It's officially November and you know what that means...and if you're thinking Thanksgiving, then think again. November marks the annual event of NaNoWriMo also known as National November Writing Month. Yes, folks, there is a national writing month and it's November.
NaNoWriMo is an annual month-long event where both professional and amateur writers from across globe attempt to achieve the goal of writing a novel within thirty days. The website, acknowledges 50,000 words as the length of a novel. But, the website does not serve as the writing source for your novel. No, it is encouraged that you contain your writings either on a word processing source such as Microsoft Word or hand write your musings. The website is for you to track your progress by allowing you to insert the word count accomplished each day.
With the facts aside, why is NaNoWriMo important?
For starters, the most important aspect is that it aids in gaining organizational skills. Writing a novel is a lot of work that definitely requires getting organized in both thought and writing combined. Some users often start getting organized months in advance to prepare for their NaNoWriMo novels. I've heard of people creating character spreadsheets, plot lists, outlines for their novel ideas, and checklists upon checklists in order to prepare for the upcoming NaNoWriMo.
It also helps with prioritizing and routine building. NaNoWriMo expects some sort of effort to be put into your work daily in order to track and graph your word count averages for the entire month. Sometimes life does get in the way, but who says you can't make up yesterday's slack with today's extra writing?
Creativity is probably the biggest contribution NaNoWriMo provides to a person. Writing not only requires organized thought, but it also requires those creative juices to be flowing. Without a creative mind, how else will the plot and character development be formulated? Hit a wall and can't seem to bounce back? The website provides a multitude of online forums for all of the registers NaNoWriMo participants to use. Users are to use these forums help provide and/or seek inspiration, motivation, ideas, or just common chat with other users participating in the event. Participating helps maintain that state of creativity for a full month, hopefully gaining new writing habits that will follow for the writer's lifetime.
With that said, while participating in NaNoWriMo assists a good cause and helps you grow as a writer and gain (or sharpen) skills within writing, that does not mean that writing and noveling should be spared for just the month of November. Writing is something that should be continued year round. NaNoWriMo simply adds to the fun as well as aids in a good cause.
To those not participating this November, perhaps next year you'll give NaNoWriMo the good ol' college try. In all honesty, I've tried completing NaNoWriMo a few times and so far I have yet to complete it. So don't get discouraged, it happens. There's always next year!
To those participating in NaNoWriMo this year, good luck and happy writing!
