It’s that NaNoWriMo time of year again!
Who wants to write 50,000 words in 30 days? Everyone, right? Really, who doesn’t? November approaches, which means it’s once again time for NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. It’s a creative challenge to write a 50,000 word story in 30 days. It’s all about quantity, not quality, though some people do strive for both. It can be a great creative exercise to get the brain energy flowing, either way. This year the Austin group is considering a challenge with the state of Maryland to see who can write the most words. Yes, that’s right, the city of Austin may be challenging the state of Maryland. It’s a great bunch of people and can be a lot of fun. There are organized write-ins where Austin Na-No’s get together at various coffee shops for camaraderie and support. Check out the above links for more info, and get involved.
Coming in December: National Carpal Tunnel month, or NaCaTuMo.
I must add that, though we do PLAN to challenge Maryland, this isn’t set in stone, agreed to, formalised, or possibly even known to the challengees.
Holy crap, what a fun idea….how much is 50,000 words? 100 pages or so? Hmm… Im not commiting fully yet- but Im probably in. I’ve been meaning to tell that story about that one day.
I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo the last two years. It’s fun in the same way that running a marathon is fun–you challenge yourself in order to see what you can do when no one is making you do it.
The point is to get 50,000 words out–they don’t have to be good words; it just primes the creative pump.
I don’t know whether I’ll do it again this year, though. It’s an all-consuming effort and Metroblogging is a jealous mistress.
Since it’s hard to give meaningful page estimates, given the variation in typefaces and spacing, I’ll say that 50K is really more novella size than novel size. The Great Gatsby is a good example of a ~50K book. Someonw like Hunter S. Thompson could have done NaNoWriMo in a weekend ;).