National Novel Writing Month by Fran Joyce
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a U.S. based non-profit organization established to promote creative writing around the world.
The project started in 1999 and had 11 participants. In 2019, there were 455,080 participants.
Participants attempt to write a 50,000-word manuscript during the month of November. Well-known authors participate by writing pep-talks to encourage the participants who are called Wrimos.
The Na No Wri Mo website has tips to help Wrimos conquer writer’s block, info on where other Wrimos are meeting, and an online community of support.
The focus is on length not quality of work to encourage writers to focus on completing the first draft and editing it later.
Many works written during NaNoWriMo have eventually been published and several have made the bestseller list. There are rules that must be followed, and you have to enter to have a chance to win a prize and have your work seen. Entry is free.
I’ve always been too busy working on This Awful Awesome Life and my other writing projects to enter and participate, but I’m going to give it a try next year. If you enjoy writing, I recommend you do the same.
If you are worried you won’t be able to think of a topic or think your writing won’t be good enough, make it something for your bucket list as opposed to an attempt at a writing career. It will take the pressure off, and you’ll have more fun.
Research shows that it takes about a month to develop a new habit. If you’ve always dreamed of being a writer, this is a great way to start.
Spending the next year brainstorming ideas can be fun. Consider that your story will need a beginning middle and end but remember they can come in any order. Have you ever read a book that starts at the end of the story and explains how events happened? Some stories start in the middle in the thick of the action and jump backwards and forward. What you choose to do is up to you, but remember it has to make sense to your reader at some point. Remember, if you participate in NaNoWriMo, all your actual writing must be done in November.
Readers typically like to be surprised, but not insulted. You can’t introduce a character in the last five pages of your manuscript as a main character or the antagonist unless you’ve laid the groundwork for them to be in the story – we need to know they’re out there even if we don’t know who they are. Leave a few breadcrumbs for your readers, even if you intend to keep them hungry until the end.
I like to do writing prompts. I belong to a writing community composed of authors from all over the world who follow each other on Twitter. One of the authors I follow is Juliette Willows @JWillows_Author. She usually posts daily writing prompts on her feed and poetry writing prompts on Instagram. It’s fun and helpful to see how other writers interpret the same scenario. Some go dark. Others prefer humor or romance. Sometimes the writing prompt is a bit spicy and it’s interesting to see how writers handle sexual attraction between characters.
Another author I follow, BRCloth @brclothwrites posts a picture as a proposed book cover and challenges other writers to write the first few lines of the book based on the cover.
These are two excellent ways to encourage creative thinking. My responses always garner a few likes, but sometimes other writers will comment or ask me questions about what happens next. Hearing from your peers that you’ve started a story they want to read is such a great confidence builder.
This month I want you to sit down and write something just for you. You can Google writing prompts or you can attempt to answer a question you’ve always wanted to ask. Spend the day outside taking pictures and pretend one or more of the images is the cover of your book, or you can go on PIXABY and select a free image to write about.
Maybe you have a lot going on right now and feel overwhelmed. Open a folder on your laptop and write a letter to yourself or a loved one about how you feel. You don’t have to send it or show it to anyone, but when you read what you’ve written it helps you deal with your feelings because they’ve finally been articulated. In the weeks and months ahead, it can be helpful to look back and see if/how your feelings have changed.
The written word has power. Our ancestors were storytellers tasked with remembering details of important events. The stories were sometimes embellished for entertainment and legends were born. When we developed the written word, history could be preserved without embellishment and the works of great storytellers could be preserved for future generations. Find your power this month.
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