Friday, August 05, 2005

Write a Novel in a Month

This month's Writer's Circle meeting at MPH will be a little different. This from the MPH website:
The Writer's Circle: Write A Novel in A Month
A meeting for anyone interested in the idea of writing a novel in a month. (Yes, it is possible!) Also an invitation to take part in the largest creative writing competition on earth - the annual Nanowrimo. Last year 40 Malaysians took part with ten winners. This year we hope to encourage many more.
The fictionators are beginning to infiltrate and hopefully will take over the earth!

Chet and I have roped in other friends to talk about the Nanowrimo and their experience of doing the competition in previous years.

Last year was the first time I'd attempted it. But I had a lot of fun, made friends, learned a lot about myself as a writer, and ended up with some good material for the novel I'm writing. (Here's the entry I wrote just after I'd completed the Nano last year.)

I know an event is not for everyone. Someone on an e-group I belong to asked why we needed this and why can't we organise an event like this on our own? Good point and I hope that we will have more locally organised writing events. I have some ideas and I'm sure the readers of this blog have too. But this event is a great starting point to pull together folks who are interested in writing and first-time dabblers ... and maybe from this local involvement, the impetus for other local events will emerge. And besides, the infrastructure for the event is already set up - there's a website and bulletin boards and home pages and advice at the Nanowrimo website.

It would be very nice to get some schools and colleges participating too this time ... get 'em hooked and writing while they're young!

There may be folks who don't want to join the Nanowrimo but who are interested in the whole idea of writing a novel in a month, so the MPH meeting will be geared to that too.

Dunno if I will be able to write as much this time round. Last November was pretty free but this year I will be away at a conference in Manilla and then there's everything else I've taken on. But yes, even if I can't reach the 50,000 word target, shall be writing alongside everyone else to see how many words I can produce.

Anyway, if you're interested in joining us, then please register by calling MPH Customer Service at 03-7726 9003 or e-mail csoneutama@mph.com.my. There are limited seats.

And here's a book you might want to buy:

I saw autographed copies of it in MPH Midvalley yesterday!

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

This morning I wrote to MPH telling them that I would like to participate. I hope I can write something... I don't have a story yet. I guess I have to sleep over it first.

Chet said...

Nizam - you're off to a good start cuz you are already thinking about it. A lot of first-time participants hear about NaNoWriMo a few days before the challenge begins, sign up and dive straight into it without giving much thought to what they want to write about, and then run out of steam after a few days. I know - it happened to me the first year I participated!

Chris Baty's book that Sharon mentions in the entry above offers some useful suggestions on how to pace ourselves for the writing.

nikicheong said...

This is happening at a perfect time in my life - I've always leaned towards writing a play - but just over the past few days thought that maybe I could do better at a novel (since my playwriting efforts never kicked off =)). I'll be giving MPH a call later to let them know I'm interested in participating. :)

bibliobibuli said...

A lot of first-time participants hear about NaNoWriMo a few days before the challenge begins, sign up and dive straight into it without giving much thought to what they want to write about ...

That was me last year - and I finished!!!

bibliobibuli said...

Hi niki - well you never know if you've a novel in you till you try! Maybe some of the material could later be used for a play.

Chet said...

That was me last year - and I finished!!!

You mean you missed out on the NaNo Rite of Passage?

Mabel said...

I don't know if I want to join again this year. Starting a new job and stuffs...plus I have no plot. ARGH!

bibliobibuli said...

chet - invented my own rite of passage

scarfer - who needs a plot!? hope anyway you'll come and join us on the 20th

Reta said...

hey sounds like the encouragement I might need, I can get it from you =)

Hopefully I'm not too tight around the event's time.

Now as it is, am blogging for the Blogathon 2005 =)

Will keep this sight/event in mind.

Anonymous said...

would love to read some of your works. would u be kind enough to offer some titles, does not have to be fiction, can be others as well.

q said...

i've always been curious about NoNoWriMo when it first started, and i've alwas been curious about the writer's circle too as i read from some of your blog entries.

would they mind a non-writer at the meeting?

bibliobibuli said...

Anonymous - had short fiction published in Silverfish new writing 1, men's review and the edge. edited Collateral Damage (Silverfishbooks). Working on a novel, and have a clutch of stories poems that got bounced back! Articles numerous in the Star, Kakiseni, Quill ... and a column forthcoming which I will tell you about later.

q - come along and join us! A writer is someone who writes. anyway, you'll probably knock out a whole novel in november and surprise yourself!

Chet said...

q - It's NaNoWriMo, which stands for National Novel Writing Month.

And you are a writer!

Look forward to meeting you on the 20th.

bibliobibuli said...

chet - perhaps it's the nonowrimo for people who don't want to do it?

q said...

hehe i know i know, i am miss typo extrodinaire! too bad you can't edit after you publish a comment (it doesn't take much to programme such a feature i believe - i will have to write blogger on this ;-)

And you are a writer!

sweet! a friend of mine actually tried to convince me that i am one. after protesting that i only put up photos on my (photo)blog he asked who actually wrote the titles for those entries. yes big deal, but i thought that was a nice thought ;-)

Adam C said...

Hmm.. so Nanowrimo is around the corner again.. I actually attended a Nano meeting two years ago here in Toronto, that was when I first learned about it, but I didn't follow through. But then as I reflect, I see that now I have more direction in my writing than before, so I can see myself actually trying it out this year. For Sharon and other people with Nano experience, I have a few questions.

1. What have you guys done with the novel you've written?

2. Did you guys join the group writing sessions? I know here in Toronto the organizers planned group writing sessions, some are all-nighters. I wonder what it's like to write with a whole bunch of people just scribbling away...

3. Would you say it's better to enter this with some kind of a plan, a plot?

4. Has anyone had experience with writing short stories at Nano?

Anyways, love to hear your feedback. Thanks.

bibliobibuli said...

1. What have you guys done with the novel you've written?

Am using much of the material from it for my novel. Have a beginning and ending some good characters and much of ther plot.

2. Did you guys join the group writing sessions?

We didn't have any here. We didn't have much here at all bar a meet up or two. Hope more happens this year.

3. Would you say it's better to enter this with some kind of a plan, a plot?

For sure. I had no idea where I was going and had to work out the plot day by day. But don't plan rigidly becsue if you know too much about what's going to happen you'll be bored ...

4. Has anyone had experience with writing short stories at Nano?

It has to be a continuous piece of fiction but you could link short stories. You're not accountablle to anyone, so let your writing go in the dirtection you want it to. I found trying a novel very liberating after the tightness of short fiction.

Chet said...

Hey, NaNoWriMo has its own entry in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NaNoWriMo

bibliobibuli said...

nice link chet here it as hypertext for the lazy!

Anonymous said...

I've gotten myself registered already. So I guess I will be seeing some of you there. I'll be heading to MPH MidValley after work to get myself 'No Plot No Problem' (just to get myself prepped up).

Anonymous said...

"A writer is someone who writes."

Would you also define a musician as someone who plays an instrument (however badly ?) can I slop paint on a canvas and call myself an artist ? if so, by merely trying, I could call myself so many many things. As for nanowrimo.. I'm concerned that it would encourage people to put quantity over quality. I'm not sure that repeating the same mistakes over and over again would help anyone improve. Also, you cannot force yourself to write. It will come out stilted and stiff. If you force yourself to do something, you will never be as good as if you were doing it freely. As for the praises, some people just like to make other people happy. Tried a little experiment myself -- Bulwer-Lyttonized some prose, and posted it to a forum. Sure enough, got lots of praises for it. It's as if some people get off on complimenting other people. Anyway, I tend to prefer people to constructively criticize the work. If you don't know your mistakes, how do you improve ? or are you just a praise whore ?

I also don't like the over-emphasis on quantity, which I think is very typical of modern literature -- people seem to want more words as opposed to good words, or apt words or appropriate words. Thick books are better than thin books, or are they ? What do people think about the Bulwer-Lytton fiction contest
(http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/) -- that sounds like fun to me.

Nizam -- if you want to do it do it. If you don't then don't. As a very wise man once said.. you either do, or you do not. There is no "try". If you don't have a story start with the characters. Who are they ? what are they like ? what can you throw them into ? lots of situations.. planes ? smuggling ? terrorism ? alien invasion ? aliens capture plane and bring it to a strange planet. What happens to the people ? how do they react to that ? if you don't have a story start with the characters and how they are like. Don't just sit down and expect the story to come from "somewhere" because it never will.

How can you have a novel without a plot ? how would that even be worth reading ? it'd go on and on and not get anywhere.

Now you know why I'm mad. I've always loved good literature and writing, and now someone comes along and says you can write, and you don't need quality or even a plot. They're trampling the very values I have strove (striven ?) to uphold my entire life. It feels like they're raping your girl. that's what it feels like exactly. No one cares about quality any more. It's all about quantity these days.

That having been said, I appreciate the opportunity to rant. I suppose all I'm doing is raging against the coming of the dawn. But whatever, if I have to fight for what I believe to be good and true, so be it.

Chet said...

Instead of posting a long comment here, you can always rant at the blog you've set up, and track back to Sharon's entry here.

Anonymous said...

True huh.. but then who would read that ? it's not like I'm well known or anything. It didn't start out to be long.. but it just went on and on... oh well I'll do that. Maybe. :)

bibliobibuli said...

"I'm concerned that it would encourage people to put quantity over quality."

That is what it's all about, Porty. quality doesn't enter into it, only the total number of words.

It's basically a huge exercise in writing fluency. Everyone is free to write total crap and it matters not a jot. The inner critic who screws up your confidence is forced out of the frame. The novels are meant for no-one's eyes but our own!! (But surprisingly, when you put yourself under that kind of pressure some interesting stuff emerges.)

The Nano emphasises process over finished product.

I hold good writing as dear as you ... Agree wholeheartedly that a great deal of revision, care, craft, has to happen before anyone puts work before the public. And to get there, of course, a lot of constructive criticism.

Why don't you come along to MPH 1 Utama on 20th Aug and find our more? You can argue there all you want ... I don't think i'm going to convince you here and now. (Hey, it would be nice to put a face to the name now you've got one!)

The Bulwer-Lytton fiction contest sounds great fun!

Anonymous said...

I don't know, if there are too many issues I might not be there. Or maybe I might. And then it's One Utama. I'm not even sure I know how to get there. And then there's the human thing, that people unconsciously judge others by the way the look and walk and sound. Okay maybe some don't but I do. Can't help it, unfortunately. I sometimes think Sir Walter had the right idea :

http://www.englishclub.com/reading/cr-wish-loved-human-race.htm

That about sums it up. I might be there if I have time and am able to find my way there. But that's not an easy place to reach from over here.

bibliobibuli said...

But that's not an easy place to reach from over here.

Where's there?

Anonymous said...

"Here" is where the underground canal leads. "Here" is the prison of my mind.

bibliobibuli said...

Ohhhhhhhhh .... okaaaayyyyy ....