November Is…
Did you know that November is National Novel Writing Month? Well, for those of you who might not be in the know, it is.
There is a great website and creative endeavor to encourage would be novelists to write their very own novel this month!
It’s called NaNoWriMo.
What is NaNoWriMo?
Writing a novel alone can be difficult, even for seasoned writers. NaNoWriMo helps budding novelists track their progress, set milestones, connect with other writers in a vast community, and participate in events that are designed to make sure you finish your novel.
NaNoWriMo is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing on November 1. The goal is to write a 50,000 word, (approximately 175 page) novel by 11:59:59, November 30. As they say on their website:
Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. This approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.
That’s definitely a solid approach to overcoming the writer perfectionist blues we all fall victim to from time to time.
KB. Are You Doing This?
Unofficially, I will be taking part in NaNoWriMo, though I will not be using their website to track my progress, though I don’t want to discourage others from doing so.
As many of you might know, I have 4 novels crafted, in various stages of completion. I will be using this November to get one of these beauties of mine into publishable form.
I’ve blocked out a two hour window everyday, and an entire weekend day toward transforming the bones of one of my novels into the meat of literary quality that I aim to produce.
I definitely can’t commit to day by day updates of my novel writing progress, though I do hope to keep you in the loop about what happens with my month of novel writing. Stay tuned.
To all my fellow novelists in training, good luck with your writing this month, and every month beyond that!