Hugh Howey

Bestselling author of Wool and other books. Currently sailing around the world.

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NaNoWriMo!

National Novel Writing Month has begun! If you’re participating, good luck! Here’s my profile if you want to send me a message or buddy me. And here are the first words out of my head this morning as I begin book 8 of the Silo Series!:

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The loud came before the quiet. This was a Rule of the world, for the bangs and shouts need somewhere to echo.

Jimmy was in class when the Great Loud began. He was learning rules that soon would not apply. During Civics Hour, they studied the Pact. Here were rules on top of rules. It was the last bit of instruction before they graduated and moved off to shadow. Many of their friends already had. Done with their book learning, they now apprenticed with their hands. Jimmy would have at least two more years of advanced study if he were to follow in his father’s footsteps. He was sixteen, and while Mrs. Pearson spoke of the seriousness of choosing a life partner and registering a relationship according to the Pact, Sarah Jenkins was turning in her seat to smile back at him. Civics lessons and biology lessons were being shuffled together, hormones spoken of along with the laws that governed their excesses. Sarah Jenkins was cute. He hadn’t thought so at the beginning of the year, but now he was seeing it. Sarah Jenkins was cute and would be dead in just a few hours.

17 replies to “NaNoWriMo!”

Good stuff! Can’t wait to read the finished product. I’m doing NaNo this year and have added you to my buddy list (I’m Waterloon).

NaNo is a lot of fun, but intense! Good luck to you and to all who are participating.

I’ve got a post coming out on this tonight. The question is whether it will infuriate people, or merely annoy them. ;-)

My take – I don’t like NaNoWriMo.

*ducks the volume of glass bottles now being thrown*

I think that writers write everyday and don’t need a special month in which to do it. I think too many glom onto NaNoWriMo, write what they can(or stop short of 50,000 since it’s “too hard”), and then don’t pick up writing again until next NaNoWriMo.

Those who want to have fun doing it, that’s great. However, I do get a little irritated by those who pretend this will jump start their career, and then they give up the minute the calendar turns to December 1st. My biggest problem is that even though that writer no longer writes after November, they’ll hold, “Well, I did NaNoWriMo” over people like it makes tham a better person.

I know I’ve probably just offended a lot of people on here. If you write because you enjoy writing, and you continue past November, this little rant doesn’t apply. I just hope those who think they need a special month will extend past it and keep on writing.

Not offended, but wanted to offer my take. I am doing NanoWrimo and its my first time. I am using it as an incentive to try writing again after decades of just thinking about it. So yeah, I am not a real writer who writes daily–but who cares? It is a way to try something that I have always wanted to do. If it shakes out the cobwebs and puts me in a place to write daily, then awesome! More likely, and if I am lucky, I will have the satisfaction of writing my first novel (even if its terrible and something that I keep for myself).

my take is simple. until a week ago, i had never even thought of attempting to write a novel. somebody posted something about it on hugh’s facebook page, i googled it simply because i like the word nanowrimo. makes my mouth feel funny when i say it. so, because i liked the word, i decided to give it a try. why not?will i fail? maybe. will it be a pretty crappy finished product? oh, almost certainly. but why not try it. and without a funny worded website, or the challenge to do it in a month, i would never have tried. hooray. follow along on my haphazardly written, belched out “novel”, i’m frydog on nano site.

NaNo doesn’t work for everyone, to be sure. And writers should be writing more than one month a year. But whether I “win” or “lose” I love the camaraderie and the accountability NaNo offers.
I’ll be cranking out DOOMSEEDS this month.
Hugh, I’m adding you to my buddies!

I am going to give it a try, though I must continue editing my current novel. My 50k will be the sequel novel which has been floating in my head for months now.
Gonna give it a shot…if I have to sacrifice too much time from my current editing project then I won’t make my 50K but at least I will get a start on this next book.

1st year I’m WriMoing! Can’t wait to see what comes from it!! Just added you as a buddy! Got down 1200 so far, and i didn’t even felt like i did anything! HA! Press on!

Sarah’s gonna be dead shortly, and Jimmy’s interested in her? And the rules, so many rules, many may soon not apply? And,.. what is the symbolism of the bangs and shouts needing to echo somewhere?

Thanks for sharing. Love it.

Hi! I discovered the Wool series no less than three days ago and I finished reading book 6 just last night. I’m thrilled to learn that there’s a book 7 and 8 waiting in the wings, and I can’t wait to sink my teeth into them. Good luck with NaNoWriMo!

I’m doing NaNoWrMo for the first time this year. I work a full time job (where the only writing I do is emails and Compliance policies), so to have whole month dedicated to writing is the only way I think I’ll get anything substantial on paper (or computer screen). While it would be nice to publish, my goal is just to get as much written as possible. I’m about 1000 words behind the pace already, but have 8000 more words than I would have without NaNoWrMo.

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