Thursday, October 30, 2008

Teh Internetz: NaNoWriMo




This year, for the first time, I will be doing NaNoWriMo. For the uninitiated, that stands for National Novel Writing Month. This year will be its 10th anniversary.

The point of NaNoWriMo is to create an online support system that challenges participants to write a 50,000 word novel in the 30 days of November. It's a grueling task that only a small percentage of participants complete, but apparently it's supposed to give you the same feeling of accomplishment as running a marathon.

Just...you know...with words instead of actual steps.

Though I've never tried doing NaNoWriMo before, here are some tips that I've been told might help when attempting to write a novel in a month. They might end up being good general writing mantras.

    1. Do not edit or censor as you type. Just barf those words onto the word processor.

    2. Make a calendar with specific word count goals for each day.

    3. Create an outline to work from so you stay focused.

    4. Procrastinate by checking British National Treasure Stephen Fry's Twitter feed every few seconds.

    5. Use NaNoWriMo.org to meet up with other NaNos in your area to bitch, mainline coffee, and participate in write-ins.



The point of writing a novel in 30 days isn't to write anything GREAT, it's just to write freely with the support of a community of writers. Good luck to any fellow NaNos out there; let's look forward to December.

1 comment:

so much cake so little time said...

i've done a successful nano novel. it's unique. good luck!