I’m a lurker… I really am. It’s pretty tragic but I tend not to visit the forums a whole lot before the month, during the month, or after. I’ve been told off for this by several people because there are only really three months or so where you get the full nano experience and I’m not taking part in it for the most part.
But it just seems to take up so much time! Finding threads that actually interest me, waiting for replies, keeping up to date with everything thats going on. Every now and then I have a look around but I just don’t know where to start, and when I do look, nothing in particular jumps out at me, I don’t see much I want to comment on… what about you?
Do you lurk? or spend large chunks of time on the forums? is there a happy medium?
I’m also a plodder, you know, I find the time to do my daily word goal every day, there is no last minute madness to cross the finish line at the end of the month, if anything I tend to finish early because I have days where I get a little more writing time.
Sometimes I think that half the fun of an event like nano IS that mad rush though, the fear/adrenalin thing you get going over whether you’ll make it or not, some of which is lost when you’re fairly confident that you will in fact get to that 50,000 word goal.
How do you NaNo?
Oh and if you haven’t checked out Merrilee’s post, go take a look, there are some good tools for throughout the month!
The forums are fun, and despite being populated by some people who aren’t really all that serious about eventual publication there are a few who take it Very Seriously. I’m not particularly fond of the boards themselves, being much more slow than other forums, but it has its’ own charm. Some of the posts are hilarious fun to read, and I – as the obsessive freak I am – simply have to respond.
I’m trying to stay off the controversial topics, because I don’t want to get myself banned before I can win.
I haven’t done Nano before (and probably won’t in the next couple of years due to it clashing with my busiest month at work) but when I did a nano-like challenge in the middle of the year 2 years ago (kiwinowrimo, organised through a livejournal community) I:
*was a plodder, much as you describe yourself
*updated my word count daily on blog/lj community
*posted one extract of my writing on the community to let people know what I was writing
*commented on three or four people’s excerpts
It was a pretty different kettle of fish though, as there were only about 15 or 20 people signed up. About 10 of those people posted regularly to the community, so it was very easy to read everything
Is June less busy? we have the Southern Cross Novel Challenge over at kiwiwriters.org then which is always a lot of fun
Definitely a lurker, if I look at all. Now that I feel pretty secure in my word-churning abilites, I’m less involved in the formums than previously. Also, the bulk of NANO’ers are in their teens, twenties, and early thirties and I have to admit I’m just past that age somewhat…
Yet, when I’m bored, I find myself gravitating to those forums, just out of curiosity. And I’m so GLAD they are there!
Yeah, I’m glad they are there too, and I think I spend more time on them once the month is over than at any other point!
I’m trying hard to get some discussion going over at my blog, but no luck so far. Therefore I will enjoy it here
The only forum I spend time on is the regional one, and then maybe once a week. I eased up a lot after hitting the 50k (made 97 by month end) and hung out a little more, but the forums weren’t a major part of my NaNo experience.
I write steady, try to encourage the other participants in my town since we are a satellite of Nashville, and pay attention to my story.
The best fun of all is talking to writers afterward and hearing about their stories.
Will pop over to your blog then
I too mostly spend my time on the regional one, though we’re a pretty quiet country by nature, I’m involving myself in the word war this year for a bit of fun.
And I agree, I really like the after nano chat, hearing what other people came up with, how it went etc, it’s a really nice community to be a part of.
This is my first NaNo so I’m not sure but I suspect I’ll be a plodder when it comes to word count although I want to do slightly higher word counts for the first couple of weeks just in case something it becomes more difficult to make writing time later on.
I’ve had a bit of a peek at the forums but there are a lot there so I could see that it could take up a lot of time to be active reader/poster. I’ll probably just find a couple of threads that appeal and check them regularly but not be hugely active forums-wise.
That sounds like the best idea! Finding a few to follow, this next week the site will get very busy and will be crazy for the next month of course. It’s a great way to procrastinate, but you could lose a lot of time there I think!
Also, getting a little extra done in the beginning is a great idea
I am hoping to get 2k a day done for the first couple weeks so that I have a little room to breathe later on if things crop up, as they no doubt will!