National Novel Writing Month

As some of you may or may not know, November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. If you haven't heard of NaNoWriMo before, here's what the website has to say:

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing on November 1. The goal is to write a 50,000 word, (approximately 175 page) novel by 11:59:59, November 30.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. This approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.

I've officially joined as a last ditch attempt to kick start my novel writing. While I've been aware of NaNoWriMo for several years, I've always been afraid to take part since November is a busy month, but I need to do something drastic or I'm going to lose any momentum I have on my book.

Have you joined? Are you thinking about joining? Have you taken part in the past? If so, what's your experience been? Feel free to share the good, the bad and the ugly!

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