Tuesday, April 26, 2011

May 50K!

In the spirit of NanNoWriMo (but in no way affiliated with NaNoWriMo, natch), let's write 50,000 words in the month of May.

There are no rules. This is free and everyone is invited to join. Just write 50K words and comment each day on your word count progress.

You can also use the Twitter hashtag #May50K when you Tweet your updates.

I'm going to start outlining now and on May 1st I'll be writing a complete 50K novel, but you can do whatever you want. You can add 50K to a current WIP, you can start now and finish in May, whatever. :)

Yay!

29 comments:

  1. Woohoo, I love this. I could see myself adding to a current. I have two anthos subs due in June but they have to be 20 and under.

    S.Lira aka MikeM/Rawiya
    Twitter - RawiyaMikeMBL

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  2. Great! You could also write both antho subs for a total of 40K words and then add 10K to another project!

    You'll get so much accomplished :)

    Please come back often and update us with your word counts!

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  3. I needed this. I've been slacking lately. This will keep me accountable ;) I have two WIPs that must get finished in May, and others waiting to get written.

    Thanks, Shoshanna!

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  4. Great! That's why I wanted to do this too - I need the accountability. :)

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  5. I've got a lot going on but I will do my best to keep up with you all!

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  6. I'm going to give it a shot. Also going to try an outline for the first time. Even in school I skipped this step. And on that note I am going to shamelessly solicit advice on outlining.

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  7. Eh... I'll start now as the house hunk has a bunch of doc appts in May plus a surgery. So, I'll take a running start. Still hoping to finish that 50K by the end of May!

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  8. I'm in. I have a novella that's at 10/30K and I was hoping to finish it before starting my next novel. But I may just set it aside to start fresh in May. Or maybe I'll finish the novella and then go right into the novel both in May. Hmmm, decisions.

    PS. Is there a way you can change the comment posting options to include Name/URL so I can use my new website instead of my old one? Thanks.

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  9. Who knows...maybe I'll finish my historical romace Midnight Blaze next month. Can't wait!


    Layna

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  10. Great! I'll see what I can do about changing the comments settings, Heather.

    As for outlining, Tara, I've never been good at it but I'm doing it for this one because I want to make sure I fit in everything that needs to be in this book, and I've already gotten two false starts writing it since I was writing events out of order, so now I've got the first 5 chapters outlined.

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  11. I have like three WIPs I'm juggling that I need to do one right after the other in pretty short order, so I'm in! I need all the extra motivation I can get!

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  12. In honor of agreeing to do a 50K in a month writing marathon again, can I just flake out in front of the TV tonight and do nothing? No? :( Guess I'll sit here and do some more outlining then.

    Tara, I'm all about the outline. I don't have every single scene of the novel outlined before I start, but I definitely like to know my path in advance. There's usually a few scenes that I'm anxious to write so that propels me forward. And when I start to get stuck, I just read my outline and it tells me what's next. It really helps me move forward.

    Shoshanna, Thanks for fixing the comment thingy! (That's a professional term.)

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  13. I'm goal is to finish outlining the 17 chapters I have planned for this new WIP. So far I've got the first 5 chapters outlined, so I better get crackin'. Oy.

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  14. I'm in. I'm about 6k into an MS that needs to be 50-55k so this should be perfect.

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  15. I write longhand, though I could guesstimate my word counts; each of my pages is over 1000 words, so...XDDD

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  16. You can count how many words you average per line, say 10 or so, then multiply that by the number of lines on the page. Although unless your handwriting is super tiny, I don't see how you'd get 1000 handwritten words per page? Because 1000 words is usually 4 typed double-spaced pages....

    But again, there are no rules, so if you want to write longhand go for it! :)

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  17. Hooray! I am so in. I have one novella and one 50,000 word ms that I really want to focus on. This will give me accountability. Somehow, my husband doesn't really care how many words I write a day. Cool idea!

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  18. Interesting idea. I am just beginning to write, I wonder if this would help me just "write" instead of incessantly going over and over and over what I have written, in order to try and perfect it? Which I assume is editing... So, maybe I will have a go at this, if not for anything else than to up my pretty-much-non-existent-daily-word-count... After all, it is "just" 1613 words per day...

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  19. Go for it! After all, it's hard to edit a blank page. This way you'll have a lot of raw manuscript to edit when the month is over.

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  20. Thanks for the outlining comments. I took a WIP and started to outline it - even though it is half written. I'm hoping the end will make itself known to me in the process. :-)

    I have also been spending too much time self-editing (so Kevin, I know what you mean). I am going to use this exercise as a means to cure myself of the habit - and edit only after I type 'The End'.

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  21. Oh, I need this to finish this WIP. 50K should just about do it! I'm in.

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  22. I write really tiny, and usually have AT LEAST 15 words per line, often over 20, and there's 33 lines per side, two sides per page...I did 1100 on the sample page I selected (balance of dialogue and description) so I shortened that to 1k. So yeah, I can guesstimate that way.

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  23. I'm in. I have to finish a nonfiction book and then I'll switch to my novel. Fun!

    Theresa

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  24. I'm in. I could use a kick in the pants.

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  25. I'm in! Glad I found this today. I could use some "help" in the motivation department. :P

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  26. Ok, I'm in. I'm doing Story a Day May (aiming for 1k story a day) and also 1k/day on this MS...so I'll hopefully hit that 50k!

    Amazing idea, Shoshanna.

    @skylarkade

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