Hi all

I thought you might be interested in having a bash at this.

www dot nanowrimo dot org are having their annual competition starting on the first of November to challenge you to write a novel in 30 days.

I had a go last year and got about a third of one done. I'm going to try again this year.

Check it out.

Fun. But no return beyond satisfaction.

Not for an Adman.

Have you ever seen the film "House Of The Long Shadows"? Its premise is along similar lines. That was very silly too. Great one-liners from Vincent Price though.

I'm a great Vincent Price fan...
there's one movie:
"His Kind of Woman"...he's not the star...but
he comes in halfway through, grabs the movie and runs off with it.

He did the voices for an animated version of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell Tale Heart"...which is scary!

You know... I'm not sure if I wrote 70-90k in a month it would be worth reading... My first and second attempts at novels took me 5 years a each! (on and off with other things and each other like... but 5 years no less)

this might be a tedious question - but how do they know you don't have a novel alreday prepared??

alreday = already

quote:

I'm not sure if I wrote 70-90k in a month it would be worth reading

It's 50,000. Still - not a great way to write anything serious!

quote:

Originally posted by moonbird99:
this might be a tedious question - but how do they know you don't have a novel alreday prepared??

I suppose they don't. They just expect you to be honest. The only person you would be cheating would be yourself.

You'll have to look at the website to find out what they think.

quote:

I suppose they don't.

As far as I can tell, the 'novel' is stored online, and you can't cut-and-paste into it - so unless you had a finished MS beside you and you transcribed it, it couldn't be prewritten.

Besides, what's the point? You only get a badge! It's a personal challenge.

As in "Here's one I prepared earlier"...

quote:

Besides, what's the point? You only get a badge! It's a personal challenge.

Remember Adman there are poeple out there who cheat at patience!


Ive met a few creative writing teachers now who advocate a sort of 'free writing' as an exercise. Just picking up a pen and writing writing writing for a set ammount of time, whether you write nonsense, a shopping list, whatever. Its supposed to exercise the mental muscles needed for writing.

That could be a benefit of this competition.

Takes me a month to read some novels.

I've had a look at the website and I think it's a great idea. I'm going to give it a shot. Thanks for the suggestion.


22.5% better than my bestest.

You're welcome!

Liked this site. Will enter with plot based on murder, subterfuge and intrigue kicking off in a chat room for a play writing competition staged by a well known tv company. All is well until the deadline passes and no news emerges. The tension and drama mount inexorably, reaching boiling point when the wrong person wins. It's got everything; wild conspiracy theories, paranoia, demented egos, fat controllers, a seductive prize, the lot. I just need a title - A Funny Thing Happened Logging in to the Forum? Forum the Bell Tolls? No, no, no. I need help, clearly. Suggestions on a post card please.

Hi Inspector

Errrmmm ... I hate to tell you this, but in the last couple of months Jaysplays and I have written a play as a two-hander collaboration on almost exactly those lines! No murder - but everything else!

Our only problem is that it currently runs to over 150 pages, which is about 3 hours!

Including the title? So in a fit of plagiarised rage, the protagonist of my novel tracks you down and does you in in a cruel and unusual manner, thus filling the obvious body shaped hole in your plot and ensuring it never see the light of day. Unless you get to him first and figure out which wire to cut in the booby trap he will have cunningly set you. Could be 6 characters in search of a part in the League of Gentlemen/War of the Words-esque. I like it, but maybe i'll go off and cook up something else seeing as you have a 150 page headstart.

Who's going to play me Adman?

quote:

Who's going to play me Adman?

Sorry, Playfull, but Jay would probably discipline me (ooeer missus) for revealing even this much!

It's a comedy about a writer called Jack Sommersby who enters a tv/theatre competition called All The World's A Stage (!) and meets another entrant called Mike Orphe, and the build up to (and what happens in) the final - we're at the final edit stage right now, but when it's complete ... you and the Dramatic Success gang wil get first crit!

Where's my millionth copy of your mag, by the way?!

quote:

It's a comedy about a writer called Jack Sommersby who enters a tv/theatre competition called All The World's A Stage (!) and meets another entrant called Mike Orphe, and the build up to (and what happens in) the final - we're at the final edit stage right now, but when it's complete ... you and the Dramatic Success gang wil get first crit!

Hmm?
Any mention of pirates or squirrels?

Swann, how's your your knowledge of English law?
Libel, for example
or Intellectual property rights?

Adman,

Last 2 issues on their way.

quote:

Any mention of pirates or squirrels?

No pirates, squirrels, shoes, liquid nitrogen or Qworries!