It's time to sign up for NaNoWriMo! Yay!
If you don't know what I'm dancing on the ceiling about, it's (inter)National Novel Writing Month--November. This is a competition in which there are no judges, no entry fees, no prizes (other than bragging rights, a finished first draft of a novel, and the adventure of a lifetime), and only one goal shared by tens of thousands of people worldwide: To write a whole novel in one month.
The task put before you is to start the first draft of a novel on November 1st, and write 50,000 words before midnight on November 30th.
I've done it twice, and it's one of the best things I ever did for myself. In fact, last year, spurred on by competition with my sister and a really, really good story, I wrote not 50,000 but 100,000 words. It's a powerful event that's affected a lot of aspiring writers for the better.
You don't have to produce the greatest novel ever. You don't have to ever show it to anyone. You can write fanfic. You can be silly. You can make mistakes, get messy, and laugh about how pitiful your writing is for the whole month with other people who are doing exactly the same insane thing. And then you get to spend all of December telling people "Last month, I wrote a novel," and watching their jaws drop.
If you haven't signed up already, check out http://www.nanowrimo.org, which has lots more details, forums, and so on.
BTW, I'm not writing ad copy cuz anyone asked me to--I just get this hyper about Nanowrimo every year now, because it's that awesome. And, like a really good dinner, the more people you share it with, the better it feels.
If you don't know what I'm dancing on the ceiling about, it's (inter)National Novel Writing Month--November. This is a competition in which there are no judges, no entry fees, no prizes (other than bragging rights, a finished first draft of a novel, and the adventure of a lifetime), and only one goal shared by tens of thousands of people worldwide: To write a whole novel in one month.
The task put before you is to start the first draft of a novel on November 1st, and write 50,000 words before midnight on November 30th.
I've done it twice, and it's one of the best things I ever did for myself. In fact, last year, spurred on by competition with my sister and a really, really good story, I wrote not 50,000 but 100,000 words. It's a powerful event that's affected a lot of aspiring writers for the better.
You don't have to produce the greatest novel ever. You don't have to ever show it to anyone. You can write fanfic. You can be silly. You can make mistakes, get messy, and laugh about how pitiful your writing is for the whole month with other people who are doing exactly the same insane thing. And then you get to spend all of December telling people "Last month, I wrote a novel," and watching their jaws drop.
If you haven't signed up already, check out http://www.nanowrimo.org, which has lots more details, forums, and so on.
BTW, I'm not writing ad copy cuz anyone asked me to--I just get this hyper about Nanowrimo every year now, because it's that awesome. And, like a really good dinner, the more people you share it with, the better it feels.
