#nanowrimo 2015

[blackacre13]

Hi! We missed you ❤️

Sending you all the good vibes for your health and hoping whatever it is gets fixed soon. And I would be honored to be a beta reader for your literal grocery list so please do keep me posted on that regard ☺️

Thank you so much, friend!❤️❤️

Yes! I will definitely let you and anyone else interested know. Hoping later this spring/early summer! My goal is to start querying this fall👀☺️I know y’all will help hold me accountable.

Can’t wait for everyone to meet Charlie and their mystery lady//Sloane and Willow👀👀👀🤐🤐🤐

[halberdbooks]

I've never been good at monthly challenges.

[canwriteitbetterthanueverfeltit]

i just realized i usually write & plan with headphones AND rainymood going and I legitimately almost cried with relief when I changed over oh my god this is so much easier 😭

[pendinganchor]

i am once again writing a fanfic for nano

i am not ready to start dipping my toes back into original works (hoping i start doing that next year)

i’ll reblog this (or maybe make a new post, i haven’t decided yet) later with the information about it!

[marzipanandminutiae]

you know what I stand by my decision to write Charlotte Canda (1828-1845), 17-year-old polymath prodigy and carriage accident statistic, as the queen of a vampire coven with a secret high-tech lair under her own self-designed Gothic grave monument, in my attempted 2015 NaNoWriMo project

I should write that more actually

I feel it's a fitting tribute to what I know of her

[nanowrimo]

A Fond Farewell to NaNoWriMo Technical Director Dave Beck

We’ve got some truly bittersweet news: after almost 10 years as NaNoWriMo’s Technical Director, Dave Beck is moving on. Dave joined NaNoWriMo in 2014 and since then has overseen all things site and tech-related for NaNoWriMo and Young Writers Program. In addition to his considerable technical skills, Dave is a true Renaissance man with a remarkable range of skills, interests, and hobbies. Thanks to Dave and our other long-time Software Developer, Jezra Lickter, both our websites are currently in very stable places for this transition. 

Before we say goodbye, Dave shares some thoughts about his time at NaNo:

Q: What are some of your proudest achievements at NaNoWriMo?

I’d say it’s the redevelopment of the Young Writers Program website, which started in 2015. The first version of the website didn’t have many participants. I worked with Marya and Chris [Angotti] for the redesign. However, the biggest risk was creating a writing space for the kids. This feature did not exist before, so we built it from scratch. When we first launched it, 40% of the kids were writing on the site. The number is still going up. It’s 84% at the moment. I didn’t expect it to be this successful. Last time I looked, 20 billion words were written! The second achievement: we haven’t lost a single word ever since the writing space was created. It was very important to me that we did not lose any of the kids’ novels. 

In general, the YWP site was the most fun.

Q: What are some of your fondest NaNoWriMo memories?

The design is the best part. Not the coding itself, but deciding what things we should do and how to get there. When you figure out a design and then develop it, it’s very satisfying when it works well.

It’s also fun being able to creatively collaborate with people, especially with the YWP. I’ll miss Marya and Jezra a great deal, it was very productive.

Q: Tell us about one of your NaNoWriMo novels.

I’ve never won NaNoWriMo! Not even close to it. The closest I’ve gotten is 5k. It was a nonfiction book about ADHD. The funny thing is, when I was a kid, I wanted to be a writer. But I didn’t want to write books! I just wanted to be F. Scott Fitzgerald and go to cocktail parties. I do NaNo every year though. It helps me understand the website and see if everything is working as it should be. So instead of writing, I see the problems and go and fix them.

Q: Fun fact about you that people might not know?

I’m a veteran career changer. I’m leaving programming and coding to become a winemaker. Before this, I was an attorney. I’m still a member of the California Bar actually. I was also a reporter for the LA Press, a fancy sous chef in Boston, and an exhibit designer at the San Francisco science museum.

If you can’t tell, I have ADHD. I liked this job the most since it’s so complicated being a full stack developer. It works well with ADHD because I’m constantly switching what I’m doing.

Q: Are coding and noveling at all the same?? Inquiring minds want to know.

A little bit? There is an element to understanding narrative within a code. You want to understand the order and how the code does certain things. It’s kind of like plotting a novel.

Designing code is also a creative process. But the coding itself shouldn’t be, which is the biggest difference. Coding is standardized so it won’t cause problems, especially when multiple people are working on the code.

With novel writing, you can do whatever you want. You can even break rules to prove a point. You don’t want to do that with coding or you break the whole thing!

Q: What will you miss/not miss the most at NaNo?

I’ll miss the creative relationships I had with Marya and Jezra. It’s interesting and fun work. NaNoWriMo also had a lot of creative lunches before COVID. Once, we all created our own cocktails!

I won’t miss how sometimes, it feels like I’m reinventing the same wheel over and over. For example, we’re trying to refine the system that makes challenges for existing novels. It’s still not completely working right in the way we want it to be, so we end up spending a lot of time on it. It’s like Sisyphus. You think you’ve finally completed something and then we’re back at the bottom of the hill.

Q: Any advice for a developer working at NaNoWriMo, or any aspiring tech developers?

Learn all seven parts of full stack developing as fast as possible. You will need it. Rely heavily on Jezra too. He knows a lot.

For aspiring tech developers, you should only spend 10% of your time actually coding. The other 90% of your time should be spent planning, scoping, and user testing. One of my issues is jumping into a code without a plan, which leads into problems I could have avoided. You should plan for things ahead of time. It’s like scoping your whole novel before writing words down. I’m a pantser coder which isn’t necessarily the best thing.

Q: Since you’re so fond of the YWP site, how about advice for any young writers?

Think for yourselves and write what you want to write. If it’s what you’re interested in, you’ll have fun.

Interested in learning more about open positions at NaNoWriMo? Sign up here to be notified of job postings. Just as we celebrate the diversity of our creative community, we want our staff to reflect that same spirit of inclusion, and we will encourage candidates of all races, genders, cultures, class and educational backgrounds, abilities, and orientations to apply.

[nordic-language-love]

Think I'm gonna try doing NaNoWriMo again this year for the first time since 2015

[obstinatecondolement]

Guys, big fucking news. In 2015 I was working on a DS9 fic for NaNoWriMo. This year was the first and, until this year, only time I finished NaNo. To date it is the only time I've written 50K of the same project in a month. I wasn't finished the fic, but I had written a big chunk of it and I was very happy with it. And then I lost it when the laptop died, because it wasn't backed up anywhere.

OR SO I THOUGHT, because I just found a backup from day 29 that I emailed myself in 2015???

It's not the full 50K that I wrote, because I was crunching toward the end and wrote the last 30-ish thousand words in the last three days, but!!!! I have the first 38,170 words, which is more than I ever thought I would get back. I'm not even mad that I didn't back it up by emailing myself on day 30 tbh, because this is such a great thing to have found and I am not looking this gift horse in the mouth.

[radiowrites]

2023 Writer Year-In-Review

Hi, I’m RaisedonRadio & FortressofmyPast on AO3 and FF.net. This is an on-going tradition since 2015. Check out my past year-end posts: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015.

Tagging a few, but if you come across this, consider it an open tag! You’re welcome to tag me back, I’d love to read it!

@writercorianarose @shesailsships @talesofsorrowandofruin @azdesertwillow @goneahead @littlemissfandomworld @dreams-of-kalopsia @halleyuhm

Big change for me compared to last year—in addition to NaNoWriMo, I actually posted fanfics! I tried to add some new questions to this year’s edition, I hope they might even move out of my tiny circle.

Total Word Counts: 51,920 for 2023 NaNoWriMo 15,570 on 2022 NaNoWriMo project 19,193 for July 2023 Camp NaNoWriMo (mostly fanfics) 28,310 in published fanfics (this number is overlapping with camp nano, I wasn’t paying attention, so I’m not going to add everything together)

Total Number Of Completed Works: 10 Total Number of WIPS worked on this year: 10 or so How Many WIPs do you still have: 23

Looking back, did you write more than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d expected? I wrote way more than expected! I seriously didn’t think I would do NaNoWriMo again. And I published ten fics! That’s ten more than last year!

Did you take any writing risks this year? The NaNoWriMo project was definitely a risk for me. I basically had an idea and no outline. It was quite a challenge to my perfectionism issues—I had to basically never reread anything and just keep going, fully aware that I can better foreshadow the ideas that came up halfway through in the next rewrite.

Biggest Surprise: I wrote for NaNoWriMo again, which I was pretty sure wouldn't happen lol, and hit the word count, all through discovery writing, and having very little idea where I was going with it.

Biggest Disappointment: I dropped that above mentioned project the moment November ended! I can tell it has potential, hidden in there. I will definitely return to it.

Do you have any writing goals for the new year? I’d love to at least finish the first draft of the 2023 NaNoWriMo project, bringing it to a tentative end so I can actually reread it and go from there. And keep writing fanfic, and maybe even work on the 2022 nanowrimo project…

Fanfiction Questions Below! (if you don’t write fanfiction feel free to skip or rework the questions for your original works.)

Fandoms I’ve written in this year: I wrote fics for 7 different fandoms! For the following kdramas: Island, Tale of the Nine Tailed, Memorist, Royal Secret Agent, W: Two Worlds, May I Help You?, and a little Korean Web drama called Handmade Love.

Your most popular story of the year? That would be Besides You with 327 hits and 47 kudos. However Superhero got the most comment interaction with 4!

The story that was easiest/or most fun to write: I Think He Knows was fun to write! I do just love brooding with a heart of gold formerly immortal male leads.

Hardest story to write: Rescue Me, Superhero, Restore, and Prayers & Promises were four works that I had left for dead, and came back and found them to be basically finished and just needed proofreading. (So just in case anyone wondered how I turned out three of those in like two days: they were actually done and I was hellbent on getting them out of my WIPs list)

Your sweetest story: That would definitely be Superhero. I altered my normal narrative style to better fit the child’s character, and I was really pleased with how it turned out.

Your saddest scene: I feel like I hit a lot of angst this year, but nothing really sad?

The sexiest moment you’ve written this year? *coughs* I wrote five pieces of smut. (Half of my fanfics were smut this year?!) Umm, I’m torn between Beside You and Don’t Blame Me? But also Never Be the Same and Take On Me???

Your favorite tag: (whether you use it the most or just something witty/perfect for the story) My brother announced to me that he reads all my tags (he was trying to embarrass me about one of my smut pieces) so I did a shout out to him in the next fic. He saw it within the day, I was actually impressed.

Most unintentionally telling story: (have you accidentally or purposefully exposed a detail about yourself?) Religious guilt seems to be a reoccurring tag this year. In all seriousness, not quite sure why, but yet it kinda makes sense? (its complicated lmao) And for some reason not one, but two fics ended with marriage proposals?! (I’m so single.)

Are any of your fics named after/heavily inspired by music? I’m RaisedonRadio and it would be concerning if—checks list—less than 8 of the 10 fics weren’t named after songs, haha! (I’m actually just really bad at naming fics…)

Good To You and Besides You are both songs by the band Marianas Trench, and are heavily inspired by the songs. Rescue Me is by OneRepublic, one of those more vibes than lyrics inspired. I Think He Knows by Taylor Swift was definitely on repeat for that fic, as well as Don't Blame Me. (Poems), Prayers, and Promises was more a steal the name of the song by John Denver, for some reason I think Cold by Corbyn was on repeat when writing that one. Take On Me was named more for the similarities between the MV and the series! Never Be The Same was for the vibes of the song by Camila Cabello but not really the lyrics.

What’s your own favorite story of the year? Maybe it’s cheating but I’m not sure if I can really choose? I know it’s not a common writer sentiment but I really do like them all for different reasons.

Like I churned out Good To You and Besides You within ten days of each other in July, after not writing any fanfic basically for a year and a half.

And then I pulled Rescue Me out of the dead drafts pile and made myself work on more description.

I Think He Knows was my first foray into a brand new fandom.

Don’t Blame Me is one of my rare canon divergence fics.

Restore was another dead draft that I found to be mostly complete, and decide to release into the world even if I knew there was so much more I could have done with it.

Prayers and Promises was not only another new fandom, but for some reason, I decided to write for a side character. It’s still sitting on just 1 hit and that makes it all the better that I really wrote it for myself.

Superhero was out of my comfort zone of writing for a kid’s perspective and I was so happy with how it turned out.

Take On Me was a draft sitting at less than 1k words and I challenged myself to finish it before the new year, and got it done in two days.

And then, to finish it all off with the intense desire to have ten fics under the belt for 2023, I wrote Never Be The Same in less than two days for the last drama I had watched, and the speed that the last two fics were actually finished was a huge change for me.

Fanfiction risks you took this year? I wrote fanfic for not one, but two fandoms that I had to create the first tags for on AO3! Also, as I started to slip into just writing for kdramas this year, I’ve basically become my own proofreader and editor at this point. Any mistakes are my own, lol.

My favorite part of fandom this year: That would be getting two kudos and a comment on I Think He Knows, one of the fics that is the first in its fandom tag. To actually connect with more fans of such a tiny project was so cool!

Thanks for reading and here’s to next year!

[scifrey]

Cling Fast's final word count: 53 662. In 11 days.

Ya'll this is the first long-form anything I've written since 2019. It's the first longform fic I've written since 2015.

That's a full ducking NaNoWriMo AND THEN SOME in 11 days.

I am… having a glass of wine and then going to bed.

[inevitably-johnlocked]

HII!

I wanted to know if you could recommend some very nice Top John fics with plots? Looking forward to your response.

Thank you for all you do for the Fandom. Very grateful. Have a lovely day/night!

Hi Lovely!

Oh gosh, you're far too kind!

I actually have quite a few fics, but I'm also going to use your ask to post my Pt 3 list of Bottomlock fics, so I hope you don't mind. To get the longer, more plotty fics, please start at the bottom of this and all the suggested See Also lists, and work your way up them. Since I put my lists in word-count order, the longer, more plotty ones will be near the bottom <3

I hope you enjoy, and if anyone has something new to add, please do! <3

BOTTOMLOCK Pt. 3

See also:

Bottomlock (April 2019)

Bottomlock Pt 2

Bottomlock Pt 2.5 (Thirsty Bottomlock)

Omegaverse Pt. 1.5: O!Sherlock

Riptide Lover Remix: Firsthand Research by jinglebell (E, 1,779 w., 1 Ch. || Merfolk AU || Merman John, Interspecies Porn, Subtle Masochism, Huge Cock, Size Kink, Anal, Domination, Rough Sex, Prostate Massage, Forced Orgasm, Prostate Milking, PWP) – A Riptide Lover spinoff in which John is the undine. Sherlock is arse-fucked by a merman on an abandoned dock. He loves it. A companion piece to Riptide Lover.

Gigantic by BubbleGumLizard (E, 2,135 w., 1 Ch. || Size Kink, PWP, Oral Sex / Blow Job, Bottomlock) – John seems to avoid Sherlock seeing him naked. Sherlock wants to fix that. This is porn. Part 19 of Mystrade NaNoWriMo 2015

Affirmation by jamlockk (E, 3,096 w. || First Time, Dev. Rel., PWP, Love Declarations, Emotional Sherlock, Comforting John, Gross Fluff, Bottomlock) – "Sunlight dappled John's skin, casting a glow across his spreadeagled form as he dozed among the rumpled sheets. Sherlock knew the expression on his face was hopelessly soft but for once did not care about showing his true feelings so openly. He simply stood there, in the doorway, gazing at the impossibly beautiful man currently snuffling softly in his slumber." Part 8 of All the ways we love

My First, My Only, and My Forever by vintagelilacs (E, 6,220 w., 1 Ch. || Post-ASiB, Virgin Sherlock, Pining Sherlock, Sherlock’s Bum, John’s Scar, Sherlock POV, Body Worship, Fingering, Bottomlock, Promise of Forever / Proposals, Misunderstanding, First Kiss/Time, Loss of Virginity, Virginity Kink, Seduction) – Sherlock narrowed his eyes. He was missing a vital piece of data, he was sure. John had been looking at him oddly ever since they left Buckingham Palace, and the ensuing incident with Irene Adler had only exacerbated his erratic behaviour. What was it? Why would he care that Sherlock was a virgin? There was nothing reminiscent of mockery or pity in his gaze. And then it hit him. John Watson was aroused.

Caves in the Mountains Are Seldom Unoccupied by starrysummernights & TheMadKatter13 (E, 7,925 w., 1 Ch. || Were-Creatures ||  Werebear John, Pseudo Bestiality, Rimming, Dub Con, Rough Sex, Come Inflation / Eating, Size Kink, PWP, Bratty Sherlock, Rutting) – “This isn’t something to play at, Sherlock,” he snapped. “If it doesn’t work out- what you’re asking of me- we can’t shrug and say 'oh well, at least we tried'. If we do this… I could seriously hurt you. Do you understand? I could lose control. I could… I could kill you.” (This one is... REALLY REALLY kinky, heavy dub-con warning)

Never Have I Ever by hudders-and-hiddles (E, 10,655 w. || Pining Sherlock, First Kiss / Time, Drinking Games, Love Confessions, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Bottomlock) – John and Sherlock tag along for the Met's weekly night out, where the evening's chosen drinking game is Never Have I Ever. Sherlock is reluctant to join in until he realizes he can learn all kinds of new things about John, but he forgets that John might learn a thing or two about him as well.

A Hooligans’ Game Played By Gentlemen by scullyseviltwin (E, 15,213 w., 1 Ch. || First Time, Rugby as Foreplay, Porn with Lots of Plot, John POV, Ogling, Body Appreciation, Cranky Sherlock, Slow Burn, Bed Sharing, Cuddling, Touching, Heavy Petting, Blow Job, Botttomlock) – In which John wants to get back in shape, does so, joins a rugby league and has sex with Sherlock Holmes. In that order.

The Hollow Woman by ScopesMonkey (M, 51,335 w., 22 Ch. || Post-TRF, Major Character Death, Mystery, Romance, Friendship, Family, Angst, Crime, Reunion, First Kiss / Time, Nightmares, Doctor John, Jealous Sherlock, Jealous John, BAMF John, Angry John, Dub-Con, Rough Sex, Bottomlock, Possessive John, Villain Mary, Open Ending) – Forced to return to London sooner than expected, Sherlock falls into a case too close to home. Part 1 of the Hollowverse series

Isosceles by SilentAuror (E, 56,609 w., 7 Ch. || Post-S4, POV John, Original Male Character / Sherlock Dates Another Man, Love Triangle, Jealous John, Virgin Sherlock, Sexual Coaching, Angst, Romance, Domesticity, Unrequited Feelings, Miscommunication, First Kiss/Time, For a Case, Friends With Benefits, Bottomlock, Love Confessions, Spooning) – After solving a case for a major celebrity, Sherlock gets himself asked out. When John asks, he discovers that Sherlock has no intention of going, at least not until John agrees to coach him through whatever he might need to know for his date...

[clotpolesonly]

this doesn't really serve any purpose except to share my excitement and satisfaction, but i hit such a stride with my recently posted Stackson fic that i felt the need to keep track of its progress in true NaNoWriMo style -- by making a bar graph 😂

(it includes outlining words, because my outlines are reasonably detailed and take a lot of brainpower lol, so i dedicated some days specifically to banging out several scenes' worth of outline at a time)

and i DID, in fact, write at NaNo pace, like almost exactly. excluding those very first ~300w, which were written haphazardly before i really dove in, the rest of it averages out to 1678 words per day. the NaNo minimum is 1667.

i just keep staring at the graph, y'all, i'm really proud of myself for this one cuz it's been a long time since i managed this, and even longer since i managed it on one story. my last two attempts at NaNo fizzled out VERY quickly and with a lot of guilt. the two before that were completed, but just barely and only with patchworks of different shorter fics squished together to make the end count. i think the last time i actually wrote this much, this fast, on one story waaaassss 2017 maybe?? i know the last time i did it for NaNo was 2015 (good god, it's been 8 years) and every NaNo since then has required fic-hopping.

anyway. just thought i'd share. it's a nice graph.

[razrogue]

I haven't written a multi chapter fic since 2015. I've written fic since then but a multi chapter cohesive story was last written in 2015.

I'm kinda nervous about this one I wrote during Nanowrimo. I don't know why cause it's really no different than the single fics I've written. Just more words that I decided to break up into chapters to make it manageable for anyone who decided to read it.

I generally do write for myself. My drive is filled with drafts and ideas that will never see the light of day that I read every now and then. I think the way fandom has become since I first started posting my fics publicly is becoming a little disheartening.

I miss when folks would drop into your replies or inbox or DMs and gush about your fic or your characters. How folks would send asks just telling you small things they love about your OCs or fic or headcanons or meta. How folks used to make OC or fic or writer rec posts and share more in general. How folks would participate in tag events or share all the things and spread the love around. I always found some gems (and a lot of my moots) that way since the tags were a clusterfuck back then and have only gotten worse now.

I miss the headcanon and meta folks would create and share with the community that could spark some insightful discussion and interesting perspective. Not this weird disk horse shit that happens too often now because folks don't know how to distinguish HC and fanon and in-game events and think everybody is supposed to adhere to "canon" or fanon like it's the word of God or something...GTFOHWTS.

I wish the community of fandom would come back home 😥

[palominodragon]

Yes I am only just now editing a piece of writing that I originally drafted nine years ago... but I'm doing that while wearing the 2015 nanowrimo shirt I won for this piece of writing so that has to count for something.

[taliaxlatia]

NaNoWriMo Wrapped

This year (like the last 2 years before) I went for a 50k word count goal across all my fics for the month.

Fics Written / Updated:

Shadows Alight (kingdom hearts, 5 chapters updated)

Let's Do the Mortal Coil Shuffle (undertale, 1 chapter updated, completed!)

Wet Rats and Large Handcuffs (xenoblade 1, oneshot)

Shulk's Scrapbook website item dialogues (xenoblade 1, basically a bunch of drabbles)

Everything Is Normal. (pokemon, no chapters updated but I am working on the next one)

Other Milestones:

Shadows Alight finally beat out my 2011-2015 KH OC fic for longest wordcount on my ao3 :D I have been hoping something would eventually bump this down for years.

Started on the Shadows Alight arc I've been looking forward to writing since at least last year, if not longer. Really excited for this especially as the 10 year Cast a Shadow anniversary is less than two months away now.

Posted my first Xenoblade fic ever :)

With Mortal Coil Shuffle done I only have 8 wips on ao3 which is an all time low for me (ignore the fact that this doesnt count series wips shhhh)

Love wins <3

[nanowrimo]

30 Covers, 30 Days 2023: Day 16

And here we are with day 16! Put on your headphones for Children's Fiction novel The Mixtape Mystery by SarahZ. This cover was designed by the amazing returning designer, Roshanak Keyghobadi!

The Mixtape Mystery

Thirteen year old Sarah lives a typical life in Hershey, Pennsylvania until her world is turned upside down when she stumbles upon an old, mysterious mixtape in her parents’ attic. This tape, created by her long-lost uncle who disappeared in the 1980’s, isn’t an ordinary recording. It possesses the power to transport her back in time to the vibrant era of her parents’ youth.

With each song on the mixtape, Sarah embarks on a new adventure, reliving her mom's teenage experiences in the ’80’s, even meeting the uncle that until now she never knew she had.

The Mixtape Mystery is an engaging middle-reader novel that combines the magic of time travel, the nostalgia of the 1980’s, and the universal themes of family, friendship and self-discovery.

About the Author

Sarah divides her time between working in the public school system and performing in the wonderfully creative community of Lancaster, PA. She loves the unique perspective of 5th and 6th grade kids as they dance on the cusp of early childhood and adolescence. Sarah writes for them, hoping to offer mirrors and windows to kids about the complex and curious experience of childhood. The Mixtape Mystery is her first NaNoWriMo attempt and is so grateful for the motivation it’s provided!

About the Designer

Roshanak Keyghobadi is an Assistant Professor at the Visual Communications Department, Farmingdale State College - SUNY. She holds a doctoral degree in Art and Art Education from Columbia University and her MFA (Indiana University) and BFA (University of the Arts) are both in Graphic Design. She studied Visual Communication at Tehran University’s College of Fine Art prior to moving to New York. Roshanak conducts lectures, does research and writes regularly about design histories and designers in global context. Her essays have been published in the United States (AIGA Voice, Design Observer) and Iran (Neshan). She was also the managing editor of Graphis publications in New York City. Roshanak’s artworks have been exhibited in museums and galleries nationally and internationally and featured in books and magazines (Fiber art Now) and newspapers (NYTimes). She has been designing book covers for National Novel Writing Month's 30 Covers 30 Days since 2015!