Write That Book With National Novel Writing Month Challenge!
Write That Book With National Novel Writing Month Challenge! It All Starts With Words
Those in the novel writing community know that writing a book is no joke. It takes a lot of will and determination mixed with self-doubt to complete a book of a certain length. If you’re an aspiring adult literary fiction novelist like me, you’d want to aim for 85,000-90,000 words. That’s a lot of words to conjure up in one’s head within such a short period of time.
Luckily, there’s an organization whose mission is to help you write that book after all. They’re called NaNoWriMo, which stands for National Novel Writing Month. Every year in November, participants from around the world “pledge” to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Founder Chris Baty came up with the idea in the late 90s as a way to hold himself (and anyone who wishes to join his circle) accountable for actually completing a book manuscript. It later morphed into a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and became a truly robust online community complete with staff, fundraising drives, and resources for aspiring authors.
Tips on Making Novel Writing Successful
Only you can decide whether or not you should write a book. But if you’ve ever dreamt of holding a book in your hand, one that you’ve spent countless hours on, then read on.
Last year I participated in NaNoWriMo and learned a lot about writing a book. Still, I feel like there’s more to be learned! Which is why I’ve decided to do it again. If this is your first time, then I’ve got some advice for you on how to make this month successful.
- It does not have to be perfect. This is the most important thing of all! The idea is to finish not to have a perfect draft. Here’s something you may or may not know: a lot of popular, well-known published novels have gone through multiple rounds of revision before they end up in the hands of readers, so don’t be afraid to write “crappy” words. You’ll fix them later.
- Check out the Write Minded podcast whose hosts collaborate with NaNoWriMo to give you craft writing tips and inspiration that might help you on your month-long journey. I find the hosts’ perky voices and bright personalities a joy to listen to and the fact that they speak to a lot of authors about their craft is also immensely helpful.
- Think of it as writing one essay per day. Correct me if I’m wrong, but most of us read about 1-2 articles on the internet per day. Depending on where and what you read it can be as short as 500 words or as long as 5,000 words. If you’re like me, then it’s around 1,000-2,000 words on average per day. Well, if you divide 50,000 words by 30 days in November, then it’s an average of 1,667 words per day. That’s within a healthy range of what we read. So why not open up the computer (or pick up a pen) and start writing?
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go work on my word count goals.
Happy writing!
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