Off to the Races: NaNoWriMo Begins

Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you know that November is National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo as it's affectionately called. Each year, more and more writers take on the challenge to write a novel (50,000 words) in a month--in the very  month that the holiday season starts for many nonetheless. 

And this year, 2011, is off with a bang. If the activity on our Twitter and Facebook pages are any indication, writers are enthusiastically typing away at their keyboards and  meeting their daily word counts. Some are even exceeding. Here are some comments from Twitter:

• @womenonwriting Yes! On track for day 2 also. Thanks for the support! ~~@CaroDonahue

• @womenonwriting I greatly surpassed my word count for today which gives me confidence. Hopefully I can meet at least the min each day ~~@catherineebanks
 

• 3146 words and counting! ~~@SCSilk

I've decided that's one of the hooks of NaNoWriMo--it's not just getting a novel done in a month, it's not just the rush that writers get from creating characters and plots on the spot--it's the community of participants and the social networking and even meeting in person to write. It's camaraderie! It's the "we are all crazy writers, but we are in this thing together" spirit that makes this program so wildly successful.

So, if you are already signed up for NaNoWriMo, then great--are you also following the hashtag feed--#nanowrimo--on Twitter? People who are participating will tweet each day about their progress or plot and put the symbol #nanowrimo after their tweets. If you have a search open for this hashtag, you will see the tweets, whether or not you are following those writers.

There's also a NaNoWriMo Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/nanowrimo. As of this writing, there are 74,901 fans of the page. There were 1086 comments to the question: "How are you kicking off NaNoWriMo?" This is an active page! So, like it and join in the fun--add in your two cents and interact with other Facebook users who are also doing NaNoWriMo. You never, ever know whom you might meet or interact with. 

And of course, make sure you've checked out the official NaNoWriMo site at:  http://www.nanowrimo.org. You can track your progress, get pep talks, meet other writers, and offer or get support. 

If you're not signed up yet, and you're thinking, Boy, I would really like to do this. I have the perfect idea for a novel. It's not too late to sign up--you'll just need to finish 50,000 words in 27 days instead of 30. 

Heck, no problem!

post by Margo L. Dill

For more tips and ideas for using social networking to connect with other writers and further your career, then consider taking Margo Dill's WOW! class, "Social Networking for Writers," starting on November 16. There's still plenty of time to sign up! Go here for more information.