NaNoWriMo

It's time to write!!!! National Novel Writing Month is an annual event held each November, and guess what - it's November!!

Time to begin the challenge that will finally force you to write that book you have always been dreaming of!

Good luck!

National Novel Writing Month is celebrated each November by people around the globe. The main goal of the month is for writers and aspiring writers to focus their efforts in a 30 day sprint to complete a novel. The idea isn't to have a "finished product", but instead to focus on word counts as a way to get ideas down on paper, and then to spend time after the month is over to rework the writing into a publishible book.

To help reach your goal, there is a daily goal of 1667 words, reaching a total of 50,000 words at the end of the 30 days. The big goal really is word count, and 1667 is no small number! It requires focus and determination, and prioritizing your daily schedule to allow for sufficient writing time.

Are you up to the challenge?

There have been many stories of people who have met the challenge of NaNoWriMo, and have then been able to continue on with the project and turn it into a finished novel. For many, getting started on a new project is the most difficult part. Once that initial hurdle has been passed, there seems to be more focus and drive to be able to see the project to completion.

The best way to get started with NaNoWriMo is to start writing!! Put down as many ideas as you can and then begin to tie them together. Remember - the goal for the month is not to have a completed novel, just a large selection of writings that can then be edited into the final product.

Perhaps the most difficult part of the month is selecting the topic or theme of your book. Is it going to be fiction or non fiction? Romance or SciFi? An epic adventure, or a simple love story? Once you are able to get the concept of your novel down, the rest should come much more easily.

To help in this process participants are encouraged to plan out ahead of time what they will be writing about. An outline of the topic helps to give some structure to the writing, but of course, again the main goal is just to get your daily word count met so feel free to go wherever the writing inspiration takes you. There will be plenty of time to put together your thoughts and edit out the novel when the month is over.

One of the most interesting and exciting part of NaNoWriMo is the group write-ins and the support of fellow writers. From the beginning the project encourages working as a group as far as supporting one another and encouraging each other. Your novel is yours and yours alone, but the experience is shared with thousands of other people who have the same goal. It really is motivating to know that other people are doing the same thing, and that you are all working towards an individual goal while at the same time participating in a large group effort.