Hands up – who’s heard of NaNoWriMo?
That’s short for National Novel Writing Month, the literary challenge where once a year, amateur and professional writers from all over the world sign up to try and write a novel of at least 50 000 words during the month of November. Yes, you heard right – you write an entire book between 1 and 30 November. The theory is that what stops most of us who talk about writing novels from actually writing is the idea that we must write a Pulitzer prize-winning novel. After we read our first page and realise that this is not going to happen, we give up in despair. So what NaNoWriMo does is to take the emphasis totally off quality and puts it firmly on quantity. You end up writing every single day for 30 intense days and at the end, you might just have the first draft of something publishable.
Either that or you get to talk about “my unpublished novel” at every cocktail party from now to eternity 🙂
From the first time I heard about NaNoWriMo, I wanted to try my hand at it, but at the last minute, I always chicken out. And then… some clever souls dreamt up an event for slackers like me – National Blog Posting Month! All you have to do is undertake to post once a day every day for the month of November, and that’s what I plan to do. In theory, it will give me an incentive to catch up on some things I should have posted about months, nay years ago. In practice… well, we shall see!
So wish me luck and do pop back once a day to see what I’ve been up to.
Follow me every day in November as I complete National Blog Posting Month – a post a day, every day, for 30 days! Here are all my NaBloPoMo ’07 posts so far.
Come on then gal; show us what you be made of!
I signed up for nanowrimo last year and didn’t write a single word 🙁
Hopefully the blog version goes much better…
Good luck with it Jeanne. I did it last year and it was fun, but then I collapsed in a heap and hardly posted in December! I’ve chickened out this year as I’ve got a whole load more writing things I’m supposed to be doing and I thought it might be the last straw. I’ll be here reading though and cheering you on!
wow, so I guess all plans of meeting up this month are out of the window??? sad, but then, last time I asked you what was going on in your life, you replied “read my blog” – guess that’s what I’ll do then! 😉
I’m with ya! I’m Nabbing.
Hi Andrew
Oh, don’t worry, I’ll spend 30 days showing you!! Scary but true 😉
Hi Brilynn
Wow – you’re the firts person I know who got as far as signing up for it!! Well done you, even if nothign got written. I haven’t even tried and failed – just too scared!! Maybe if I finish NaBloPoMo I will feel more confident…
Hi Kit
Yes, I saw your post on balance (or lack thereof!) – you keep at it though & build that business! But it will be great to know that somebody who has been through NaBloPoMo will be there cheering me on 🙂
Hi Johanna
Clearly you have me mixed up with some other Cooksister as those are not words I think I’ve ever uttered to you…! And besides, we see each other often enough that you don’t need to check my blog to see what I’ve done – I’ve mostly done it in your company 😉
Hi Charlotte
Yaaaaaay – a Nabster friend! I must try to figure out the NaBloPoMo community a bit this week and join your South African blogger group. Look forward to a month of your cuality posts!
You’re a better [wo]man than I, GungaDin! I must say I’m a little relieved that I just learned about this challenge. I could NEVER manage to post every day! I’m not nearly organized enough!
-Elizabeth
Hi Elizabeth
I’m hoping it won’t be a case of sign up in haste, repent at leisure… 😉 Btw, have you seen what’s coming out on the big screen? Beowulf!!! Thought instantly of you when I saw that. And I mean that in the nicest way possible 🙂
If you’d like to get started, just sign in or sign up in the box on the right that says “Welcome to NaBloPoMo.” Then you can set up your profile and explore the site to see what NaBlo offers and who else is here.
Good luck with it Jeanne. I did it last year and it was fun, but then I collapsed in a heap and hardly posted in December! I’ve chickened out this year as I’ve got a whole load more writing things I’m supposed to be doing and I thought it might be the last straw. I’ll be here reading though and cheering you on!