Move over Movember, it’s National Novel Writing Month!
With Halloween in the rear view mirror, and Christmas a ways off (despite what major retailers might have you think), November has arrived—along with moustaches, colder weather and one giant writing challenge.
That’s right friends, grab your laptops and bottomless coffee mugs and run to your nearest café: National Novel Writing Month begins today.
National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo—or just plain NaNo—is a month-long event that runs in cities all over the world every November.
Participants have one task to undertake: penning a 50,000-word novel in the allotted 30 days—an average of 1,667 words per day.
There are very few rules; in fact, that’s it. Write 50,000 words about anything in any language by Nov. 30, and forever gain personal accomplishment for your trouble.
Legend has it that Jack Kerouac wrote On The Road in three weeks, so there’s no reason you can’t achieve literary greatness in a month, right?
It’s time to stop procrastinating on that book that’s been “in the works” to everyone you’ve made small talk with at a party for the last three years.
It’s time to write the book you’ve been dying to read. It’s time to give up the excuse of being “too busy,” because let’s face it, you’ll make time for the things you really care about. Buckle down and write, buttercup.
The project, largely funded by merchandise sales and donations according to its website, was launched in 1999 in the San Francisco Bay Area by writer Chris Baty.
That first year saw only 21 entries. Last year, more than 300,000 people from around the world participated.
According to their website, over 250 novels that were penned during previous Novembers went on to be published. Among them are Sara Gruen’s 2006 critically-acclaimed book Water for Elephants, which later became a major motion picture starring Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz.
If you want to participate in NaNo, you can sign up on their website for your own official word count tracker, author profile, and more.
You can even join a forum specific to Montreal, get in touch with other local NaNoers, and maybe hit up some of the planned events like Write Ins, when people agree to meet in a library, cafe or other public forum to write and share the experience together.
The idea is to prevent you from becoming a complete recluse while juggling work, school, and writing what might be the next bestseller.
So close this tab and open up a word document. What are you waiting for?
