On Writing: National Novel Writing Month

For as long as I can remember, I've loved to write stories. English has always been my favourite subject and my love of reading definitely has something to do with that. I want to write books like the ones I read and review on this blog. I want to write books that someone else will read over and over again and, for the past few years, I've taken part in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). This post will be the first in a series of posts about my writing process, how I write and, how NaNoWriMo 2015 ends up going.

For those of you who don't know, NaNoWriMo is a yearly event where writers all over the world, attempt to write 50,000 words in the 30 days of Novemeber. Which is a crazy thing to do, but it's something that I look forward to every single year. Now, 50,000 words is not a complete novel - a completed novel is usually between 80,000-100,000 words but, by the end of November, you'll have at least part of your novel completed, which is a lot more than you have at the start of the month!

Now, if writing a novel in 30 days isn't your thing, then there is something called National Blog Posting Month I think - where you write a blog post every day for 30 days. I don't know too much about this actually - it's a relatively new discovery for me, but if you do run a blog and fancy a challenge, then maybe this is for you!

National Novel Writing Month isn't just for adults. There's also a Young Writers Programme (which for the last four years is the programme that I've done - 2015 is the first year I've progressed to the adult version!) and, as the name suggests, this is where young people write a novel. Unlike the adult programme, the word count can be changed to suit ability and, I know in the US a lot of schools make NaNoWriMo a part of the curriculum and students really enjoy it.

If you're interested in joining up for 2015 (there's still a little time left!) then go to the NaNoWriMo website to sign up and create your novel. If you're interested in the Young Writers Programme, then head to the Young Writers Programme website where there's information for both young people and educators.

I hope you enjoy this series - if there's something you want to know about writing then ask away and I'll try to answer it!

Image from NaNoWriMo - no Copyright Intended