NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Every year for the month of November, hundreds of thousands of writers world wide strap in to write an entire novel from start to finish in just 30 days!!! Obviously the object of the exercise is to generate material like crazy and keep those inner editors far, far away. It is an absolute blast, and in the end you prove to yourself how much you can accomplish when you try.
Since I was blogging and participating last year, too, I went back through the archives and found my old posts. Guess what, I wrote my future self a note!
The thing I wish I’d done differently was kept up more consistency with writing every single day… I wish I had told myself it would be okay to write just 500 words. If I had written 500 words each day that I wrote none, I would have had an extra 7000 words! …I want to have a daily writing goal even if it’s a tiny one.
So this nano’s goal for me is to write every single day, even if it’s just a very short amount!
I want to make sure you have the nano calendar. But be on the lookout soon for an awesomely designed visual calendar from David Seah (I’ll post it here as soon as I see it’s available). You can also find some awesome art calendars on Deviant Art. And never underestimate the power of a Google image search! You might some gems, like I did!
This one from The Loony Teen Writer
This one from Pen and Muse
(view image here)
And this one from Concerning Writers!
(view image here)
And whether you’re participating or not, everyone could always use a nano pep talk, right?!? Or, say, an inspirational book?
If you’re looking for writing tools, in no particular order, be sure to check out:
- Write or Die
- Zen Writer
- Written Kitten
- Focus Writer
- Keep Writing
- 750 Words
- Q10
- Tablo
- or you could always try writing by hand!
And if you’re an area local, come on down to the main library campus in downtown Little Rock this Saturday from 10am to 12noon and check out my Nano 101 class for tons of encouragement, tips, and prizes! Cox Building, third floor. Everyone’s invited, no registration necessary.
Finally, I just learned of the existence of http://nanowrimoallyear.tumblr.com/ YAY!
J. Jobe 
