Tuesday 29 October 2013

National Novel Writing Month, 2013 - Good luck!

November is nearly here, and that means NaNoWriMo - the National Novel Writing Month.
If you are giving it a go this year, then...
Good Luck!
NaNoWriMo is an annual challenge for anyone who wants to participate, and the objective is to write a 50,000 word novel in the 30 days of November. Are you planning to have a go? I am, and the more who join in, the merrier the party.
One of the wonderful features of NaNoWriMo is that everyone who takes part is so supportive of everyone else. We're all in this together and we all want each other to do as well as possible. There is a website which is packed full of fantastic resources - not least of all is the forum section where participants gather to chat, ask questions, share ideas and help each other overcome any problems along the way. If you set up a login with a user profile, you can also connect up with other writing 'buddies' and the sense of community becomes even stronger.
Talking of community, a huge number of people from all over the world take part, so wherever you are there's probably a local community of NaNoWriMo participants, and guess what - you can find out who they are, and connect with them, on the NaNoWriMo site. Could it get any better? Well yes! There are goodies to buy, motivational videos, pep talks from the organisers and loads more. Really, if you haven't been there already, go and take a look. You won't regret it.
When I first came across this in 2010 I was rather intimidated. After all, what if I failed? What if I couldn't keep the pace up? What if something came up during November and I couldn't carry on with it? If, like I was, you are worried by such things, you can relax. In fact there is no pressure whatsoever. Even if you write nothing during November, nobody will think any worse of you. We all have last minute changes to our plans, and despite the best planning we don't all manage to do what we hoped. Many people participate but don't achieve the full 50,000 words, but that's okay. There's no such thing as failing. Any words you do write are words you might not have written if you didn't participate. That's a win however you think about it.
Then again, you might complete the 50,000 word challenge. How great would that feel?
Already planning to participate? Good luck.
Still thinking about it? I really hope you join us. It'll be great fun.
My NaNoWriMo username is ambenson, come on by and add me as a buddy. We can encourage each other along the way.

2 comments:

  1. Looks like you're making awesome NaNo progress. Well done!

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    1. Thanks, Misha. I'm quite pleased with my progress so far, but I seem to have hit a bit of a slump this afternoon. Hopefully it'll pick up tomorrow.

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