 Noticing Newbies: September 18, 2024 Issue [#12753] |
This week: NaNoWriMo Approaches Edited by: Jeff  
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"You never know what you can do until you try,
and very few try unless they have to."
-- C.S. Lewis
About The Editor: Greetings! My name is Jeff and I'm one of your regular editors for the Noticing Newbies Official Newsletter! I've been a member of Writing.com since 2003, and have edited more than 400 newsletters across the site during that time. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me via email or the handy feedback field at the bottom of this newsletter! 
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NaNoWriMo Approaches
It's about that time of year. The annual Writing.com Birthday Week festivities have drawn to a close, many of us are starting to get a bit of fall chill in the air ... and a lot of us are considering our options when it comes to the popular November activity known as National Novel Writing Month (a.k.a. NaNoWriMo). For the uninitiated or the unfamiliar, that's a challenge to write a novel of 50,000 words or more during the thirty days in the month of November.
This year is particularly interesting because it's the second year in a row that the official NaNoWriMo organization has found itself in a bit of hot water. This year, it was a result of the organization issuing a very clunky and stupid commentary on the use of AI in the novel writing process. If you're interested in that whole thing, there are plenty of places online where you can track down all the juicy details; suffice to say that a large number of longtime members of NaNoWriMo's official community have left over their stance on AI and the way in which they presented it.
Whether you're in one camp, the other camp, or straddling the fence, I'd encourage you to consider the benefit of participating in NaNoWriMo independently of all the drama that's going on with the official organization. As much as the organization tries to pretend otherwise, the act of writing 50,000 words during the month of November is something that can be done independently. And if that's an activity that you find appealing, you should give it a try. Don't let the publicity and politics around the official organization's foolishness deter you from attempting to write a novel in a month if that's a challenge that you find worthwhile.
If you are going to participate in NaNoWriMo this year, unless you're a "pantser" who just writes and sees where the story takes you, this is probably about the time you want to start thinking, developing, and planning your novel. If you're interested in doing some actual worldbuilding for your fictional world, "World Weavers' Workshop" is currently going on now, and then following in its footsteps is "October Novel Prep Challenge" . Both are designed to help you think through your novel and get as prepared as you can for the writing sprints that will be needed to average the 1,667 words per day you need to write in November to successfully reach 50,000 words by November 30.
And once NaNoWriMo does start in November, if you're looking for a low-key activity to supplement (or possibly replace) the official NaNoWriMo community, I run the "NaNoWriMo Write-A-Thon" right here on WdC, which is a great opportunity to raise some funds for some great groups and activities in this community while also writing your novel.
While NaNoWriMo isn't appealing to every writer, it is an activity that many find useful, if only for the deadline pushing them to actually produce words, and/or the camaraderie that comes from knowing that many other writers are in the trenches with you. If the activity is something that appeals to you, I'd encourage you to really consider participating, even if the official organization is a bit of a mess right now.
Until next time,
Jeff
If you're interested in checking out my work:
"New & Noteworthy Things" | "Blogocentric Formulations"
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This month's official Writing.com writing contest is:
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EXCERPT: You didn't know
What you didn't know
If I could appear as 60 year old me
To 19 year old you
The first thing I would do
Is tell you that you are beautiful
EXCERPT: Zara wiped the sweat from her brow, the humid, musty air of the Mid Levels clinging to her skin like a second layer of grime. She tightened a bolt on the air recycling unit, its constant hum a familiar comfort in the cacophony of the Undercity
EXCERPT: Are you really leaving? When will you come back? Don’t worry, my mom said we’ll visit again next summer. I hope you won’t forget me; after all, best friends keep each other in their hearts. Here, take this bracelet my dad made. There are only two of them in the world, both engraved with the letter K—just like Karina and Katelyn.
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