NaNoWriMo

Most people know November for Thanksgiving, football and the infamous “No-Shave November,” but for those of us who can’t or won’t grow out our facial hair, there is another November activity to participate in, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).According to the NaNoWriMo website, NaNoWriMo has taken place each year since 1999.  Participants write 1,667 words a day so that by the end of the month they will have a 175 page novel, or approximately 500,000 words.  The event isn’t just for talented writers seeking to challenge themselves, but for any writer at any skill who wants to participate.The goal for the month is word count, not content.  The event  officially begins at 12:01 a.m.  Nov. 1, but participants can join in at any time.  The deadline to reach 500,000 words is 11:59 p.m. Nov. 30.

A big part of the NaNoWriMo experience is joining the community at www.nanowrimo.org.  There, writers can connect with other NaNoWriMo participants to find support and community.  There are forums to share struggles, and a profile page to display the novel’s premise and word count progress.

The novel must be completely from scratch, with only outlines of previous ideas allowed.  If at the end of 30 days the 500,000 word goal is reached, the novel can be uploaded for official verification and acknowledgement on the NaNoWriMo website.

The National Novel Writing Month is put on by the Office of Letters and Light (OLL) , a Berkley-based nonprofit organization that seeks to spread enlightenment of the arts through the web.  OLL also offers several other programs such as Script Frenzy, in which participants write a full-length script in the month of April.

NaNoWriMo isn’t for the weak at heart, certainly, but it is a much more satisfying and rewarding challenge, with the results lasting far beyond a scraggly bit of facial hair.