Judging from the attendance of the previous local events, I had been all set to consider that no one new in town had heard about Nano and that everyone else was just returning participants. So I was really excited that not one, but three first year participants dropped in at the write-in on Saturday. I ended up answering questions rather than writing, but that's okay. If I were a first year participant, I'd be questioning myself too about this monumental craziness.
One of these participants mentioned a prompt method that she had heard about from Floridian author Robert Olen Butler and was putting it to work in her own Nanowrimo novel. It's sort of like the notecard method--but more random. On a set of index cards, related prompts (that is, anything that could fit into the novel's theme and subject) that may be one word to several sentences long were written down. These are placed in a deck that could be shuffled. So if you run out of steam on one prompt, just pick another one to keep going. Apparently this has worked for this participant--instead of writing 250 words at a time, which was her usual length, she managed to get past 1700.
One caveat though: you'd have to think up the prompts. Which means creating the deck is best done before November.
Anyways, it was really interesting to hear from newbies. Especially newbies who are much older than I am. In the 50+ forum, there are plenty of older participants who grumble about the young people who mistakenly believe that they are unusual in that they're breaking the mold of conservative/old-dog-can't-learn-new-tricks geezerdom. As I get older, I'm increasingly aware that I get more annoyed with frivolous behavior, but that annoyance is completely separate from my willingness to try new things. So I really appreciate their perspective and enthusiasm for the challenge. And despite what the statistics say, Nano isn't just a young person's sport.
