NaNoWriMo.
For those unaware, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month
November is the time of year when writers from around the globe challenge themselves to achieve their personal goals of writing their own novels. Short novels average 50,000 words long, so the goal at the end of the month is to have that many words typed up just in time for the holiday season.
If you want to learn more about NaNoWriMo and how you can participate, feel free to check out the official website. The website is full of information about National Novel Writing Month.
If you sign up, it will also track your progress, and it even has a badge system to help motivate you to reach your goal.
Lastly, it has a handy F.A.Q section that will answer all the questions you have about the event and more.
I bet you are wondering if I have ever completed NaNoWriMo.
The answer is technically yes.
Screenshot from the NaNoWriMo website showing that I completed the challenge in 2022.
I have attempted NaNoWriMo for several years (2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2022). With each year, I’ve gotten mixed results, but never really passed the 30K mark.
So, why did I fail each time?
After doing a bit of reflection, I realized why I failed.
It was because I was always ill-prepared for NaNoWriMo. I would remember it far too late. Half the time, I did not even know what I was going to write about until November 1st! Imagine how chaotic that was!
The key to winning NaNoWriMo is pre-production.
Plan ahead, and it will save you time and sanity in the long run.
The goal is that by the time November rolls around the block, you will be ready to write a minimum of 1667 words per day.
In the meantime, check out the official website, sign up, and start brainstorming for novel topics. Next week, I'll have some great tricks and tips to narrow down all your brilliant ideas and perhaps even some goodies to help you out as well!
💡Note: This was originally written in my other blog 15 Minutes of Creativity. Reposted here since that site is down as of November 2024.