Anybody doing NaNoWriMo this year?

For those who don't know, NaNoWriMo is an annual event whereby participants attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in 31 days, during the month of November.

It can be exciting, scary, exciting and depressing but most people have some fun with it. The race is only with yourself, to see if you can do it.

The reason? Well, the idea is that there are many people who want to be writers but never get around to starting. The point of NaNoWriMo is to just force yourself to write like mad and focus on quantity over quality.

Why would anybody do that? Because almost nobody is a good writer to start with. Like anything, if you want to be good, you have to practice. So getting into the habit of writing something can be a big boost to people who want to be writers (or people who want to give it a try to see if they like it).

Will your NaNoWriMo novel be good? Probably not - but that's not the point! The point is to get started rather than waiting for some nebulous future time. Just look at this post - I've written way more than is needed to convey this information - I need more practice!

Is it for everybody? No, not really. There are many people who have no desire or interest in writing. But I'd say that most people ought to give it a go. Most decent sized cities would have groups of people doing it that you might be able to meet up with. There are many who start and don't go through with it - but so what? At least give it a go and have some fun.