National Novel Writing Month

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.

In 2007, we had over 100,000 participants. More than 15,000 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.

So, to recap:

What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month's time.

Who: You! We can't do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let's write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.

Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era's most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.

When: You can sign up anytime to add your name to the roster and browse the forums. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.

Still confused? Just visit the How NaNoWriMo Works page!

Also, check out NaNoWriMo for Young Writers and follow the blog of our own iLiF Member, Buffy, here on the Network as she pursues this ambitious goal! :D

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Comment by Buffy on November 7, 2009 at 7:45am

Greetings,
You know I was able to share last year's "Two Step" novel with a friend and fellow novelist. It helped be the ice breaker of our relationship. It was such a wonderful feeling to be able to share my draft with him and gave us something to talk about. It says something when you have a body of work to share with other people. To be able to say yes I wrote a novel. It's a wonderful feeling to be able to tell people I am novelist. The excitement shared here about my new novel Enigma is simply exhilarating because I am creating a daily diary of videos to track my journey as I create this year's novel. I am new to video so this is also a new form of self expression for myself.

If you are interested in hearing about my journey please check out my videos on NaNoWriMo to get a feel for my story and my creative writing process. http://www.youtube.com/user/azurebreezes" target="_blank"> http://www.youtube.com/user/azurebreezes

Thanks,
Bodacious Buffy