Can you smell it? The autumn air moving in? Pumpkin spice lattes and gingerbread? Hot apple cider and pumpkin pie?

Freshly written novels?

Welcome to October, or as we Wrimos like to call it, outline month! As a long time National Novel Writing Month writer, I'm happy to announce that I'll be working on NaNo again this year, and I wanted to introduce some of you to the amazing-ness that is NaNoWriMo. Maybe I can convince some of you to give it a try this year along with me! We can all write ourselves into horrible plotholes together!

National Novel Writing Month is a time for writers to do exactly what they want to do: write, and do so with reckless abandon. The purpose of NaNoWriMo is to get people writing. You're not supposed to care about how it looks or the quality. Just get words onto a page. As they say, December is for editing.

Here are some tips if you're just getting started on NaNoWriMo, and you're feeling a little overwhelmed. Don't worry, it happens to the best of us. I'm currently sitting in a library trying to decide what to write this year, so you're all in a good spot!

Plan Plan Plan

Every year, I tell myself I don't need to plan. Every year I hit 20,000 words and have no idea what to do. Even if you're a hardcore pantster (writing by the seat of your pants) like me, planning a little can only help. A piece of concept art or maybe a couple notes on big plot points can do wonders. Because the bare minimum of words you have to do to win NaNoWriMo is 50,000, you have to write 1666 words a day, which comes out to around three pages. For some people, that's easy. For others, making a plan is helpful. I always recommend a tiny bit of planning.

Learn All the Lingo

I think half of the fun of doing NaNo is learning all the fun words: plot bunnies, pantster, plot ninjas, doctoring, Municipal Liaison, etc. The NaNoWriMo website gives you a lot of these things and helps teach you what you need to know, but after doing it for years, you'll have all the lingo down pat.

Be Part of the Community

The NaNoWriMo community is one of the best parts about the writing process. I cannot tell you how many times I've not been able to find information on something, or had no idea what fashion designers usually wear, or how long it takes a cow to decompose in clay dirt (ignore that last one). Going onto the NaNo forums and starting a thread to see if anyone has any ideas is the best. I've gotten recommendations on writing music to titles, and going onto those fun forums that show up every year like the Plot Bunny Day Care and the ones one describing your plot in three sentences are always fun to come back to. Did I mention we have a musical and a daily comic, and a whole slew of youtube songs?

DO NOT EDIT

Under any circumstances. So your plot has holes? Make a note. So you realized a discontinuity? Write a comment. Editing is for when the writing is done. NaNo is about writing and writing a lot. It's about getting ideas onto paper. No one else is going to read it. It's just you working hard for 30 days. Not editing is the hardest thing for me, and every year I end up in the NaNo Rebels area for doing it shamelessly. But still, it's a nice thought, and a good way to think about your writing.

Write Something Fun

Personally, I use NaNo to get away from my school writing. Fiction writing is something I adore, but I know some people who write a whole three stories at the same time during November, and some who write poetry, and others who just want to write non-fiction. NaNo for me is a time of fiction writing, but find something you love that you want to work on!

So come in and write! Recklessly! Insanely! Write like you've never written before! Check out the NaNoWriMo website and get signed up! I can't wait to read your novels!