It’s NaNoRiMo
Fresh out of ideas? Daunted by the prospect of masterminding an entire fictional masterpiece? NaNoRiMo offers a way out. Don’t try to do it all. Instead, force yourself to push through 50,000 words, leaving your editing impulses locked in the drawer.
NaNoRiMo – National Novel Writing Month – rolls around each November. The seat-of-your-pants approach to creative endeavor has a growing body of fans who have done just that. They commit to writing 50,000 words, completing a drafted novel in a month. They don’t rework. They don’t revise. They don’t dine-tune. They don’t fret over painstakingly crafting every line. No! They spill their guts onto the page until challenged, exhausted, and amazed that they did it, they reach their goal.
Encouragement comes from throngs of similarly inspired wordsmiths registered on NaNoRiMo and from the organization itself, a 501(c)3 nonprofit that “helps people find their voices, achieve creative goals, and build new worlds — on and off the page…. It helps because you are doing it with a lot of other writers and if you are registered on NaNoWriMo — you also have an objective third party as your accountability partner…. NaNoWriMo helps you track your progress, set milestones, connect with other writers in a vast community, and participate in events that are designed to make sure you finish your novel. Oh, and best of all, it’s free!
You can read more at the official website NaNoWriMo.org.
For further support, many branches of the California Writers Club have NaNoRiMo workshops to coax the muse along. Visit calwriters.org for a list of branches in the state.