I will not assume everyone knows what NANOWRIMO is. I only learned of it this year through YouTube. So, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It was founded in July of 1999 by Chris Baty. Since then it has become this massive online community for writers. Their website host writing challenges in April, July, and November. On there you can create an account, announce a project, make friends with other writers, and just engage with the writing community. It is a fun and motivating environment for writers to challenge themselves and stay motivated.

I announced my writing project which is an untitled screenplay about a young boy who wants to celebrate an unlikely hero for Black History month. I gave myself a challenge of 10,000 words to have written by the end of July. But typically, the goal is a 50,000-word manuscript. Again, I have never participated in NaNoWriMo before, but I look forward to one day challenging myself to writing that many words in a month.   

Throughout the month, you enter updates on your word count and any other progress happening with your project. You do collect badges as you go when you hit certain marks. They have resources such as: Nano prep and Peptalk. Nano prep is when writers spend the month before NaNoWriMo, prepping their novel by outlining, creating character arcs, building the plot, etc. There are also a ton of videos online on how to tackle your writing project. Then there is Peptalk which is a great resource for writers who need a confidence boost. Published authors are- and have been in the past- advice coaches giving motivational pep talks throughout the month to encourage writers in case you may be considering quitting.

With that said, I hope you will consider participating in NaNoWriMo this month. And don’t worry about not meeting your goal- a lot of writers miss their mark. But you will be so proud of yourself for what you’ve created so far.