Wednesday, November 3, 2010

November is....

National Novel Writing Month! (NaNoWriMo for short)
The idea for NaNoWriMo came about in 1998 when a program encouraging children to write began putting on this "contest." The idea is to write an entire novel in the month of November. Even if you don't finish the whole novel, the goal is to reach 50,000 words.

I first heard about NaNoWriMo last year, and I tried my hand at it. When you sign up on the web site (it's free!) at www.nanowrimo.org, you can set your home region if you like, and connect with other writers in your area. Every day you can post your word count to show others how far you've gotten.

NaNo encourages its participants to just write, and don't stop writing. Even if you hate what you wrote, they tell you to just take a new turn with your plot and keep writing. Anything to get to that 50,000!

Well, as I learned last year, it's easier said than done. I tried to write a historical fiction and I absolutely hated what I was writing. I was bored with my work, and got busy with school, and I gave up.

But not this year! I'm going strong so far, and I'm actually writing a science fiction piece, which is of course much more up my alley! So far it includes a band of aliens (though that hasn't been revealed yet in the story) who are kidnapping my protagonist and enlisting him to help them steal something. Little does he know that something is in an alternate universe. DUN DUN DUNNNN.

Is anyone else participating?? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this and encourage you to join if you're interested. It's not too late to start writing and still have plenty of time to get to 50,000 by the 31st!

4 comments:

salsa said...

As much work (school and paid) as I have to do, I really shouldn't even dare to entertain the idea.

Ah heck I'll try it anyway.

Wish me luck.

Courtney said...

That sounds awesome Jordan. I wish I had more time, it would be fun to try and write a novel. I might pass this along to some of the students I teach. Most of them are very good at making up stories.

Jordan said...

It's really not too bad as long as you try to stay on top of your word count. It's only 1667 words per day, and that's really nothing. I have classes, a job and writing for the Crimson White and I'm managing quite well so far.

Mark Penner said...

If I had more time, then maybe I would attempt it. As it is, I can't imagine that I would get very far.