Or attempted it? How long did it take? I figure working in my spare time it would not be unreasonable to be able to finish it in two years. I'm talking about writing when I don't really have anything else going on. Not really sticking to a set schedule. A lot of days I'm sure I will come home from work and not feel like doing anything.

I recently came up with an idea that I have started to outline. Length is another questions I have. I'm estimating the average adult fiction novel to have somewhere around 90 to 120 thousand words. In more normal terms around 200-250 single spaced ms word pages. Does this sound about right? I think initiative to continue will be a larger issue than having enough length. My outline so far is just over 30 pages single spaced so the content should be there.

Thanks for any advice/thoughts you can provide that you think may help me along the way.

4/21/2009 1:49:35 AM

http://www.nanowrimo.org/
This site has a lot of resources for n00b novelist wannabees.

4/21/2009 2:08:05 AM

I'm not really looking to enter any contests. This is just for fun.

4/21/2009 2:19:47 AM

Despite there being "winners," NaNoWriMo isn't a contest. It's just an organization and event that encourages people like you to get the motivation and peer pressure needed to finally getting around to writing a novel by providing an external structure to guide you. The only criteria for "winning" is that you actually create 50,000+ words in the one-month time period.

Check the forums, particularly the "resources and writing support" and "NaNo tips and strategies" sections. It's a huge community of people at the same place as you all trying to help each other out and turn an outline into a novel. Even if you're planning on doing it for fun and not on a structured timeline, there's a lot of good stuff on that site.

My sister-in-law participated last year, as well as aielman.

4/21/2009 2:28:12 AM