NaNoWriMo

It is the first of the month!  And that means it is officially National Novel Writing Month! (in fact, I am making sure that this posts at midnight, eastern standard time, because I'm awesome.)  Now, I know that I'm usually on Tuesdays, but Alex asked for the Tuesday slot this week because she wanted to do something Halloween related, which was actually great, because that meant that I could kick off NaNoWriMo on the first.

Now, let's face it, if you're reading this blog you're either A. friends with Alex and I and know what this is because I participate in it every year (and Alex the years she can) or B. you probably participate in NaNo yourself.  But, on the off chance that neither of these things are true, let me tell you what Nano is.

As the picture at the top of my post suggests, it starts on the first of November and ends on the 30th of November.  You have 30 days to write 50,000 words, about the length of a novel.  Nano has around 300,000 writers and the official website is www.nanowrimo.org.

Now, Nano isn't just something that's done for fun (though, it is fun, if a bit intense.)  It's basically a big huge fun promotional month for the Office of Letters and Light.  They are a nonprofit organization that promotes writing programs for youth in schools, mostly.  They do programs like Camp NaNoWriMo and Young Writer's Program, which encourages kids and teens to write.  Really, their goal is just to promote literacy and writing and do whatever they can to help kids learn to read and write.  They're really a great organization.

If you're a writer and you've been living under a rock for the past 10 years or so, Nano is a great way to challenge yourself.  50,000 words comes to about 1667 words per day.  That doesn't seem like a lot but there are days that nothing comes to you.  You get stuck.  There are days that you just don't want to write.  And some days you just write complete crap.  But that's the point.  The point is not to stop.  The point is to write 50,000 words, even if it's 50,000 words of crap.

So this month, every Tuesday, I'm going to be giving NaNo tips.  If you decide to embark on this journey with me (which I will be doing diligently.  This will be my fifth year and I have won all the years previously; I don't plan to stop now) then I'll be here with some fun anecdote, some free advice and just some stress relieving techniques.

Happy NaNoWriMo, Everyone!