Practicing and would-be writers take note: November is National Novel Writing Month – NaNoWriMo as its eponymous California-based sponsor calls it. Want to be a novelist? Here’s your chance. NaNoWriMo is way more than a tongue-twisting acronym. Its basic premise is motivational. Specifically, the annual observance challenges participants to become “Wrimos” by composing a novel of 50,000 words by 11:59 p.m. on Nov. 30.
That’s roughly 1,667 words a day, notes veteran Wrimo Abigail Singer, a book-seller at Barnes and Noble in Plymouth Meeting’s Metroplex.
NoNoWriMo reports 51,670 writers “met goals to become NaNoWriMo winners” in 2022. But spokesmen for the 501(c)(3) nonprofit value the process as much as the outcome. As they state at www.nanowrimo.org:
“NaNoWriMo…believes in the transformational power of creativity. We provide the structure, community, and encouragement to help people use their voices, achieve creative goals, and build new worlds – on and off the page.
“National Novel Writing Month began in 1999 as a daunting but straightforward challenge: To write 50,000 words of a novel in thirty days. Now, each year on November 1, hundreds of thousands of people around the world begin to write, determined to end the month with a first draft. They enter the month as elementary school teachers, mechanics, or stay-at-home parents. They leave novelists.”
Conversely, compressed word count underpinned Upper Merion Public Library’s recent “Two Sentence Horror Story Contest” which challenged entrants to convey plot, setting and mood as effectively as possible via two sentences.
In all, 28 story-tellers accepted the challenge and did their Ernest Hemingway-best to be concise. As top winner Kathy Belmonte wrote:
“Although she was alone, the glint of the moonlight on the knife gave a feeling of comfort to her as she laid in bed in the new house. When another knife flew by her face, her scream seemed quiet compared to the moan arising next to her in bed.”
And winner Matt Wunder: “Lately, my favorite exhibit at the zoo has been the grizzly bear habitat. It’s fun to see which bear is hungriest after I push a bystander in.”
NaNoWriMo’s much-longer story revolves around several initiatives: This month’s novel writing challenge; Camp NaNoWriMo in April and July; NaNoPrep in September and October; “Now What?” Months in January and February; as well as its Young Writers Program (for kids, teachers and families), Come Write In program (for libraries, bookstores and community centers) and Municipal Liaison program (for local volunteers).
According to NaNoWriMo, some 413,295 writers participated in its programs in 2022, including 85,000 students and educators in the Young Writers Program; 791 Municipal Liaisons helped writers on six continents; 1,038 libraries, book stores and community centers supported novelists through its Come Write In program; and 378,264 “writing goals were set and tracked using our site tools, including 83,000 on the Young Writers Program website.”
Additional details, including NaNoWriMo sign-up instructions, are posted at www.nanowrimo.org.
