2009 National Novel Writing Month is Ready!

Have you ever heard of National Novel Writing Month? You should visit www.nanowrimo.org and sign up. It is 30 days of intense writing to end the month with a 50,000 word novel!

I signed up in 2006 when my friend Carol Brown introduced it to me. It is a great way to get some serious writing done in 30 days! Yes, it can be done. I make a calendar with the word count needed to end the day at midnight and start again at 12:01 the next morning.

Anyone can do this! 50,000 words sound like a lot, but really it isn't. Breaking it down, it is only 1,667 words a day! If you are a pretty good typist, you could do it on your lunch hour or when the baby is napping. Go to NaNoWriMo and see. (NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month, which is a handful to say or type!)

Prior to November 1^st, you are not allowed to work on your impending novel, (or novella). You are allowed to write and outline and keep notes, though. I don't do an outline the traditional way... I have a notebook with Post-Its all along the inside cover with ideas that I am going to implement. My friends, who also do this, are a lot more organized than I am. See, my name on NaNo is "The Phantom Rambler"... I have a tendency to ramble, and that is good for the month of November. There is no need for editing your work and the more run-on sentences the better. This is about word count, not about proper grammar, punctuation or even sentence structure. If you can write it, then the novel will come. It can be on any genre you want, they are not finicky. Oh, and did I mention that no one from Nano will even ready your work? It is on the honor system, so when you upload your word count, the system will count the words but not read the words. Yes, it can be messy and not make sense (but to you it does because it is your baby) and no one will care or see it until you let them!

Sign up day has come and gone, October 1^st, but the site was down for maintenance, so you can sign up today! I did this morning and am all ready for the new 'season' of writing. Do I know what I will write about? Nah, not really. Am I panicking because I do not have a complete outline or set of Post-Its cluttering a new notepad? Nah, not really. See, I am a 'fly by the seat of your pants' type writer and I know that I can do this. I have completed it three years in a row, and with the support of a great bunch of friends, I was able to actually complete my third year, last year. I was dangerously close to not finishing due to lack of sleep with a newborn and not having time to write... my gaggle of friends and I sat around a dining room table and crammed for hours. We all did it and you can too.

Is there a novel you have wanted to write but just never had the time? This is your time! This is why National Novel Writing Month was invented. This is to give you the time to do it, the excuse to get it done. Again, there is no editing, so don't worry about having a Stephen King , Catherine Coulter or J.K. Rowling novel on November 30^th. December 1^st is when the editing starts. You can choose to edit your novel or keep it as it is and never worry about it again. If you choose to edit it, then there are plenty of self publishing websites out there, like LuLu.com. A friend of mine has had a few books done there as a result of NaNo and she is planning on doing it again this year.

Again, all of you should at least visit the site and see what the hub-ub is about. Even kids can do it! They have a Young Writer's Program set up for kids of all ages and even teachers, too. Just click that link and see what I am talking about. My young son did it last year and completed it! (He wrote about a truck full of port-a-potties that spilled on the freeway on the way to school. We heard it on the traffic reports and he couldn't stop laughing about all the poo spilled on the highway!) Kids get to choose their own word count and try to reach it. Again, it is on the honor system so there is no one that actually reads the work.

If you are already signed up on NaNo, let me know! I would love to follow you and watch your progress! Hopefully I will finish this year, but even if I don't, I know it will be a fantastic ride!

My name on NaNoWriMo is "The Phantom Rambler", what is yours?

Happy Writing!!!