November is National Novel Writing Month!
Have you ever thought, "One day, I'd like to write a novel?" Well, you're probably going to keep procrastinating until you die and never finish anything, unless you have a deadline. That deadline is November 31st, 23:59 (11:59 PM) local time. Your novel must be fifty thousand words long. However, you cannot start until November 1st. If you're doing it, (which you most certainly will decide to do after reading this thread and the official website) post a short summary of your plot. In mine, a malevolent sentient AI tries to take over the world, and a few scientists try to escape to space.
That's impossible! No human can a whole book in a month.
You only need to write a bare minimum of 1667 words per day, and you can even slack off for 10 of the days and only write 1666 words.
But it'll be terrible! You can't write a book in a month and expect it to be good.
The point isn't to write a masterpiece worthy of publishing, or even showing to another person. The point is to get it done so that you can edit it, and then it will be lovely. During NaNoWriMo, you NEVER edit a single word. Pry the delete and backspace keys off of your keyboard if you must. Your goal is making it to 50,000 words, not not making someone who happens to see your manuscript vomit. Editing is for December, just get it written. You can't edit a blank page.
But I have so much stuff to do! I have a job, school, community service, keeping my kids from killing themselves or each other, et cetera! I could never find the time to do this!
Yes you can. With all the time you'll save by cutting out nonessential activities (eating full meals, cooking, cleaning, watching TV, playing games, etc.) you'll find that you have several free hours in the day that were otherwise taken. If you don't have these hours, you must be very good with your time management, and therefore can handle the time needed.
But what do I get for all this hard work!?
There's a grand prize of $1,000,000. Just kidding, there's no million dollar prize, but you do, however, get a printable certificate and... what's this? THE FULL FIRST DRAFT OF A NOVEL, WRITTEN BY YOU AND THE SATISFACTION OF HAVING ACCOMPLISHED SOMETHING IN YOUR MISERABLE LIFE!HOLY SHIT, YOU'RE AN AUTHOR NOW! You also get a free copy of your book printed by CreateSpace. You can use to free copy as firewood or editing, your choice.
But there's less than a month until November! How am I supposed to plan a whole book in a few weeks?
The trick is, you don't. You only need a week to plan, any more and you risk getting a brilliant idea that stops you from writing because you don't want to "ruin it." No plot? No problem! Just start writing, and keep writing, and you'll be on your way to 50,000 words.
