Monday Musings: NaNoWriMo

It's almost November so you know what that means! Yup, my birthday is coming up! Aaaaand, it's almost Nanowrimo. 

I guess, you guys are more interested in the NaNoWriMo part of November (even though I do throw a good b-day party). For everyone who doesn't know what it is, it's a challenge to write a WHOLE BOOK(50,000 words) in the month of November. But it's so much more than just going slowly insane while trying to meet word count. It's supposed to bring the writer community together and kind of jump-start a new novel idea.

According to Nanowrimo.org:

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing. On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 p.m. on November 30. Valuing enthusiasm, determination, and a deadline, NaNoWriMo is for anyone who has ever thought fleetingly about writing a novel.

So a leetle bit of history:

NaNoWriMo is all about using the magical power of deadlines to tell your story. Give someone a goal and a goal-minded community and miracles are bound to happen. Pies will be eaten at amazing rates. Alfalfa will be harvested like never before. And novels will be written in a month.Part of the reason we organize NaNoWriMo is just to get a book written. We love the fringe benefits accrued to novelists. For one month out of the year, we can stew and storm, and make a huge mess of our apartments and drink lots of coffee at odd hours. And we can do all of these things loudly, in front of people. As satisfying as it is to reach deep within yourself and pull out an unexpectedly passable work of art, it is equally (if not more) satisfying to be able to dramatize the process at social gatherings.
But that artsy drama window is woefully short. The other reason we do NaNoWriMo is because the glow from making big, messy art, and watching others make big, messy art, lasts for a long, long time. The act of sustained creation does bizarre, wonderful things to you. It changes the way you read. And changes, a little bit, your sense of self. We like that.
Our experiences since 1999 show that 50,000 is a difficult but doable goal, even for people with full-time jobs and children. The length makes it a short novel.

So Nanowrimo might seem like a place where writers get together and talk about their books and write nonsense for 50,000 words before they go back to their "real" novels. But it's totally not! Some awesome novels were started and/or written during Nanowrimo (http://nanowrimo.org/published-wrimos).

Some stand outs for me as a reader were The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen,Cinder by Marissa Meyer. All of which are super successful. Also Water for Elephants became a movie and The Night Circus is in development (if you participate in Nanowrimo then your book will become a film!)

Okay, so here are some of the fun things you get by signing up (FOR FREE) at Nanowrimo.org

Cool stats and graphs telling you how awesome (or, in my case, how lazy) you are:

Awesome Forums where you can connect with other authors. There are so many options to base the forums on (genre, hobbies, progress in your WIP, where you live, who you read):

And there are some Regional specific events:

I wrote about my experience in NaNoWriMo last year on Books Are Bread (and I miiiight have stolen from my last post for this one, but it's my own words and I give myself permission to use it!). Anyway, I will try to write about my experience this year too, but I won't go too cuh-razy about it (probably...maybe...actually, no promises).

Anyway, I love the idea of it. I like anything that gets people to write and to get excited about writing. I am having severe writer's block right now, but I am already excited for NaNoWriMo, I can feel myself overcoming my mental blocks already. 

If you want, you can find me on the site and we can be nanowrimo pals! (I'm katjc589)