Nanowrimo

It's November! Which means it's nanowrimo time!

Nanowrimo poster. & an excuse to post a photo of Riley.

Nanowrimo (aka national novel writing month) is just brilliant. So good. So brilliant. You can read a lot more about the what's and why's here, but the basic idea is simple: write 50,000 words in one month. It sounds hard and scary, but it really isn't. & if you are one of those people who always think that someday you'll write a book, or that you would if you could find time, then it is definitely for you.

To complete the challenge you need to write 1,667 words every day.  You'll start the process thinking hard about what to write, or how to word a sentence, or carefully musing for ten minutes on what adjective to use, but about five days in (when you are 1,000 words behind and catching up on a Saturday morning) you'll discover the simple pleasure of just writing. Your writing will be awful. You will start to spell things wrong. You will notice your characters changing as you plot scenes while writing them. You will use too many exclamations marks. (Maybe that is just me). But that is the glory of nanowrimo! It makes you write. & at the end of a (long, tiring, but massively satisfying) month you'll have a first draft. It might be the WORST FIRST DRAFT OF ALL TIME, but that is still considerably better than a non-existent first draft.

Along the way the nanowrimo website holds your hand. You get handy graphs to keep track of your daily word count. Forums where you can discuss ideas and meet local participants (although I'm always too much of a wimp to go to the writing sessions in Edinburgh). & you get pep talks from amazing authors. These are staggered throughout the month and are brilliantly timed to encourage you to keeping writing when you are making excuses to yourself and skiving (my favourites are Neil Gaiman, Jasper Fforde & Philip Pullman).

Hoodie. Mental hair. Crazed eyes. Must be November.

& then at the end of the month you'll have a book! That you can sell and gain riches (*ahem* ) or hide away and sneakily read every now and again whilst wearing your nanowrimo hoodie (which you'll buy in week three, full of love for the Office of Letters and Light). Do it! Do it do it do it!