* start by making an account at http://ywp.nanowrimo.org if you're under 18 or http://nanowrimo.org/ if you're over 18.
* set a word count goal in your Novel Settings. Mine this year is only 15000 words, half as much as last year, but I'm super busy this year so I'm sure if I'm going to be able to write more.
* Start writing on November first. YOU CAN NOT START SOONER!!!! Your book has to be started on the first, you can not start any earlier. There was a lot of confusion about this on the forms this year so I thought I should make that super clear. This is an honors system, and they trust you to follow this rule. Do you really want to break that?!?!?
EDIT I found out right after I wrote this that this year they've changed the rules and you are allowed to start before as long as you don't count the words you've already written into the word count. Party! Sorry I didn't see this before, they hadn't put it up on the kids site, only the adults.
* Update your word count, again in your Novel Settings. If you get to your word count goal by the time November there will be a page that lets you validate your novel so you can get the free prizes, five free paperback copies of your book and lots of web badges and such.
If anyone has any more questions leave a comment or send me a PM(personal message) on NaNo, I'm Crookshanks15. I've been doing this for six years now so I know the ropes now. I'm one of the few NaNo veterans on the site. :) Hope to see you all there! It's an awesome experience.
For those of you that have already done this before, do you have your story all planned out? Anything special you're doing to kick off the new NaNo year on the first? I have a couple ideas....
Get your writing playlists ready!!!
I'm going to be doing this!
ReplyDeleteAnd actually, you are allowed to start beforehand, you just aren't allowed to *count* those words in your final word count. I was scared there for a second, because I've already written 10,000 words. :P So, I double checked the FAQs. Here's the link, if you wanna look: https://nanowrimo.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/329552-do-i-have-to-start-my-novel-from-scratch-on-the-fi
SO EXCITED!!!
YES! They changed the rules for this year just a few weeks ago for the YWP site too because of all the confusion on the forms and stuff I was talking about, but they didn't announce that on the YW site so I didn't know until a little while after I wrote this site when I went onto the adult site so I haven't ha time to change this yet. Thanks for reminding me to do that, would have forgotten.
ReplyDeleteI'm super excited too! What's your word count for this year?
I'm going to attempt the adult one. :P Let's see how that goes! :)
ReplyDeleteI really wanted to do that, the whole 50000 words, but life is soooo busy right now! Good luck!
ReplyDelete