Do you want to challenge your creativity? Have you ever dreamed of writing a novel? If you have answered yes to these questions, then you should try participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) that is happening this month, and happens in November every year. NaNoWriMo aims to unlock your creative potential by inspiring you to write a 50,000-word novel. Why should writers give NaNoWriMo a try?
1. Challenge yourself
“I will not accept that you must write only within your ethnicity or race. Your characters are real people. They are not stereotypes. Their narratives are as rich as your own. Don’t be afraid to be a gambler. Stretch beyond your comfort zone. Write some truth in that fiction.”
— E.E. Charlton-Trujillo, award-winning filmmaker and novelist
NaNoWriMo is all about unraveling your creativity. When you have a platform to unravel it, why don’t you start writing a novel? A lot of aspiring authors want to write a novel, but don’t ever get around to doing so. NaNoWriMo provides you with a structure to do so by challenging you to write a novel within 30 days. Take advantage of the golden opportunity.
2. Get into a rhythm
Most of you want to become great writers. But do you have a habit of writing every day or at least a few times in a week? If you have answered no, then that means you lack discipline. You ought to train yourself to write. How do you do that? NaNoWriMo assigns you a deadline of 30 days. This means you need to pen around 1,667 words per day. This habit instills discipline in you. You are setting a daily milestone for yourself. Hopefully, once after you get into this rhythm, you will continue the same throughout the year.
3. Bond with the community
Nothing works like bonding. We love to have comrades around so that in times of despair they comfort us. This applies to writers as well. Writers are assumed to be solitary people. They read, they write and they remain lost in their creative space. How does NaNoWriMo help you? It pulls you out of your comfort zone and gets you to connect with others. If you decide to write a novel, you will be attempting it like the rest of the wannabe novelists in the world. This means you can network with them on NaNoWriMo forums and groups online and share your creative thoughts. Who knows? You may find a like-minded soul among them.
4. Gain advantage
Your writing will take a backseat at some point in your life owing to some unforeseen obstacles. If you want to take part in NaNoWriMo, it means you need to dare your own creative fetters and kick-start your writing by assigning small milestones to yourself daily. You have nothing to lose. Instead you have everything to gain. What do you gain? You gain the confidence and a renewed vigor to resume your writing that you have been procrastinating. Hopefully, from a short write-up you may progress to writing a novel. What are you waiting for? Take your plunge.
Go ahead and liberate yourself. Choose your favorite genre and build it on. Let it grow wings and expand into a romance novel or a thriller, perhaps!
Image credit: Monda on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0