Writing + Insanity = NaNoWriMo

            A few weeks ago, I said I would tell you guys about NaNoWriMo. Well, here is the promised explanation.

            NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It’s run by OLL (Office of Letters and Light) and takes place every November (there is also a special NaNoWriMo called Camp NaNoWriMo that takes place in June and August for those who are unable participate in November).

            NaNoWriMo is a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. That may or may not sound hard, but let me assure you, it’s hard. You need to average 1,700 words a day to make that goal. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears are shed in the process (the blood is from rubbing your wrist raw on the edge of your keyboard).

            But it’s so much fun. Thousands of people do NaNoWriMo (last year, there were 300,000+ folks participating, from all over the world), so you’re not alone in you writerly struggles. On your personal page, there is a graph of statistics, showing your progress, your average, and when you’ll finish if you maintain that average. You also have a place for a personal bio, and an excerpt from your novel (this year, you can also show your book cover, which I’m super excited about).

            You can update your word count as often as you want. There is a status below your profile that says how many words you’re at. Once you attain 50K, that status changes to “Winner”. Yay! 

            As far as I know, there isn’t usually a prize for NaNoWriMo (aside from a cool looking certificate saying you won). I think that some years they don’t do prizes, and some years they surprise you. That’s what happened last year. In early December, I got a message on my NaNo saying that I received a coupon for CreateSpace (a self-publishing company run by Amazon) that would pay for five copies of my book. So because I completed NaNoWriMo, I got five free copies of my book! It was so awesome.

           

            So that’s NaNoWriMo in a nutshell. I am about to embark on this crazy journey once again, in just six days. I’m so excited! Thirty days of writing insanity – of ridiculously late nights, typing, backspacing, key-board pounding, laughing, crying, schedule-cramming, and best of all…

            Thirty days spent writing my book and getting to know my wonderful characters. ::sighs:: Oh the bliss.

            If that doesn’t make you want to do NaNoWriMo, I don’t know what will.