Yes, you can. All you have to do is sit down at the keyboard or at a table with pen and paper and write about 1,667 words a day. After 30 days you will have a 50,000-word manuscript.
For those of you who have never tried, November is the month to do it. Ever since 1999 would-be writers have been taking on this task from November 1 to 30.
To those of us who have participated in the competition before NaNoWriMo (our term of endearment for National Novel Writing Month) is a flurry of activity that is exciting, frightening and maddening all at the same time.
Oh, I did forget. At the end when you submit that last word count, and you see that you've reached the 50,000-word goal, NaNoWriMo is also gratifying.
Throughout the month of October I will be posting blog items related to NaNoWriMo as I prepare for this feverish month of novel writing. One lesson learned from trying the competition a few times and finally winning last year is that I needed a strategy. I needed preparation.
By the way, winning means meeting the 50,000-word goal. Of the 200,000 participants last year, according to NaNoWriMo officials, more than 30,000 finished and were counted as winners.
Check out the NaNoWriMo Web Site to learn more. Sign up to participate. You will learn a lot about yourself as a writer. Look for my profile on the site: Bevova is the name to search. We can be writing buddies!
K.M. Weiland, who writes historical and speculative fiction, notes that one of the habits of successful authors is to write every day.
There's nothing like a 30-day novel-writing competition to force you into the habit of writing every day.
Have you participated in NaNoWriMo before? What strategies helped you?
2010 was my first successful attempt at NaNo. I loved the experience and was able to complete a novel. I highly recommend Victoria Schmidt's You Can Write a Novel in 30 Days workbook to get through those 30 days with something resembling a book.
ReplyDeleteCongrats! NaNo is a lot of frenzied fun. I'll have to put Schmidt's book on my to read list for 2012. My goal is to read 50 books. I've read 3 so far, 47 to go, lol!
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