What is National Novel Writing Month?

NaNoWriMo Gives Writers an Excuse to Write a Novel in 30 Days

Oct 18, 2009
Linda Gentile

NaNoWriMo Logo - Office of Letters and Light

National Novel Writing Month is an annual challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in November. NaNoWriMo is an exercise in bad literature, community and fun.

Every November, thousands of writers set fingers to keyboard, pen to paper and start writing a novel which, if they succeed, will be 50,000 words long by the end of the month. This epic feat is known as National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo, and it was started in 1999 by Chris Baty and 20 Bay Area friends, six of whom finished.

This founding group had always said that "One day it would be nice to write a novel," so Baty decided that this was how it could be done – all at once, in a crazy 1700-words-per-day rush.

Over the years, NaNoWriMo has taken on a life of its own, coming under the banner of a non-profit, the Office of Letters and Light. In 2008, there were 119,301 participants and 21,683 winners. What began almost as a joke has become an international movement which, every year, raises money to encourage young people to write, enables writing communities to form, and which invariably overloads its servers just before kick-off.

The Art of Writing a Novel in One Month

By writing full steam ahead, the writer unleashes a creativity that would otherwise be fettered by self-doubt and self-editing. The NaNo participant often discovers a real joy in writing for its own sake. "Cheating" – in the form of bolstering word counts – is strongly encouraged.

The writing of a novel in one month does not take particular skill or require the author to be a "good" writer; it does, however, take determination, a sense of humor and ambitious caffeine consumption. Bolstering a word count in any way desired is encouraged both by experienced participants and the guide to writing novels in a month, No Plot? No Problem!

National Novel Writing Month Community and Activities

The NaNoWriMo website comes with forums and a well-organized community that consists of local leaders (Municipal Liaisons) who organize "write-ins," welcome parties and often some kind of kick-off event and after-the-fact celebration. These last are officially known as TGIO or Thank Goodness It's Over parties. The Santa Clara County writers of California, for example, usually take over the back room of a Denny's and show up en masse in Halloween garb for the launch.

Two-thirds of the way through NaNoWriMo is the "Night of Writing Dangerously" – an all-night event in San Francisco for which participants must raise a certain amount in sponsorships to attend. There is also an "official" finishing party. The money raised by NaNoWriMo goes towards supporting a young writers' program with loaner laptops, running the event itself, the related Script Frenzy (script-in-a-month during April), and buying more servers to overload. All income and expenses are presented transparently on the website.

Finishing National Novel Writing Month

Once they hit 50,000 words, novelists are encouraged to save a copy of their work, perform a global search and replace to turn all their words into unintelligible code, and submit it for verification. Once the website gives the go-ahead, they receive a link to a certificate and web graphics. They then usually go to sleep.

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, inspiring activity that has changed lives (several authors have sold their November novels to publishing houses). It fills an otherwise cold, dull month (for the nothern hemisphere, at least). To find out more, visit the NaNoWriMo website and, if possible, join a local group for a fuller experience. NaNoWriMo is worth trying at least once, though this writer notes that she too, once said only once...and is, as of October 2009, contemplating what to write during her fourth NaNoWriMo.