NaNoWriMo

If you're like me, November usually means the weather is getting colder and the winter holidays are just around the corner. It's also NaNoWriMo time!

What exactly is NaNoWriMo?

NaNoWriMo, also shortened to NaNo, stands for National Novel Writing Month and it takes place every November 1-30. The goal is to write 50,000 words, or more, in 30 days or less, during November. The word count, if achieved, equates to about the size of a small novel.

It started in 1999 as a way for authors to connect with each other by encouraging the simple act of writing every day. You're not supposed to focus time or energy on editing, or how good/bad your story may be, or even have concrete names of things in your story, you're just supposed to write. Because NaNo believes stories, all of them, matter.

Over the years, NaNo has grown and now they have published authors who share encouragement for the WriMos (the writers who are participating that year), in-person gatherings to brainstorm together based on regions around the world and programs for kids and teens to get involved with writing. According to the NaNo website, in 2022 alone 51,670 writers won the daunting NaNo challenge.

I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo six times. I've always wanted to publish a book and I thought completing the first draft of one would be attainable with NaNo's timeframe and word count goal. However, the first three times I attempted the challenge, in 2007, 2008 and 2009, I failed completely. I only managed to reach a little over 11,000 words in 2007; the other two years I didn't even beat that total!

However, years later, I decided to give it a try again. The push I needed was that I wrote it for my grandma who had recently passed away in 2015. She loved reading and was always proud of my writings.

My debut novel, 'House of Red' is the result of winning NaNo in 2015. I wrote the entire story in under 25 days!

After that, I won again in 2017 with ‘Bonita Blue’. And I wrote part of this story while on vacation in the beautiful Caribbean!

My third win with NaNo came in 2018 with ‘Wicked Wolves’, the sequel to ‘House of Red’. I hadn't originally intended to write a sequel, however, I was once again pushed to achieve this win because my father passed away in 2018. He was extremely proud when I self-published 'House of Red' and told everyone he met about it, so I wrote and dedicated 'Wicked Wolves' to him.

The goal of writing 50,000 words in only a month may seem like an impossible task if you're a new writer or someone who isn't sure about sharing their work.

Whether you're a whirlwind pantser (you prefer to write by the seat of your pants) or a steadfast planner (you prefer an outline, notes, etc.) you can achieve NaNoWriMo if you've got an idea and want to share it with the world.

All it takes is one spark of an idea for your story and dedication to achieve it.