Tuesday, September 02, 2008

NaNoWriMo

Chris has started a 30 Day Writing Challenge and that reminds me that it's time to sing out the praises of NaNoWriMo again.
NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. The idea is to spend 30 days writing a novel of at least 50,000 words. That amounts to at least 1667 words a day. Each November is their target month and every year many thousands of people do it and finish it. What's more, they enjoy it and feel that it's a real accomplishment in their lives.
I've done it the last two years and plan to do it again this coming one. The goal is very manageable as long as you keep working at it. 2000 words takes me somewhere between an hour and two hours, depending on how smoothly the story is going. They focus on word count over quality because they believe that you can get to a point where the push to write overcomes your internal editor. Strange and wonderful things can happen then. When I was writing I found that some of my characters had a life of their own and I was both surprised and proud. (Sadly, some of my characters had no life whatsoever but that happens too.)
If you've ever thought that there might be a novel in you, this is a wonderful way to scratch that itch! Who knows, you may find that you love it. If nothing else, you'll have something to brag about.
The site offers a free sign up. There are support groups all over the country and in other countries, too. Some of them have meetings, all of them offer support to other writers. Don't be afraid to try it, you'll be glad you did.

2 comments:

Kate said...

Wow, Peder! I've been reading about people doing this, but I've never known someone who actually did it. And I've really come into my own style of writing over the last year or so and was thinking about doing it, but the failure aspect is kind of daunting - just one more thing I might not be good at. Phht. I MIGHT do it with you!

Peder said...

Kate, take the plunge. I've done it the last two years and feel very proud of what I wrote. It's worth it.