National Novel Writing Month -- the world needs your novel!
November is just around the corner, and with it National Novel Writing Month. Referred to by those in the know as NaNoWriMo, the challenge begins on the first of November, and from there the participants work towards the goal of having written a 50,000-word novel by 11.59pm on 13 November – that’s around 1,667 words each day!
In October 2007, self-publishing company Create Space teamed up with NaNoWriMo to start offering winners a single free, paperback proof copy of their manuscripts, with the option to use the proof to then sell the novel on Amazon. As well as Create Space, NaNoWriMo has a new list of sponsors each year that reward winners and participants with discounts and prizes. The rules are pretty simple: writing starts at 12am on November 1 and ends 11:59:59pm on November 30, local time; no-one is allowed to start early and finish 30 days from that start point. Novels must reach a minimum of 50,000 words before the end of November. These words can either be a complete novel of 50,000 words or the first 50,000 words of a novel to be completed later. While planning and extensive notes are permitted, no material written before the November first start date can go into the body of the novel.
NaNoWriMo focuses on the length of your writing, rather than the quality of it, to encourage writers to finish their first draft during the challenge to get all their ideas on paper. You can then of course edit your novel, and hopefully have it published one day. The project started in July 1999 with only twenty-one participants, but by the 2010 event, over 200, 000 people took part, writing a total of over 2.8 billion words! If you’d like to give it a go, you can register on the project's website (https://nanowrimo.org/), where you also can post a profile and some information about your novel. Your word count is validated on the site, when you submit a copy of your novel for automatic counting.
Last but not least, your novel can be any theme, genre of fiction, and language. You can submit anything and everything from fanfiction (writing which uses trademarked characters), to novels in poem format. The website says that if you believe you're writing a novel, then they believe you are too. What are you waiting for? Time to get writing!
