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NaNoWriMo--can you handle it?
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It’s time again for the NaNoWriMo. No, that’s not some kind of alien holiday snack food. For those who don’t know, it means National Novel Writing Month. Running every November since 1999, this event is a novel (ahem) approach to novel writing. Beginning November 1 (today), participants work by the seats of their individual pants to write a 50,000 word novel by midnight November 30. Any genre, any style, any subject—as long as it’s a novel-length piece of fiction, it counts.
NaNoWriMo was founded by freelance writer Chris Baty in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is now run by the Office of Letters and Light (www.lettersandlight.org/ ), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Oakland, California. Quantity has been the name of the game—getting the words on the page—since NaNoWriMo started. The product might not be good, but the point is to write, to learn, to share.
The website www.nanowrimo.org contains an abundance of information on the how, what, when, and why of the event. But overall it’s as simple as signing up and starting to write. No editing allowed so turn off that internal editor and just let the words flow. Last year over 119,000 people participated with more than 21,000 reaching that 50,000 word goal (figures according to www.nanowrimo.org/eng/whatisnano).
So anyone who has ever wondered if they could write a novel, this might be the way to find out. Can you move your creative ideas from your brain to the page (or screen), day after day after day without succumbing to burn-out, writer’s block, or total surrender? Sign up, get started, and find out if you have what it takes. This year’s event begins on the same day as the end of Daylight Savings Time, so we get to start with an extra hour in that first day. Take advantage of it!
To sign up go to www.nanowrimo.org/ now.
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