Hail NaNoWriMo

For everyone who hasn't heard of NaNoWriMo - and seriously, who are people and where have you been hiding?! - NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. This is an event held world wide for anyone who's ever had the goal of writing a novel. Annually taking place in November, NaNoWriMo encourages writers to complete a 50,000 word transcript by the end of the month. This is a great kick in the butt for people like me who spend all year coming up with novel ideas that I never have time to sit down and write. A month means a short 31 day commitment and the website has amazing tools to help you as you write your novel.

The website asks that you create a username and password in order to be part of the event. The whole process is simple and free. Once you've signed up for one year, your account can be used every year during NaNoWriMo. The site suggests that you title your project and provide a blurb. After that, all you have to do for the next 31 days is write. You can log the number of words completed as you write throughout the month and a status page for your project will tell you the average amount of words written per day, the total amount of words already written, what day you're on in the challenge, how many days you have left, and how many words you should write a day in order to meet your 50,000 word goal. If you complete the 50,000 words, you're asked to copy and paste the text into a text box to that the site can verify your word count and no one else will be able to see or steal your writing material. Throughout the month, you are also sent encouraging emails by professional writers giving advice on how not to give up and other writing problems such as: procrastination, writing blocks, structuring stories, etc. Once you've won by completing 50,000 words, you are offered a prize for you hard work (given to you by companies who sponsor NaNoWriMo) that can be seen here.

As someone who never has the time to write during the fall because work as a tutor is A LOT more hectic during the school year, I've opted to do Camp NaNoWriMo which is offered during the summer. I'm enrolled in the July Camp and really like the difference in how the program is run differently. To start, because it is called a camp, you are offered the chance to be placed in a "cabin". This means that you can be put in a group with people who are similar to you in what genre you are writing, age group, word count, etc (although you choose only one of these for your cabin assignment).

Your cabin cannot see the text of your story but are shown the title and word count progress of your work. And best of all, you're around to encourage each other and give advice and commiserate about how tough the writing process is. The camp also allows you to pick your own word count goal as opposed to the fixed 50,000 word goal of NaNoWriMo in November. Other than that, you still have the same stat tools to help you monitor your progress and keep you on track and still receive inspirational emails filled with pep talks and advice.. At the end of Camp NaNoWriMo, you are also offered prizes after validating your work count. These prizes can be seen here.

NaNoWrimo is a great opportunity for those who really want to write a book. It's a great community of people and the site offer write-ins, where you can travel to a give location and write with other people who are signed up for the event.

I really recommend this to people who write or even as a great experience. Completing NaNoWriMo goals fills one with a SERIOUS sense of accomplishment. Please check out the sites and consider signing up yourselves. The July camp is already half way through but you can still sign up and complete 10,000 words (or whatever smaller goal you have in mind) by the end of the month.

Good luck guys and keep calm and write on.