National Novel Writing Month: A Fantastic Writing Exercise!

Writing is a big part of our school in core classes and electives. But most writing classes focus on non-fiction or text analysis. While there is the freedom to be creative, there are constraints on what the students can and can’t write. But if you want to flex your creative writing muscles, you can participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).

But what is NaNoWriMo? During the month of November, people all around the United States try to write 50,000 words in one month. Now if that doesn’t sound like a lot, here’s some perspective – 50,000 words is a little over half of the Hobbit, a little bit longer than The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and The Great Gatsby. So while 50,000 words may seem like a lot, it can be done. There are no restrictions to the competition; you can write whatever you think would be fun. Horror, fantasy, science-fiction, romance, thriller – anything you want.

While there is a large community around the event, you don’t have to be a part of it. NaNoWriMo is entirely self-paced; you can write as much or as little as you want. No one is enforcing the rules, and it’s not a competition; instead, you focus on your own work at your limits. Think of the event as a guideline, guiding you in the right direction to meet your personal goals.

Now if you couldn’t guess, I am going to participate in NaNoWriMo, and while I may not be able to share it here, I will try to give a short update about how it went if I can.

How could you participate? That’s easy since it’s a very personal thing; you can just have a notebook or a word document and write in it. But if you want to go more in depth, or have a website to keep all your pieces in place, you can go to the NaNoWriMo website here. On the site, just sign up and make an account where it can track the number of words you have written and easily get feedback from other aspiring authors. You can also read other people’s novels they have written over the years of the event. Some of the novels written have even made it onto the New York Times Best Selling books.

We hope that this article can help aspiring authors find their way to get that last push they need to write a novel about something they love. I personally hope to see some of you on the site, following your dreams and being free. Go Knights!