For writers, this is the highly anticipated month of the
year. We bite our fingernails to stubs,
elusively try to rearrange our schedules, and promise—no, threaten—ourselves to
be as productive as possible.
It’s NaNoWriMo,
National Novel Writing Month, and it’s the most wonderful time of the
year. Okay, maybe Christmas is, but
November holds a very special value for those who yearn to write a novel or
simply tackle a writing project.
Sounds crazy? It is… a bit. The truth is if we silence our inner critic, if we truly sit down and ignore the grammatical mistakes, editing faux-pas, and everything telling us that our writing isn’t turning out right, then the 50,000 word mark is actually achievable. Read author Marissa Meyer’s guest blog to find out how NaNoWriMo inspired her to write, complete, and publish the first book of her Lunar Chronicles series.
NaNoWriMo is a personal challenge that expects you to complete 50,000 words throughout the month of November.
My personal journey with NaNoWriMo began when Danielle Rose first introduced me
years ago. She had participated in the
challenge and found it inspirational and productive. Hesitantly, I checked it out for myself. Right after saying, NaNo-What-O? I found myself shouting, sign me up! And so began a journey that I would repeat
yearly. Although I’ve yet to achieve the
full 50,000 word count, I’ve completed a lot more than I would have without
NaNoWriMo’s challenge and inspiration.
The cool thing about NaNoWriMo is that it’s not a solitary
venture. It literally connects every
writer from everywhere in the world.
Built to be an interactive and communal effort, participants find an
entire platform to network with fellow writers.
This is such an important aspect of NaNoWriMo because connecting with
others leads to inspiration, writing critiquing, tips, and best of
all—encouragement and accountability.
Entire groups, blogs and social media trends have emerged to
facilitate the connection between NaNo participants.
Mind Key's daily NaNoWriMo Challenge for
example, encourages writers to share their daily novel excerpt for others to
read and vote on as a motivational tool to help them continue creating.
Tamara Rokicki runs a cozy Facebook Writers Group,
which focuses on providing daily writing prompts, inspiration, tips and
networking. She’s also dedicating the
month of November to posting regular
NaNoWriMo blogs and updates. Other
Mind Key members participating in this year’s NaNoWrimo are Danielle Rose, Sarah Loukos, Kevin Hall, Tara Ann Lesko and Rebecca Godina.
So what are you waiting for?
It’s not too late to sign up and join millions of writers in this
amazing challenge. Happy Writing!
Post a Comment