Monday, November 2, 2009

National Novel Writing Month: Day 2

Ah, November. It's fall, the leaves are changing color, my family's trying to figure out where we're doing Thanksgiving dinner...& I'm going to try to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. I started last night.

What is it? It's NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month--"a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30," explains the website. This crazy endeavor started out with 21 participants in 1999, and in 2008 there were over 120,000 participants. If you are interested in taking part, you can still sign up! The rewards you'll reap are mainly personal fulfillment; if you finish your novel, NaNoWriMo just puts your name up on their Winner’s Page and sends you a winner’s certificate and web badge.

The NaNoWriMo website has lots of starting tips, a "Procrastination Station" forum, & if, you sign up for it, you can receive pep talks in your email from established writers such as Philip Pullman & Sara Gruen. Also, if you are 17 years old or younger, you can still do NaNoWriMo as part of the Young Writers Program.

This is my second year participating but last year I didn't finish, so cross your fingers & wish me luck!

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