Well, folks, it’s November, and if you’re an aspiring writer with a need for self-punishment, that means it’s also NaNoWriMo season. What is NaNoWriMo, you ask? It is the ridiculous challenge of writing 50,000 words in one month with the goal of finishing a novel.
This is my first year of participating and I’m equally as excited to feel productive as I am absolutely terrified. A few months ago, a couple of co-workers and I decided we would take on the challenge together, so we’ve been meeting regularly to write, plan, share our fears, and prepare for the impending exhaustion.
If you would like to try your hand, here are a few things we’ve been doing to prepare: We’ve created outlines based on weekly and daily goals, workshopped our outline ideas with each other, scheduled daily sessions to write as a group (but also individually), and of course, stocked up on coffee.
‘Tis the season for stressed out novelists. Have fun!
Sydney is a BA English major, creative writing student, who has been a content contributor for The Cascade and is now the Opinion editor. In 7th grade, she won $100 in a writing contest but hasn’t made an earning from writing since. In the meantime, she is hoping that her half-written novels will write themselves, be published, and help pay the bills.
