NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month
Every year, writers around the world challenge themselves to write a novel in 30 days. Joining forces via the Internet, over 200,000 participated last year. More than 30,000 crossed the finish line, generating 50K words on a first draft.
Participants can join others in their region for group writing time, bitch sessions, or pep talks, whatever they need at the time. Writing is solitary. NaNoWriMo is community.
What do you end with? Fame? Glory? A book contract? No… not so much. But you do finish. And sometimes, isn’t that all you need? To finish something you started? To reach a goal. To stretch yourself.
Thirty days will pass whether you take the challenge or not.
I decided to participate this year, not because I haven’t written 50K (I have). Not because I will end with a polished product (I won’t). But because I want to be a part of something that celebrates letting other things in life take a back seat. Putting writing first. Something many of us need to be reminded of from time to time. I love deadlines. I love word counts. I love benchmarks. NaNoWriMo offers all three.
Check in throughout the month for progress reports.
Congrats on your word count! You are on fire! I'm close behind you at 23,628 words. 🙂