Want to write a novel? National Novel Writing Month celebrates 25th anniversary

On November 1st, hundreds of thousands of people around the world will suddenly start crouching over their laptops, keyboards, notebooks, journals and tablets as they try to destroy and rebuild relationships, craft the perfect murder, create a thrilling adventure, devise a winning courtroom argument, help plucky kids discover their true destinies and find new and unusual ways to dispose of a body.

November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, and this year marks the 25th frantic, caffeine-driven year for millions of otherwise perfectly sane people. If you've always wanted to write but lacked motivation, commitment or plot, that pressure has now been replaced with a simple deadline. The event begins at 12:01 on Nov. 1 and it stops at the stroke of midnight, Nov. 30.

Your goal: producing a 50,000-word novel in a frustrating, exhilarating time during which you’ll push yourself to the limit of your endurance and get over the psychological fear of writing a book by whomping out something that at least looks like one.

There is no time for editing, polishing, or consistency, and writer's block is a luxury you cannot afford. The motto of NaNoWriMo is "No plot, no problem."

Here's what you need to know.

What is National Novel Writing Month?

National Novel Writing Month is a massive worldwide event running the length of November in which participants pledge to write a 50,000-word novel.

You can do this privately, or you can interact with the vast, supportive NaNoWriMo community who can help cheer you on. By providing you with a strict deadline and no other parameters, NaNoWriMo forces you to banish the inner editor in your head that keeps you from finishing (or even starting) anything. When you write with abandon, as fast as you can, you get over the psychological hump of "I can't write a novel" and discover that actually, you can.

Granted, it might not be a good novel, but that's not the point. In the world of esteemed literary achievement, NaNoWriMo is the Play-Doh Fun Factory of words. Quality is largely optional and will most likely just get in your way. Would-be writers who traditionally get stuck creating The Perfect First Sentence find themselves discovering the heady joys of spewing thoughts out in an exhilarating rush, like champagne from a paint mixer, with similar results.

OK, it sounds frivolous but it's a surprisingly useful method of breaking through first-draft paralysis, writer's block, crippling perfectionism and just general laziness, and it's fun. It also helps you realize that you can find time to write if you want to. It's the learning-to-swim-by-getting-pushed-off-the-diving-board method of writing.

And, after the frantic wordsmithing is done a the end of the month and you've had time to shower and reacquaint yourself with your family and friends, you can take a look and see if what you wrote is any good or not.

How did National Novel Writing Month get started?

In 1999, founder and then-freelance journalist Chris Baty, who had always wanted to write a novel one day, decided that day had come and he convinced 20 hapless friends to do it with him during the month of July.

"We had taken the cloistered, agonized novel-writing process and transformed it into something that was half literary marathon and half block party," Baty said on the NaNoWriMo site back in 2010.

"We called it noveling. And after the noveling ended on August 1, my sense of what was possible for myself, and those around me, was forever changed. If my friends and I could write passable novels in a month, I knew, anyone could do it."

The revelations that surprised Baty most were a) that deadlines encourage creativity, and b) writing as a community effort was a lot of fun. So they moved it to November the next year and did it again. And again. And again. And every year, it grew.

NaNoWriMo officially became a nonprofit organization in 2006 and started other writing initiatives such as the Young Writers program for kids, teens, teachers and families and the Come Write In local program for libraries, bookstores and community spaces. Baty stepped down as executive director in 2012 to become a full-time writer.

According to NaNoWriMo,org, 413.295 writers participated in their different programs in 2022, including 85,000 students and educators in the Young Writers Program. 51,670 writers hit their goals.

How do you write a 50,000-word novel in a month?

By writing roughly 1,666 words a day, give or take.

Have any famous writers participated in National Novel Writing Month?

Lots. For some of them, the kickstart of NaNoWriMo is what made them famous. Just a few examples:

• Erin Morgenstern, "The Night Circus": Written over the course of three NaNoWriMos, this magical tale of lovers and foes facing off in a duel using a most unusual circus as their dueling grounds spent seven weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and has been optioned for a film.

• Lani Diane Rich, "Time off for Good Behavior": Rich's 2002 NaNoWriMo effort got her a book deal with Warner Books and this first one won the Romance Writers of America RITA award for Best Debut Novel. Her 2003 NaNoWriMo book became "Maybe Baby."

• Hugh Howry, "The Wool Omnibus": Howry had already been a NaNoWriMo writer but when his short story "WOOL" started to take off, he decided to devote the next one to fleshing it out into a longer work. Wool was optioned for a movie but was later picked up as a series for AppleTV called "Silo."

• Sara Gruen, "Water for Elephants": Gruen wrote the basis for "Water for Ele[hants" during NaNoWriMo and finished it later. The story of the young veterinarian Jacob Janowski and his time with the Benzini Brother Circus got national attention and rave reviews, and became a 2011 movie starring Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon, and Christoph Waltz hit theaters.

• Rainbow Rowell, "Fangirl": Rowell was already a published author when she tried NaNoWriMo and found that the freestyle, words-at-all-costs nature of the event helped her avoid first-draft anxiety.

• Marissa Meyer, "Lunar Chronicles": Meyer didn't write a novel during the 2008 NaNoWriMo. She wrote three, which became "Cinder," Scarlet" and "Cress," her bestselling trilogy of reimagined-as-scifi fairy tales.

What are the rules of National Novel Writing Month?

Write 50,000 words between Nov. 1 and Nov. 30. That's pretty much it.

There is no fee, although donations are welcome. Anyone 13 and older can register to participate. You can write a new novel or something you've already been working on. And while you can use AI for ideas or to suggest chapter titles, don't use it to generate text. The point is to show you that you can write a novel, not that you can ask ChatGPT to write one.

What do you win if you complete National Novel Writing Month?

You get the satisfaction of knowing you did it, bragging rights, a 50K badge to go on your website profile, a bunch of discounts on writing software and other literary goodies from their partners, and 50,000 words of something or other that might even turn out to be a pretty good book.

To be considered a winner you'll need to register at NaNoWriMo.org and enter your final word count before midnight at the end of the month.

Registering also gets you regular pep talk emails from famous writers, and access to the invaluable forums for support, commiseration, suggestions, writing challenges, prompts, and help when you need to know about current Korean fashions, 18th century police procedures or what bars college students were going to in New York City in 1972.

if you've always dreamed of writing a novel one day, Nov. 1 could be the day.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: National Novel Writing Month: You too can write a novel in 30 days