
November means NaNoWriMo!
What?
I’ve gotten that question a few times in the past week. It stands for National Novel Writing Month. It has nothing to do with Mork & Mindy and Mork’s famous tagline.
The basic premise is that you write every day in the month of November and end up with a novel of 50,000 words. That breaks down to 1667 words written per day which sounds a lot less intimidating.
The program has been in existence since 1999 so obviously there are a lot of people that participate willingly and have some fun throughout the process. And let me emphasize some when we are talking the about fun part.
I have watched from the sidelines since I first started seeing it talked about. Sure it sounded interesting but did I really want to do that?
It turns out that this year was the year I decided it would be an interesting experience. So in the last week of October, I spent time outlining a few different ideas and putting real names and descriptions to the characters I have thought about for years.
Where will this end up? I’m not sure at all. I’ve been writing everyday and it’s been a fun/interesting experience. I have always loved to read but actually working out your own process makes you appreciate the books you read even more.
Writing is hard work. It’s also a mind game where your creative brain spends a lot of time making plot pieces fit together like puzzle pieces while the logical side of your brain tells you that there is a missing piece and what a bad idea this was in the first place.
Remember the some fun part from earlier? This is precisely the some part that I was talking about.
I enjoy writing so why not add in a challenge to mix it up?
Why not? I’ll let you know on December 1st.
In the meantime, I’ll be writing. And when I’m not I’ll be enjoying the books I am reading. Because when you are paying attention to plot structure and characters when you write, you pay even better attention to what a seasoned author has done with their characters and their own plot.
For me, this alone makes NaNoWriMo worth it because I’m enjoying the books I read that much more.
As for the rest – I’ll just have to see where it goes.
Until then, while I write, here are a few big novels to come out of NaNoWriMo in past years:
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
and Fan Girl by Rainbow Rowell
… just to name a few.
Are you participating in NaNoWriMo or have you in the past?
4 Comments
Michael
Wishing you luck as you start your journey! I’ve never seriously participated in Nanowrimo, but I’d like to try it someday. The community surrounding the challenge seems like it’d be really helpful.
jj3nkinson
Thank you! So far it’s been a fun experience. The community overall is very helpful!
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