My very own NaNo WriMo
Posted on December 31st, 2008 | by Tom |This last November I found out about a fantastic event that happens every year. The National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo. Their website seems to be down at the moment but I would highly recommend dropping by as soon as it comes back up. Thousands of newbie writers and old pro’s get together and challenge each other to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. Now they are not shooting for epic prose, it usually turns out to be a pile a crap but with two benefits:
1. First timers have done something that many people say they will do and never follow through on, they have written a book and are now officially writers.
2. They now have the raw material to polish and edit and possibly turn their turd of a rough draft into the next Harry Potter.
I didn’t find out about the event until halfway through the month but I jumped in anyway. It was a doomed effort and I came nowhere near the word count goal but I did get a taste of the community. it was fantastic. other participants pushed you to write when needed, let you bounce ideas of them and when it became too much they would listen to you rant and rave. I want the full experience but it is only once a year. So, I have decided to arrange my own on a small scale.
Justin, a friend of mine that has been threatening to write a book for a while and my brother James were drafted into my nightmare. Justin will be in the same boat as me, trying to belt out 50,000 words but James is an artist. So, I have challenged him to create an original work and enter it into a competition within the month. To ensure we don’t quit we have also agreed to bets with the most heinous penalties we could imagine. If, in a month, you see an overweight man in dire need of a tan running naked down the street, wave at me before giving in to hysterical blindness.
Wish me luck.