture?

[Whytewytch]

Hi all,
Whytewytch I have a quick question for you. Nia in your Avatar and sig pic looks familar. Who is the actress/woman in the picture?

That's Sarah Carter, lately of Falling Skies.

[Starfist]

That's Sarah Carter, lately of Falling Skies.

Thank you. I knew she looked familar. I remember her in such things as 'Shark', 'Skinwalkers' and 'Dead or Alive'.

[Princess Awinita]

I have an announcement

As a writer, I cannot wait for November to get here

the reason for this is actually two reasons, the first is, it is Nanowrimo!! The second; Word Wars are hosted on the Nanowrimo chat channel on DeviantART.com's chat network. it keeps track of your wordcount and also keeps track of word wars word counts and word war time limits. In this case say a word war is one minute long, five people are taking part, to see their WPM; in my case I lead with 129WPM {with a lot of errors though in spelling and such} the next closest to me had around 80 I think, don't really remember.

On top of that the word wars when won award points, which are in this case the basic currency on DeviantART, in my case It let me get a 3 month premium membership and beta tester access. DeviantART also sees fanfics, and original fiction stories as a form of artwork. Known as Written Art, or Literature. We even have a category for it!

I'll shut up