It’s that time of year again where writers all over the world abandon their families, friends and obligations to participate in a month-long writing extravaganza!! Yes, reader, it is time for NaNoWriMo!!

But wait… What the hell is NaNoWriMo?

This long acronym stands for National Novel Writing Month and it takes place every November 1-30. During this month, people commit to writing 50,000 words a.k.a a novel in 30 days. In a way, it is a competition- with yourself. You can “win” NaNoWriMo by writing the 50,000 words. You get a certificate and a social media badge. (You may get more but because I have never “won” *sad face* I do not know what you can win.)

But why would anyone want to do this? Some people love to write, but they do not have the motivation to write any other time of the year. Maybe you have an idea for a novel for years, but you have not acted upon it. Now you have no excuse. You take one month and write a first-draft of your novel. There are no limits to what your novel can be about and you write whenever you get a chance.

How does it work?

To begin this month-long journey, you first need to create a profile on the NaNoWriMo website. Once all the preliminary information is in place, you can join a region/area. This is the community where you can talk to like-minded people about writing and even get opinions on your current work. It comes in handy when you have the dreaded writers’ block and need a little push.

And now to the novel writing! You can write your novel about anything you want. It may seem daunting to just pull a novel from scratch but it is doable. In the program, you can write in your preferred word processor or straight to the site. You just need to get a word count. The goal is to get to the 50,000 words. To put this into more approachable numbers, to “win” NaNoWriMo you need to write 1,667 words every day.

To encourage the writers during this month, you can also win participation, writing and personal achievement badges to share via social media. Remember, the goal is to write, write and write. If your novel does not make sense, that is fine. Just get the word count and edit after the event. Once November is over you can finally say you wrote a novel!!

But like… 50,000 words is a lot.

Yes, I know 50,000 words is a lot of words, but you are writing a novel. And if you love writing like the Odyssey team and I do, then this will be awesome for you. But there are some ways for you to survive NaNoWriMo, even though it is only a week away.

1. Create an outline

I did not do this last year and I wish I had. Many vloggers I have watched on YouTube say doing an outline before November helps you figure out where your story is going. I have seen some that are super detailed with pages upon pages of character synopses, plot points, resolutions, and setting changes all laid out to a tee. Some even have dialogue built in. But I have also seen some writers just write out their main characters’ backgrounds and quick beginning, middle and end summaries. Not much but just a general layout of where they would like the story to go. Whatever you want to do is good. There is no right or wrong way to do NaNoWriMo.

2. Try to write everyday

This one seems the most obvious but writing every day is a huge plus. For busy people this may not seem plausible, but maybe instead of watching the “Bad Tina” episode of Bob’s Burgers again (for the fifth time) on Netflix, take that twenty-minute break to do some writing. Instead of creeping on Facebook for forty-five minutes with your morning coffee, write a paragraph about the dragon attacking the evil vampire pig king. Whatever floats your boat.

3. Embrace your writing comrades

One of the best parts about NaNoWriMo is the community surrounding it. When I participated in my first NaNoWriMo event last year, I found out about it through book vloggers and bloggers. I would follow them on social media and we could do “writing sprints” (take days out of the week and write continuously for a couple of hours). Through these interactions you can meet other people and add them on your NaNoWriMo page.

Like I mentioned earlier, you have a region community you joined when you made your profile, use them! They can be great writing partners for bouncing off ideas and you can even help someone with their novel. I also have a few friends on Facebook I see are participating via NaNoWriMo’s Facebook event page. Ask them if they want to get together to do writing sprints at a local coffee shop. Have a writing day where everyone brings snacks and then you sit quietly for hours tapping away at your computers. Whatever floats your boat, homeslice.

4. Have fun!

I know I have put a lot of emphasis on trying to “win” NaNoWriMo, but just have fun. Writing can be hard and I do not want something that is supposed to be a fun experience be taxing and like homework. If you don’t want to write a full-on novel, then don’t. A couple of awesome ideas I have heard recently are to write a poem a day and write a short story each week. You won’t get to the word count, but that is thirty more poems or four more short stories than you had before. Maybe you can do a combination of short stories and poems, alternating each form. Again, whatever floats your boat. There is so much freedom with writing and I want you to have fun. So, if you aren’t into winning, then screw the word count and write your heart out.

Hopefully by now you are interested in participating in NaNoWriMo this year with me and thousands of other aspiring writers. If you do not have time for an outline, don’t worry about it. Just wing it and write from your heart. No matter what your word count is just remember you are closer to writing the next great novel than you were a month ago.

Happy Writing!