The author blog of C. J. Ivory

Tinkerer with words. Dresser-Upper. Adorer of Steampunk and VictoriaNoir fiction. Occasional Lawgineer.

April 6, 2011

Another Plug for NaNoWriMo...

So, you all are probably groaning and rolling your eyes right now. "When will she stop nagging me to take part in NaNoWriMo?" you ask. Well, never actually. Get used to it.

Ok, now that we've got that clear, here's the latest plug. Upcoming movie, Water for Elephants, happens to be a screenplay from a NaNoWriMo novel! 

That's right, the original novel Water for Elephants (or at least 50,000 words of it), was written in ONE MONTH. And now - after, no doubt, several drafts and a lot of hard editing - it is a published book, a screenplay and now a movie starring Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson. Yes, Reese Witherspoon from Legally Blonde and Walk The Line, and Robert Pattinson from... some movie about emos, I think.




So, in conclusion: Do NaNoWriMo. Become amazing.

8 comments:

Carolyn Arnold said...

Wow! that's awesome! just to think that a Nano novel went that far sends chills through me!

J. Koyanagi said...

I had no idea. How awesome!

The first story I wrote with the intent of publication was a NaNo novel, and while it turned out to be more of a learning experience than a publishable piece of fiction, I learned the crunch of a deadline actually helps me push forward.

So while I don't always participate in NaNo because I may or may not be working on a first draft in November, I value what it taught me. I have the goal of writing the entire first draft of my WIP this month because self-imposed deadlines help keep me focused. Then come the revisions... ;)

Great post!

Trisha said...

That is so awesome!! Thanks for telling me about this :D I am a NaNo given, I always participate. You don't have to peer pressure me. LOL.

Charlotte Jane Ivory said...

Isn't it fantastic? I just love me some success story :)
@ J Koyanagi, welcome to my blog! I agree about needing the deadline - without the pressure I would never achieve NaNo outputs; not in a month of Sundays.
Do you guys know that April is Script Frenzy over at NaNo? I'm not brave enough for that yet, but maybe one day. Some of the November participants are turning their NaNo projects into screenplays. So, who knows, we might see more of these inspiring stories :)

Élan said...

Wow, that's really amazing! Now I'm excited to see the movie... and perhaps participate in NaNo this year :D

Anonymous said...

Gives hope to all us NaNo writers.

Charlotte Jane Ivory said...

It sure does! My latest novel (I've just completed the first draft at 70k) was originally a NaNo effort. Although none of my characters are glamorous enough to appeal to Hollywood producers, I think :)

Charlotte Jane Ivory said...

@ Elan, I encourage you to take part in NaNoWriMo this year! No matter whether you get to the projected 50k or not, it's still an amazing creative buzz!