National Novel Writing Month

Looking for a challenge? Why don't you try writing 50,000 words in 30 days. That may sound impossible, but that's the goal of NaNoWriMo. They claim that "For one month, you get to lock away your inner editor, let your imagination take over, and just create!"

Now don't get me wrong, as an editor, this idea is terrifying: not edit my writing? How could I do such a thing? But the purpose of National Novel Writing Month isn't to come away with this perfect, 175-page, bound masterpiece. The purpose is to get as many words written down as possible.There are plenty of skeptics, people who say quality is more valuable than quantity, and when it comes to publishing your book I agree. But who says you have to publish this? Or that you have to try to get it published on December 1st after your writing time is up? The amazing thing about NaNoWriMo is that if you can beat the challenge, you'll have 50,000 words to work with later on! If you spend all of November putting your thoughts to paper, you can spend the next 11 months refining those words. And creating a novel in under a year is definitely something to be proud of.

The best part of National Novel Writing Month is that you're not alone! In 2012 over 200,000 people participated in the event and more than 30,000 of them crossed the 50K finish line. NaNoWriMo works hard to put participants in touch with each other. For starters, they group people by region, including the Twin Cities. They also realize this is a pretty hefty goal, especially for students, so they've opened up the Young Writers Program (YWP), which allows those 17 and under to participate by setting their own reasonable, yet challenging, individual word-count goals.So here's my challenge to you: give NaNoWriMo a try. Even if you don't come away with 50,000 words, you'll still have more written than when you started this venture. In the end, what have you got to lose?