The beginning of National Novel Writing Month is just around the corner. It begins on November the 1st and runs until November the 30th. It is known affectionately as NaNoWriMo to those that participate in this grueling month long expedition into the world of completing fifty thousand words in just a month.

NaNoWriMo is billed as a contest where the only prize is the accomplishment of the writer who finishes off the entire 50K words during the month. The rewards of satisfaction, achievement and the almighty completed novel are the grandest of prize here. In such, it should be billed more as a challenge.

During the challenge you can hook up with other like minded folk at the National Novel Writing Month site.

What exactly do you need to participate in the National Novel Writing Month?

First and foremost you need to be in top mental form to complete the number of words daily to meet this challenge. You will then need the motivation, desire and discipline to complete the challenge. Once you have these, you can then move on to the other standard necessities you will need:

• An Idea
• Paper
• Pen
• Computer
• Printer
• A fleshed-out outline of your story

You may choose to sign up and make friends at the NaNoWriMo site or just do it on your own. It will be necessary to sit down and divide out how many words you need to accomplish each day in order to meet the goal of 50K words in a month. One of the things that you need to factor in is that November is Thanksgiving holiday month and there will be commitments on your time towards the end of the month. It is important to figure this into your schedule so that you don't become overwhelmed in the final home stretch of the challenge.

With just two weeks to go before the kick off of National Novel Writing Month, you need to begin your preparations for writing.

Brainstorm some ideas to get the juices of your muse flowing. If you wait around until the day the challenge begins, your muse is likely to go into a stress induced coma. It could take days or even weeks to get him/her to come out of that coma, so have some idea of what you want to write about. The idea that gets you excited will be the one you want to focus on during the challenge as it will be that passion that sustains you during the month.

Now, that you have an idea of what you are going to write about -- a semi-plot, it is time to flesh out your outline. Use whatever method of outlining that works best for you. Some use post-it notes with jotted down time references, while others stick to a more formal direction for their outlining getting into the minutest details. Do what feels most comfortable here and remember an outline is just a guide, don't be surprised if your muse throws you a curve ball half-way through the challenge.

Figure out who is going to move the story along as you work through National Novel Writing Month. You may find that Missy a sub-character is really the one who needs to tell the story. Also, let them tell you how to present it. Your characters may want to deliver this in 1st person or 3rd. Go with it and let them guide you. If it doesn't work, you can always change it in edits.

You will also need to give them a home. This home can be anywhere you want it to be from the barnyard to outer space to a whole new world. The thing that you want to remember is to keep it believable that your characters could live in this time and place. The location can have as much to do with the plot of your story as the characters themselves.  

As was mentioned in the beginning, National Novel Writing Month can be stressful. It is a challenge to write 50K words of an unstarted manuscript in a month. The month of November is the beginning of the holiday season and thus adds additional pressures that can get in the way of writing time.

Prioritize your life around your writing for this month. Cooking meals and freezing them ahead of time will help with dinner. Get the family involved in keeping the chores caught up on.

Your main goal for the month should be to finish the novel you are dreaming of writing. Fifty thousand words in one month equals out to about 1700 words a day. If you think about it, you probably do that much typing in forums and blogging. It can be accomplished.

1.  Make sure your computer is in shape before you start banging out your work on it for National Novel Writing Month. You don't want to be in the middle of a great scene only to have the computer crash and you lose all your work.
2. Make sure your health is in shape as well. Take care of you. Don't get so involved in National Novel Writing Month that you forget to eat, bathe, or brush your teeth. Your body will thank you as well as your family.
3. Avoid the negatives during the month. If you have negative energy around you, it will sap your strength to finish the challenge.

 Aritcle copyright to lynnechandler at HubPages 2009.