Off to the Races: NaNoWriMo Begins

Thursday, November 03, 2011
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.




7 comments:

Margo Dill said...

Hi all--
Hope you are meeting your word counts today. Sorry for those of you who received this post via email or RSS Feed with the misspelled camaraderie. I was in NaNoWriMo mode--just write, write, write and don't edit. :) LOL

Happy writing!
Margo

C. McKane said...

Hi Margo. November should be No Editing Month too!

This is my third NaNoWriMo and love it. I need about 1500 more words to hit my 6K goal of the day.

Last year, I used Twitter a lot but so far Google+ has been an amazing place to hang out too. With so many ways to connect with other writers it can make it hard to write! That's why I'm glad I'm handwriting it all this year- I can just turn the computer off.

capability said...

Not meeting my word quota but still hopeful and staying the course!

Kelly Thompson said...

Lagging a bit on word count at the moment but ready to pull an all-nighter (or several) to meet that goal!

Margo Dill said...

@Kelly Thompson--that is dedicated.

@capability--hopefully you can catch up over the weekend. I think several people use weekends to catch up on word count.

@C McKane--thanks for mentioning Google Plus-WOW! Handwriting? that is impressive. :)

Vanessa Kelly said...

This is my first year participating with Nanowrimo, So far on day fouor i am at 10,500 words. So my story seems to be flowing rather well. I'm surprising myself with the fact that I may actually be able to finish a novel. GOOD LUCK TO ALL!!!

Vanessa Kelly said...

four*

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