Not to long ago I discovered that November is National Novel Writing Month. There is an organization known as NaNoWriMo that has spearheaded this movement. Starting with only 22 participants in 1999, this non-profit organization promotes novel writing by encouraging members to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. Last year, NaNoWriMo had tens of thousands participate with 36,843 writers successfully completed writing 50,000 words or more before midnight of November 30th. “Thirty days and nights of literary abandonment” is their organizations motto!
For the past few years I have been contemplating the idea of writing a children’s book based on a character I created while telling bedtime stories to my kids. Every night, tucking the kids into bed turned into an exciting story telling time using this special character known as Doctor Shabitowitz. Pronounced “Shaaa-Bit-O-Wits”, the Doctor is a scientist who used his keen mind and warm heart to help others. He helped me share important messages to my children that involved matters of faith, moral choices and conflicts in life. All along, Dr. Shabitowitz was there to present all of these types of “life circumstances” to my children and entertain them at the same time. Writing these stories will be fun and the thought of someday, reading them to my future grandchildren, is pretty exciting.
So, I am going to give it a try. The worst that can happen is I don’t finish. The NaNoWriMo.org website will help me keep motivated (I hope) as I log my writing progress. The progress bar to the right will be an indicator to those who might want to see how I am doing. Much will be learned during November and I hope I am up to the challenge. Stay tuned and say a prayer for me!
The nanowrimo.org rules are as follows:
- Write a 50,000-word (or longer!) novel, between November 1 and November 30.
- Start from scratch. None of your own previously written prose can be included in your NaNoWriMo draft (though outlines, character sketches, and research are all fine, as are citations from other people’s works).
- Write a novel. We define a novel as a lengthy work of fiction. If you consider the book you’re writing a novel, we consider it a novel too!
- Be the sole author of your novel. Apart from those citations mentioned two bullet-points up.
- Write more than one word repeated 50,000 times.
- Upload your novel for word-count validation to our site between November 25 and November 30.