This article is 475 words. NaNoWriMo, an abbreviation for “National Novel Writing Month,” is an international project that challenges participants to write an average of 1,667 words every day from 12:00 am on November 1 to 11:59:59 pm on November 30. That’s about three and a half article’s worth of words every day. In the end, winners of the challenge have a 50,000 word piece of writing: the minimum length of an official novel.
If you’re thinking that for a creative endeavor this campaign seems to be awfully focused on numbers, then you’d be right. The whole basis of NaNoWriMo is quantity over quality, which may sound to some a painfully ignorant view to take on art (“The Old Man and the Sea!” literature snobs will screech, “The Giver!” “The Great Gatsby!”,), but it really is a legitimate and fairly successful approach to combating writer’s block. When faced with a strict daily word quota, there isn’t time for googling the meaning of your middle name, daydreaming, nor trying to make up new emoticons with your punctuation keys: there is limited time and a mountain of a word count to climb. The NaNoWriMo website even helps you track your progress with a graph of your word count superimposed with a graph of the necessary word count advancement to reach 50,000 by November 30.
Along with graphically displaying your progression, the NaNoWriMo website also serves as an online global community of established and amateur writers alike trying to reach their goal. You can find local events in tangent with NaNoWriMo in your community—often just strangers gathered in a coffee place or library, typing away madly on their laptops. The website provides links to writing advice blogs, advertises now-published novels from past NaNoWriMos, connects participants to other writers in their area with similar literary interests, and, as of 2008, even offers some writers a single, free, paperback copy of their novel. (This final offering was made possible by NaNoWriMo’s partnership with the self-publishing company CreateSpace.)
Participation in NaNoWriMo is a commitment to many late nights of delirious typing and many classes spent thinking about characters rather than listening to teachers. Your creativity, and your time-management skills, will be stretched to new lengths. But in the end, you will have an incredible reward: a novel of your own making starring characters of your invention, all made possible by a month of very hard work.
This November, challenge yourself to write like you never have before. Even if 50,000 words is unrealistic for you, set another goal for yourself and work hard to reach it. If writing a novel of any length isn’t really your thing, reading is always the comfortable alternative to writing. And if November’s National Novel Writing Month theme seems difficult, just wait, because December is National Novel Editing Month.