It’s November and that means another round of National Novel Writing Month is upon us (or NaNoWriMo for the cool kids).
What is NaNoWriMo? I’m glad you asked.
NaNoWriMo is the writing challenge to end all writing challenges. Starting on November 1st, participants are tasked with writing a 50,000 word novel by the end of the month. This year the event has over 400,000 registered participants spanning 200 countries. It’s free to sign up and start tracking your word count throughout the month.
National Novel Writing Month is also a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit. It says in their mission statement that their events are “designed to foster self-expression while building community on local and global levels.” And they definitely live up to it.
The NaNoWriMo community is one of the biggest benefits you’ll be able to tap into when you sign up. The online forums are filled with advice, off-topic discussions, and story ideas like in the Character Cafe for example.
The offline community of NaNoWriMo is even more spectacular. This year there are over 800 volunteers representing different regions across the globe. They are in charge of hosting writing events, meet-ups and pep talks throughout the month to keep you accountable for your words and to get inspiration from the novelists right in your neighborhood.
You can search for NaNo meetups near you right here.
So, Why Should You Care?
You’re a blogger. I get it. Writing a novel is not necessarily on your to-do list. You don’t have a month to devote to 50,000 words. You don’t have the willpower to lock yourself in a room and put fingertips to keyboard.
I’ve been there. I’ve been running my own blog for about a year now and publishing a post once a month is hard enough as it is. So why on Earth would I voluntarily try to write the equivalent of 50 blog posts in just 30 days?
There are 2 very important things I’ve learned while preparing for NaNoWriMo that can help you become a more dedicated blogger.
Set A Deadline
There’s something known as Parkinson’s Law. It’s the idea that we make our tasks take up the entire amount of time allotted to complete them. In other words, if you have 1 month to write a blog post, you’ll take that entire month to write it. If you have 2 hours, you’ll take 2 hours.
When you’re constrained by a short deadline, you are forced to stay focused and your content comes forth in short controlled bursts of energy.
Set a deadline with your own blog. Tell people so you’ll be held accountable. Hold yourself accountable. Don’t make the deadline something you can easily accomplish. Challenge yourself. If you usually take a month to write a post, try for a week.
Write Everyday
Writing is not something we get better at with age. It takes practice. Constant practice. Do you go without exercise and then expect to be stronger at the end of a month? No.
Start small with a goal you can achieve and then increase it from there. Set aside 10 minutes everyday to write. It doesn’t matter what you write about, just get in the habit. I promise when it comes time to publish your next blog post, you’ll feel the words come to you a lot easier. It’s like you’re wiping away the cobwebs everyday instead of once a month.
Use The Right Tools
We all need a little help sometimes staying motivated to write. Here are just a few free tools to help keep you productive and creative.
Hemingway
Keep your writing interesting with this online app. Paste your text right in the editor and Hemingway will tell you which sentences are too long, alternatives to long words and it will highlight those pesky adverbs. This tool is great for writing captivating openings or endings to a blog post.
Text2Mindmap
Mind mapping tools are great for organizing ideas and seeing how they connect. I use Text 2 Mindmap to generate tons of ideas for blogs posts. I even made a video of the process I use here.
Evernote
Most of you have probably heard of (or use) Evernote. It’s an easy-to-use notekeeping, word-processing, FREE tool that makes jotting down ideas on the go or at home extremely easy. And you can access your work from anywhere – how nifty!
So whether you’re going to write the next great American novel, or finish a blog post on time, make sure you commit yourself fully and meet your goals.
I leave you now with some fun facts about NaNoWriMo:
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Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen started as a NaNoWriMo novel
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NaNoWriMo was started in 1999
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This year there are 400,000 participants from over 200 countries
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NaNoWriMo is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
- Over 250 NaNoWriMo novels have been traditionally published
If you’re participating in NaNoWriMo this month or just wanna say hey, look me up on Twitter.
