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Creative Writing - - Write Your Novel in 30 Days

By Deb Gallardo

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Since 1999, National Novel Writing Month has been the impetus for many novels getting published. And yours could be the next. Wouldn’t it be great if you ended 2007 with that novel actually written, at least in rough draft form?

NaNoWriMo , as I understand it — and I hope someone corrects me if I’m wrong — was created to give writers a goal date by which to finish 50,000 words of a novel. The idea is for writers to make a commitment to themselves to see this challenge through to the end of the 30 days. The site also provides a place where writers can meet for mutual encouragement and inspiration.

The only “rule” is to silence the critical editor who sits on your shoulder telling you to fix those mistakes right now.

You know the one I mean. She tells you to go back to the beginning and rework the opening since that’s the most important part of the story. But thanks to her, you have 16 incomplete manuscripts gathering dust in a drawer (or mouldering on your hard drive).

Instead, we’re promising ourselves to silence — or better yet BANISH — the critical editor for the month of November. “Winners” are those who complete the writing challenge by writing 50,000 words in 30 days. Their FAQ explain the rationale and all the details far better than I could cover in this post.

Here are two excerpts from their FAQ to give you an idea of how this project has grown in 8 years:

How many novels have been written through NaNoWriMo?
1999: 21 participants and six winners
2000: 140 participants and 29 winners
2001: 5,000 particpants and more than 700 winners
2002: 13,500 participants and around 2,100 winners
2003: 25,500 participants and about 3,500 winners
2004: 42,000 participants and just shy of 6,000 winners
2005: 59,000 participants and 9,769 winners
2006: 79,000 participants and 13,000 winners

Published NaNoWriMo Authors

Head on over to NaNoWriMo now to sign up (everything is free). Start your strategy and tactics planning, then get ready to take November by storm with your new novel. See you there!

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One Response to “Creative Writing - - Write Your Novel in 30 Days”

  1. Web Site Marketing » Creative Writing Write Your Novel in 30… Says:
    October 16th, 2007 at 12:20 pm   

    [...] The Story Ideas Virtuoso wrote an interesting post today on Creative Writing - - Write Your Novel in 30 Days. Here’s a quick excerpt: … a commitment to themselves to see this challenge through to the end of the 30 days. The site also [...]

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