I just signed up for NANO. What have I done? *faints*
Many writers know why those seemingly harmless initials can cue thoughts of fainting, cold sweats, and uncontrollable facial twitching—and that’s the reaction for those of us who haven’t even participated in NANO before.
If the term NANO is new to you, it’s a tender little nickname for National Novel Writing Month. But there’s nothing tender about it. When you participate, you’re signing up to write 50,000 words of a novel, preferably a new one, between November 1 and November 30. That equals 1,667 words per day, for you MathWriterMeticians out there. On Friday, I wrote about 1,900 words, and my brain felt like cottage cheese afterwards. How can I sustain that kind of output for a month straight?
Luckily, there are no NANO police officers who will ticket us for not exactly adhering to the rules. I was assured that fact by a couple of regional liaisons for NANO, who lead a writer’s group that I attended. I also learned:
- It’s okay if I continue working on my novel-in-progress during NANO. I just need to have a clean slate for my NANO word count starting November 1. Example scenario: My novel may already be at 50,000 words on Day 1 of NANO. If I get to 52,000 at the end of the day, I should log in that I’ve written 2,000 words for NANO. But no matter what, you can’t include the word count of anything written before November 1. Editing doesn’t count, either.
- There are resources available through NANO, like online forums and write-ins. A write-in is basically a meet-up where folks get together to work on their NANO projects. Oh, and you’re allowed to talk while you’re there, too.
- There are cute badges and certifications if you make the 50,000-word goal.
- Even if you don’t hit 50,000 words, there’s a sense of accomplishment no matter what. The odds are high that you’ve written more by the end of November than you did in October or September, and so on.
So who else has signed up? What pointers do you have for me to survive the month of November?
Rene Penn 
I’ve done Nano a couple times in past years, but I wasn’t thinking of doing it this year since I’m already a couple chapters into a WIP. But the idea of trying to add 50K during November is tempting… The biggest help for me in past years has been following along with writing sprints on Twitter – it’s easier to write when I know everyone else is doing the same, at the exact same time!
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It is tempting, isn’t it? Either way, good luck with the WIP! I’m curious about the writing sprints on Twitter that you mentioned…
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