While November is very well known for “No Shave November” and Thanksgiving Break, many people might not know that November is also a very big month in the writing community because it is National Novel Writing Month. Starting in 1999, National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo, was started to encourage writers to write 50,000 words of one novel. NaNoWriMo is a non-profit organization dedicated to making the world a better place through writing and creativity. Many writers around the world can join this challenge, using the NaNoWriMo website. It is easy to keep track of what projects you are working on and how much you have written for that project. You can also earn badges as you write, which motivates you to keep going! Badges can be awarded for updating progress, making your different goals, and making progress on your novel. This is one factor of the challenge that can keep people super motivated to make their goal of 50,000 words.
NaNoWriMo also has an open community where it is easy to make friends and writing buddies who all have the same goal of completing this challenge. NaNoWriMo hosts different virtual and in-person events that include guest-speaking authors and write-ins that anyone can participate in! It is super easy to sign up and get the motivation and support you need to make your goals and finish your novel. You can even possibly win prizes through the organization. NaNoWriMo gets big during the month of November, but the website runs all year long so you can participate at any time. As a college student, November is super busy with school so you can participate during any time throughout the year, or even set your own smaller goals to balance with the other responsibilities of being a college student. Maybe instead of writing 50,000 words, your goal is to finally finish that research project, or even just write a few short stories! This community is very supportive of any goal you have, even if you don’t have time to do the full 50,000-word goal. If writing is something you are interested in, or if you want to write another book, starting this challenge might be the perfect opportunity for you to do so. And remember, the hardest part about writing is starting. Use this as your opportunity to motivate yourself and start!
Link to the NaNoWriMo website: https://nanowrimo.org/dashboard
Link to the subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/nanowrimo/