which is, for those who don’t know, National Novel Writing Month, a full account of which can be had at their own website (https://www.nanowrimo.org/).
It’s been going on since 1999; twenty years of damfool-writers scribbling their heads off shooting for 50K words in 30 days, which is a hell of a target.
It’s a hell of a challenge indeed. So under the rubric we at Write Free or Die have adopted (you didn’t know about the rubric? Maybe I just made it up, but I figure “What’s all this, then?” in your best Graham Chapman voice pretty much sums us up), I’d be interested in reading of anyone’s experiences with the endeavor.
I’ll start. Somewhere back around 1999 or 2000, I first heard of NaNoWriMo (NNWN for short) and having some disused writing chops lying around in a folder (though we quaintly called them “directories” in DOS) on my hard drive, I dusted off said chops and said “What the hey!”
About 3000 words later, somewhere around Veteran’s Day, I threw in the towel, claiming to myself that the serious disarray in my sock drawer was an urgent demand on my time and attention, and this novel-writing stuff was going to have to wait until another time.
Well, maybe another time is here. Maybe I’ll sign up this year and we can have a jolly old time updating each other on our progress (or lack of), here and in our meetups.
Any other takers?
Write Free or Die 
My first NaNoWriMo was in 2006. I was just out of college and thought it would be fun to try. It was fun and I’ve done it 7 more times and reached the 50k goal 6 times. Much of what I wrote is lost on broken computers, but it would require a rewrite anyway. The more recent stuff is on computers, back-up drives and sorted into three-ring binders – because I’m more serious about my writing now and possibilities for its future.
This year I hope to write the rest of my 2017 novel and see if I can get a full 100k draft.
I’ll cheer you on, Dean!
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Thanks, Jen. I haven’t figured out whether & how much of the NNWM stuff to integrate into the WFoD queue. BTW if you still have the hard drives of those old, broken computers, and you want that old stuff, it’s probably recoverable. I have several hardware adapters with USB outputs…
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