In an exciting but somewhat challenging turn of events, I’ve decided that this year I’m going to take part in NaNoWriMo.
NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. I first learned about it last year but it was too late to fully join in. So, this year I’m taking up the challenge instead. Essentially the aim of NaNoWriMo is to write a novel in 30 days.
Your novel is considered completed at 50,000 words. That’s quite a big target, but it’s one I’m going to try and reach by the end of next month.
Throughout the whole of November, you’re meant to write enough each day to have a completed story by the end of the month. It’s a global challenge many writers gear up for a whole year in advance. I am not one of those people though. Instead, I’ve decided to take part in this as something of a spur-of-the-moment thing.
I’m excited at the prospect of actually writing a book to completion. However, I’m under no illusions about how tricky this will be. I’ll need to rely heavily on my planning skills and make sure I’ve got daily motivation to write. It’s going to be hard, but hopefully not impossible.
What to write for NaNoWriMo
The novel I’ve decided to work on is going to be the fully formed version of a short supernatural/horror story I started earlier in the year. I only wrote enough for a prologue, but I think it’s got potential. Hopefully, at least!
Anyway, I’ve decided to try and use this year’s NaNoWriMo challenge to actually see it through to completion. It’s the piece of writing that’s given me the most scope for continuation and challenge, so it makes sense to be the one I use for NaNoWriMo.
I’m quite excited to get started but I’m also nervous, as I’ve no real idea how the story will pan out yet. All I know is that from tomorrow I’ll be committing myself to write at least 500 words a day. At least.
Ways to get involved with NaNoWriMo
If you’re also feeling inspired, you can check out the NaNoWriMo website for more information if you fancy giving it a go yourself or even just downloading some resources to help get started.
Anyway, wish me luck and if you’re taking part in NaNoWriMo too, drop your comments below and we can try and keep each other on track this November.
Update: I won! Check out how I got on at the end of November in this post…
