National Novel Writing Month

November is a month for a lot of different challenges. There’s Movember, Goalvember, and the challenge of getting through the last four weeks of term. It’s a mad month. I already feel all over the place.

So guess what I did? I signed up for NaNoWriMo! Because I am in possession of a rational mind and I thought that would be a great idea in the (second) hardest month of the accademic year! You know what, though? I am gonna win this thing.

For everyone who hasn’t heard of it, NaNoWriMo stands for the National Novel Writing Month, which is a worldwide challenge held over the web by a charitable organisation called the Office of Letters and Light. The idea is to write a 50000 word novel in thirty days. It’s not easy. That amounts to about 1667 words per day, and that is every single day for the month of November. It is not for the faint of heart. (Says me, as though I’m doing some epic quest.)

In my experience, though, once you’ve tried it, it’s not something you give up trying until you win. This year will be my fourth attempt at it, and I’m hoping to last out the first week this time. But there are lots of reasons why someone might chose to put themselves through this. Maybe they want to cross writing a novel off their bucket list, or maybe they want to learn how to write without having time to second guess themselves. Maybe they want to finish a creative project for the first time. Maybe they’ve been doing it for so many years that a November is no longer a real month to them without writing an odd 50k.

In Totem we’ve got a group, run by the Totem Times, who are participating in NaNo. You’ll be able to see our weekly tallies in the commons block, too. And if you want to join in, well, you’re only a day behind! Why not try it? (I am currently a day behind, too, and I promise that it is possible to catch up.)

If you’re interested and you want more info, I’d recomend having a poke around the NaNo website. And, if you decide to participate, or you already are, there’s a special section of the site just for student NaNo participants and our very special issues.

So, wish me luck!