[size=150] NIAD9½ HAS NOW FINISHED
THE BOOK WE WROTE IS AVAILABLE HERE [/size]
On Saturday April 4th, 2020, we’ll be taking part in NiaD 9½… Our latest event to pool the collective talents of writers from around the world and write a damn fine book in just a single 24-hour period!
Between all the self-isolation, social distancing, and the increasingly noisy background level of worry and sadness many of us are experiencing, we figured that if we have to be stuck indoors anyway, we might as well do something fun! So, at super-short notice (under three weeks!), we’ll be running a special “apocalypse” edition of Novel-in-a-Day!
What is it?
Novel-in-a-Day is an annual event where a group of writers from across the planet get together and write a novel. A whole novel. In a single day.
If you’re new to NiaD please check out the FAQs for more details and background, but essentially:
At midnight (UK time) on the day of the event you’ll be emailed a brief of what you need to include in your chapter.
You go away and write your section without any knowledge of the wider story or where your chapter fits in the book.
You return your chapter by 8pm (UK time) at which point it’s turned into ePub, mobi and PDF books using the magic of Scrivener, ready for publication on or around midnight.
What makes this a “Special Edition”?
This will be a slightly different event this time:
With only 3 weeks to sign up, we won’t be doing our usual sign up process (involving sending writing samples and such the like). Previous participants just need to just need to sign up in this post. New participants should sign up on this post and drop me an email (rog@pigfender.com) or Direct Message via the forum letting me have an email address and pen name. That’s it!
For the first time ever we’re sharing the genre in advance! The story will be ‘apocalypse’ themed (it seemed appropriate). Of course, at the time of writing we literally have no idea about anything else in the story so couldn’t share any more details if we wanted to!
This will be a shorter Novella-in-a-Day version - so will probably work out at roughtly 12 chapters per version of the book instead of the normal 20-24.
Finally, as this isn’t not part of the ‘normal’ series of ‘official’ NiaDs (it’s definitely the 9½ event and not the 10th, okay?!), instead of the normal ‘award mug’ you earn for taking part, you’ll earn the very sophisticated ‘espresso award’ shown at the top of this post.
When is it?
You can check the start time and submission deadlines for your local timezone here:
Starts - countdown or time
Submission deadline - countdown or time
Ends - countdown or time
How do I sign up?
If you’re up for the challenge of taking part (and have read the FAQs to know what you’re letting yourself in for), let me know by posting in this thread! If you’ve never taken part before, send me an email (rog@pigfender.com) or forum Direct Message letting me know what forum name you’ve signed up with, an email address, and what pen name you’d like to be credited with. Sign up closes at 5pm on Friday 3rd April 2020.
Note, there is no upper limit on the number of participants, so spread the word and invite your writing friends to sign up too!
[size=150]NOTE - NIAD9½ HAS NOW FINISHED! SEE YOU IN OCTOBER! [/size]
I had to think it over carefully … the full mug is really my motivation for doing this. But I guess the little cup is probably nice too… So on balance … Heck, yeah!
Thank you so much for doing this. It’s really nice to have something to look forward to in a long quarantine!
One request: tell people how many chapters there are, and which chapter they’re writing. Last time, I got instructions that made me think mine was, perhaps, Chapter 2 of 20, and wrote it accordingly. If I’d known it was a much later chapter, I would have changed the end of the one I wrote.
I don’t know… I think that’s part of the fun. I get to spend hours second guessing my plan then realize “you don’t know, so just let it go” and the fun really starts. Knowing that I was in front/middle/back would make it harder for me to really enjoy.
Maybe I’m too much of a hobbiest.
That said, I always approach NiaD as a short story more than a novella. I get my brief and use it to guide my plot just like all those silly writing exercises in school. I’m sure my stuff is a bit less conventional, but that approach frees me to write what I feel the brief needs.
I’ll take the first one if no one wants it. Then everyone else will have to guess who is a dolphin shapshifter, who is a raging rumaholic and who has a secret life as a time traveling pirate!
