It’s almost time for National Novel Writing Month to start again! If you’re not sure you want to make the commitment, I’m going to give you 5 reasons to join NANO and get that novel out of your head and onto your hard drive.
First, if you haven’t heard of NANO then you might be new to writing. National Novel Writing Month (NANO for short) takes place in the month of November. The challenge is to write 50,000 in one month, which breaks down to roughly 1,667 words per day. Sound like a lot? It is! But that’s the whole point, and you need to accept it as a challenge rather than turning away before you even get started.
In that spirit, I’m going to offer you 5 reasons to join NANO:
5. Accepting the challenge to write 50,000 words in one month teaches you to write faster. For those of you who agonize over every word—this is a good thing! Sometimes you have to just spit it out (and clean it up later.)
4. Pounding out a story that’s been buzzing in your heart actually restores the fun of writing. You heard me right—writing is supposed to be fun!
3. Camaraderie, because when you’re joining thousands—dare I say millions?—of novelists worldwide you feel like you’re part of something bigger. Plus there’s another layer of accountability.
2. At the end of 30 days you have a finished novel. Naturally it won’t be polished and submission-worthy yet, but you’ll have a whole first draft! (Even if you’re writing a longer novel, you’ll have one flying leap of a great start.)
And the #1 reason to join NANO….((insert drumroll))
1. To prove to yourself you can do it. If your writing has been stalled out or gotten stale, or you’ve never completed a novel before, sometimes you have to just prove to yourself that you can, in fact, write an entire novel. That you have what it takes to release the story inside of you and write what matters.
If you’re thinking about joining, now is the time to flesh out your story and dig in to figure out who your characters are and what they want. OR, if you’re slightly more daring you can wait until 12:01 a.m. November 1 and just start writing. (That is SO not me…I’m a plotter. Sort of.)
The first time I joined, I halfway plotted but the story came out…sad. And bad. And I killed the only character I liked. Ah, the good ol’ days.
This year, I have something a little better in mind, and I can’t wait to see where it goes. Care to join me? Go to the NANO site and register today. See you in November!
I have done NaNo many times, but this year…sadly, I am not. I am on a deadline for a project and can’t stop it to start a new NaNo story. BUT…I will be living vicariously through you! 🙂
Awww…..and you’re the ONE person I thought would always NANO. LOL! Oh well, your duty calls 😉
I bit the bullet and committed to Nano yesterday! I’m about 500 words in. I’m only writing in the evenings, so I’m sure I won’t make the 50,000, but for me it’s more about making more of a commitment to my writing, less about a finished novel.
That’s such a great way to look at it, Tiffiny! Making a firm commitment is actually more important than how much you can produce. With commitment, the finished manuscript will eventually come 😀