I wrote a longer, localized story on National Novel Writing Month last week and I thought I would publish a compressed version here since Spencer mentioned the event in a previous post.
NaNoWriMo is a really nifty idea that I always mean to participate in and I will some day, but for now I can just write about what it would be like to write in it.
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| Anyway, I imagine NaNoWriMo would look like this if I ever participated. Note mug of coffee, handy dandy thesaurus, laptop and cat. |
From the lunchtime meatball
marinara to the alcohol-induced tattoo, the mundane and the quirky can be
shared via multiple media platforms.
Applications and websites are continually created
to facilitate this new kind of sharing that is practiced on a worldwide scale.
One of these inventive, social websites challenges
aspiring novelists to write 50,000 words in just 30 days during November.
National Novel Writing Month is the name of this unique, shared experience,
which is affectionately called NaNoWriMo by participants, who call themselves
“NaNos” or “Wrimos.”
The idea of the project is to get people to
start writing. It is an international writing prompt that may result in a
stream of consciousness for some, but result in a New York Times Best Seller
for others like Sara Gruen, who wrote Water
for Elephants for NaNoWriMo in 2007.
Novel-writing or “noveling” can be a fun,
social event rather than a painful, closeted process, founder of NaNoWriMo
Chris Baty, said on the event’s website. He describes NaNoWriMo as “half
literary marathon and half block party.”
Every one from amateurs to
accomplished wordsmiths is welcome to participate. To start, one can sign up on
the NaNoWriMo website and create an account.
From there, one can choose
to either write independently or connect with other writers and commiserate in
the process.
The important, final step
is to upload one’s finished document of about 175 pages by 11:59:59 PM on November 30 to
be verified for its complete word count. Winning, according to the NaNoWriMo
site, means meeting the 50,000-word tally and having a personal sense of
accomplishment.
According to the website, over 250,000 people logged on
to NaNoWriMo in 2011, and almost 37,000 of those people wrote a novel and won.
Though writing is not
typically perceived as the extrovert’s passion, NaNoWriMo challenges the
tortured writer archetype by bringing writers together. Participants in the
event can connect online through the official website’s forums or connect in
person through organized meet-and-greets, write-ins, and “Thank God It’s Over”
parties, celebrated on December 1.
Write-ins are planned get-togethers
organized on the local level. Participants meet at regional libraries, coffee
shops, parks, etc. to sit and write together. Usually, some one volunteers to
take over as “Municipal Liaison” for a local area and organizes the events.
I often ask questions at the end of my posts because for some reason I think that is "the thing to do" when you have a blog, even though it a pretty pointless conclusion when you have a handful of followers, but I have always been consistent, so.....Will you participate in NaNoWriMo?
xo,
LA
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