I recently found The NanoMonkeys who are podcasting Nanowrimo throughout November. They dish out some really excellent advice. Oh, and their interview with Chris Baty is particularly good.
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And I read something on the forums about Nano-ers meeting and later getting married. My first thought was: weird. I mean, good for them, but I can't see Nanowrimo meet-ups as the writer's equivalent of eHarmony. Besides, it's been my experience that most of the people at the meet-ups are women. And if they're men, most likely they've been inadvertently dragged into the melee by their significant others.
Which brings up an interesting question: precisely what is the male/female ratio of Nanowrimo participants?
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I actually read very little of the forums during November. And the only place I actually post is the regional forum. But of the forums that I do peruse, Fantasy has got to be one of the top ones. It's like candy that you know is bad for you but you eat it anyway. Because most of the time, I just read the subject lines and go, WTF? Here are some questions, however, that can pertain to any genre:
Anyone else having trouble knowing when to start the "real action"? What action? I'm aiming for atmospheric.
Characters having physical defects? Now this is an interesting question. And the answer to that is, no, my characters do not have any debilitating physical defects. But this does not mean that my characters aren't flawed.
Anyone else not bothering with chapters? I do not have chapters this year. The novel is in a somewhat different organization--scenes are divided into "parts" and all these parts are grouped into days. I am making this up as I go along, however. Although there will be at least seventeen days, I do not know how many parts I'll be writing.
Anyone else struggling? On my part, it's more due to time contraints.
Where are you writing? Pretty much anywhere. Mostly, I've been doing it at home or at the library.
Fine detail or brevity? Go for the fine detail if you want to reach that 50k.
You know, that's the odd thing. On the forums, it's obvious that most of the participants are young--high schoolers and college students. But wherever I go, other college students claim that they are to busy to do this kind of thing. And most of the people at meet-ups are middle-aged women with kids.
