What is NanoWriMo?
It's an abbreviation for National Novel Writing Month.
Here's a better visual (flyer) explaining it's magic sauce:
What Is NanoWriMo About?
It's a sort of writing marathon that takes place every November 1-30. A race to meet a total of 50,000 words (about the size of a novella). It pushes wannabe authors to quit screwing around and finally get around to at least write an ample sized book.
Why Should I Enter NanoWriMo?
Since I just entered today, I've been discovering lots of interesting features. Features such as help forums, advice, adding friends (called 'buddies'), finding mentors, becoming mentors, following forum threads, etc. You even get an inbox for private messages between buddies.
How does NanoWriMo work?
Well, basically: http://nanowrimo.org/how-it-works
Or I can sum it up for ya:
You pre-write your story on whatever software you use on your computer, then upload it to your NanoWriMo profile. Every time you upload bits & pieces, you can hit the ol' Validate button to tally your word count. The whole thing is to motivate you into writing your book. The aim is for 50,000 words, but it's not a requirement. It motivates you into (hopefully) half completion of your novel. No more excuses!
How do I Enter NanoWriMo?
You just start a profile on their website. That's all. There's people of all ages entering. It's a very G rated website, and they have rules of conduct about not using profanities and such.
Your profile shows a dashboard with stats on your writing progress as you upload more words.Who Reads My Novel On NanoWriMo?
Nobody reads your uploaded novel, at least that's my understanding of their website:
The entire point of NanoWriMo is to reach a word count, it's not for critique purposes. When I submitted my 50k words, I used a word scrambler just for added security like the one they suggest.
It's not hard to join, and the forums are very easy to post in. I found it quite helpful to read through the forums, as there's other writers there (from novice to expert level) sharing the same struggles and challenges of getting through finishing their books. There's a vast 'help each other out' mentality, so racing to the finish line with that word count isn't the only motivating factor.
"To protect your privacy and rights to your work, none of the novels submitted to our site are read by another human. The text is submitted to our server, run through our word-count validator, and then immediately deleted."
The entire point of NanoWriMo is to reach a word count, it's not for critique purposes. When I submitted my 50k words, I used a word scrambler just for added security like the one they suggest.
It's not hard to join, and the forums are very easy to post in. I found it quite helpful to read through the forums, as there's other writers there (from novice to expert level) sharing the same struggles and challenges of getting through finishing their books. There's a vast 'help each other out' mentality, so racing to the finish line with that word count isn't the only motivating factor.
Here's a short video I made on the process further illustrating just how easy it is to enter NanoWriMo:
