With how fast this year has gone, it’s hard to believe that November is already here. It’s the middle of Scorpio season and almost time for Thanksgiving and the dreaded preparation for finals. But November is also National Novel Writing Month, often abbreviated to NANOWRIMO.
The goal of NANOWRIMO month is to challenge writers all over the world to write a 50,000-word draft during November. This can be an entirely new draft or an addition to an existing draft. The simple goal is to just write.
One of the best things about NANOWRIMO month is that it is open to anyone who wants to write. There’s no contest you have to enter, nothing you have to apply for: you just write.
If you choose to participate in NANOWRIMO month this November, or for any future November’s, you’ll be in the company of thousands of other writers who all share a common goal.
Writing often feels like a solitary hobby, so it’s good to have a community. Especially when faced with a challenge such as writing 50,000 words in 30 days, which can seem daunting at first.
Though I’ve known about the challenge for years, this is my first time participating in NANOWRIMO month and I have to admit, I’m a little nervous. I’ve written a lot in my day, and even this seems like a lot.
NANOWRIMO month is the writing equivalent of writing a marathon. 50,000 words may seem like a sizable amount – too much even – if you take it one day at a time, you’ll be surprised to see how much that adds up.
Even if you only write 500 words a day for a month, that’s already 15,000 words. If you write 1,000 words per day, that’s 30,000 in a month.
If you’re planning on joining me and many others in doing the NANOWRIMO challenge, the best way you can keep track of your progress is by creating a profile for yourself and your project on the NANOWRIMO website. This is where you can update your daily word count and keep track of the predicted completion date for your project.
If you achieve the site’s daily goal of 1667 words per day, you’ll be set to reach 50,000 words by November 30th. Obviously, this article isn’t sponsored by NANOWRIMO.org, but I’ve found that it’s the best way to keep track of your writing and project progress.
The 1667 words per day is not a strict rule; the best thing about the month is that you’re just supposed to write. If you want to write more one day and less the other to still achieve the goal of 50,000, or if you just want to write a little bit each day, that’s still okay.
The goal is to just write, without overthinking and overanalyzing what you’re doing. Who cares if you think it’s not good enough? You wrote an entire novel in a month. You wrote every day for a month. You wrote, and that’s all that matters.
With that, Happy Writing! Currently I’m on day two and I’m on track to reach my goal.