For most people, the month of November represents Thanksgiving. For college students, it is the rapid approach of finals, the month that most every paper must be written in and every project must be completed. For me, November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short.
The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words in a month, which divides out to approximately 1,667 words per day. It's a hefty task, but as I've found out, it's doable. More than that, it can teach you a lot about yourself as a writer.
I learned about NaNoWriMo when I was in high school after my English teacher told me about it. I'd never heard of it prior, but once I researched it, I knew that I had to participate. It typically took me about four months to write a novel of around 55,000 words, so I thought that this would be a fitting challenge. So, in November of 2013, my freshman year in college, I completed my first NaNoWriMo with over 58,000 words. I couldn't believe it. That didn't quite complete my novel, so I wrote for about ten more days after that, but it taught me that I could write a novel in less time if I really made the time to do it.
This year will be my fourth year participating in NaNoWriMo. It has certainly not been a walk in the park. As I have gotten further on in my college career, time became a larger issue, particularly when I was also completing an internship and the assignments for my classes became more intense. Completing NaNo often meant getting up early in the morning or staying up late at night to get my word count in. Sometimes, it just didn't happen. I only completed about 13,000 words for NaNoWriMo 2014. Because of that year, I've made it my goal to complete NaNo every year after.
This year has not been my most successful for writing. Time has reduced itself even more, and by the time I get time to write, I am sometimes too tired to even think. However, I have arranged my schedule to minimize my load as much as possible. I am doing homework weeks ahead of time. I cannot really change some of my other commitments, so I simply have to make the best of it. This may mean I am tired during most of November, but it's worth it. At the end of the month, I will have the first draft of my next novel, and that's something to be proud of.
Besides the satisfaction of having essentially written a draft in a month, there are other rewards to participating in NaNoWriMo. There are forums where you can discuss your plot, writer's block, or the latest book to movie adaptation. There is also NaNoMail, which allows you to message other members and get in touch so that you can share the struggles of NaNo. I've utilized the messaging in the past, but I have really gotten into the forums and messaging this year. I've been excited for NaNo since the website got revamped in October, so I'm more than ready to get writing. As a result of that, I've gotten to know some amazing writers from all over the world, which is worth more than any word count could be.
If you or anyone you know is a writer and might be interested in participating in NaNoWriMo, please share this article and visit www.nanowrimo.org for more information.
