Participants of the month-long event (called NaNoWriMo for short) have the option of writing their draft on their computers and validating their word count via an online tool, or, using the honour system, entering their own word counts from a hard copy of their draft. The typewriter brigade, while anachronistic in appearance, is a dedicated group within the NaNoWriMo forums.
This is the 18th year that people from all over the world have taken part in the half-party half-writing exercise. National Novel Writing Month was started in San Francisco by freelance writer Chris Baty. The original challenge started with just 21 participants trying to scrawl out a draft within a single month. The project went online the following year — switching from the outdoor-temptation-filled month of July to the more beneficially cold month of November — and has not looked back. According to the NaNoWriMo site, 431, 626 people took part last year, and more than 40,000 people met their goal of writing 50,000 words in just 30 days.
The event allows would-be writers to coach and encourage each other and generally flex their novelist muscles. After signing up on the website, participants have a large selection of tools to help them with their efforts: a handy word count tracker and a set of shifting statistics keeps people up to date on their progress, and how their hills and valleys of productivity affect their overall pace; a series of pep talks, which has featured posts by such bestselling writers (and NaNoWriMo participants) as Rainbow Rowell and Patrick Rothfuss, gives writers motivation and ideas to keep going; outreach by local NaNoWriMo organizations is facilitated through the site, allowing writers to meet up with fellow participants in the community; and the NaNoWriMo forums are full of people floating ideas, sharing tips and generally egging each other on.
Some of the biggest names in software and technology are corporate sponsors of NaNoWriMo, showing off their appeal to creatives. The recent Creators update for Windows 10 that was announced by Microsoft demonstrates how valuable the approval of creatives can be for developers. Scrivener and Evernote offer participants some of the most sophisticated tools for digital drafting, and support the creative outreach that NaNoWri does every year; while Kobo and Kindlescout also sponsor the event, and promote the epublishing portion of the writer’s hard work — demonstrating what writers might accomplish with their revised drafts after the exercise has ended.
The nonprofit also uses social media to share random prompts, intended to inspire participants who might be having a hard time — or just like the idea of a wild change of direction. Live sessions of the staff in San Francisco showing off their own efforts are broadcasted throughout the month of November to add to the fun.
If you’re interested in giving it a try, head over to the NaNoWriMo website. Then get yourself acquainted with the preparation page.
