National Novel Writing Month: why it's worth joining

National Novel Writing Month, more famously known as NaNoWriMo, takes a storm across budding novelists and writers across the world every year in November, encouraging new and experienced writers to stick to their word count and start the novel they’ve always wished of writing.

Beginning in 1999, National Novel Writing Month is a yearly challenge to write 50,000 words of a novel during the month of November. NaNoWriMo is a non-profit organisation that supports budding authors and encourages fluidity in their writing. Now widely internet famous, the NaNoWriMo community is growing each year and individuals as well as the organisation themselves set up writing sessions in thousands of partnering organisations such as your local library or coffee shop. 

National Novel Writing Month tries to get you as far as you can and as confident as you can be with your writing.

There is so much ease and self-establishment with the NaNoWriMo month. You can either write yourself and mentally track your month’s word count, setting daily goals for yourself. Or you can directly sign up for NaNoWriMo’s website, setting up your draft’s name and updating your word count out of the 50,000 after every writing spree… or stare at it dauntingly when you’ve got a bad case of writer’s block. The website also gives clear access to other people’s past drafts and current works, giving you the chance to connect with friends joining you in the writing month or form new friends and writing groups. After certain updates, making new friends etc you also have the chance of earning badges online. If the website isn’t your kind of thing however, every year social media under the #NaNoWriMo hashtag and you can find well-known creators and authors taking themselves up for the challenge too. 

If you find yourself frightened by the idea of stepping into writing remember that NaNoWriMo has been the home for drafts of many famous novels that have been published, for example, Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl and Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus. National Novel Writing Month tries to get you as far as you can and as confident as you can be with your writing. Don’t be daunted by the idea of 50,000 words or upset if you don’t reach it this year. I for one logged back into my account for the sake of this article and have abandoned a 7,182 out of 50,000-word novel since November 2018; there’s no embarrassment in attempting this 50,000-word challenge, and who knows, you could be the next Rainbow Rowell (a personal favourite).