What is it? No, it isn’t a result of me mashing the keyboard with my hand. It’s short for National Novel Writing Month!
Basically, NaNoWriMo is a writing challenge. You have one
calendar month to complete a 50,000 word rough draft of a novel. That’s
approximately 1,613 or 1,667 words per day depending on the number of days in
the month (I suggest you never do this is February!)
However traditionally November is the official NaNoWriMo
month for two reasons. 1) because it’s cold and generally crap outside so it’s
a welcome task to do whilst in hibernation until the Christmas season begins
and 2) if lots of people are doing this during the same month then there is a
chain of support to get through to your final wordcount, for example at http://www.nanowrimo.org/Okay, 50,000 words is more like a novella but stop being picky; it’s a book. Possibly the first book you’ve ever written so a challenge worth taking. This does not mean that you will have a polished novel by the end of the month. Far from it! But the point is that you will have got through that first draft that you can then shape into something you can be proud of.
I did NaNoWriMo back in 2005 and I found it an amazing experience. I haven’t used the novel as material, not yet anyway, but it got me writing on a daily basis and it gave me a deadline...two of the key elements to assist in qualifying yourself as a writer.
So this November, why not do something you've never done beforee. Check out the website for more info and I suggest buying
the featured book, No Plot? No Problem! which accompanies the process to help keep you on
track.
