Take on the NaNoWriMo Challenge!
By Katelyn Boulanger

NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month is a yearly writing challenge where authors work to write a 50,000-word novel in the month of November. Participating in a challenge like NaNoWriMo can help authors who:

• Struggle to make the time for their writing
• Have difficulties keeping commitments to themselves
• Keep telling themselves that they will write their book “one day”, and find that “one day” never seems to arrive
  
  
  Check out the NaNoWriMo website, which allows participants to sign up and join a community of writers who help encourage each other towards their goals. To keep you motivated throughout your journey, they also provide access to pep talks, virtual write-in events and webcasts, and articles designed to help you embrace this month of writing. For those that feel motivated by visual reminders of their progress, the website also has participation and writing badges that you can collect to keep your momentum throughout the entire month.
  
  This challenge— writing 50,000 words—can seem intimidating at first however, that is only 1,667 words each day! For tips from a three-time NaNoWriMo participant, check out Erin E.M. Hatton’s blog about achieving NaNoWriMo success on the Word Alive Press blog. In it, she discusses tips for organizing your journey, setting goals and pushing through challenges.
  
  Taking on NaNoWriMo isn’t just about writing a manuscript in 30 days, it is also about making sure that your manuscript gets into the hands of readers. The months of January and February are “Now What?” months for NaNoWriMo where they post content to the NaNoWriMo blog and host follow up events that give tips on how to publish your book. On our own site, check out the 2019 WJOF Contest and the 2019 Word Alive Press Free Publishing Contest as well, as they are two ways of doing that! These contests will be open shortly after NaNoWriMo is completed giving you the opportunity to give your manuscript a little polish before submitting it.
  
  Take this opportunity to make your story a reality!

About this Contributor:

Katelyn Boulanger is the Communications Coordinator at Word Alive Press. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, playing board games, and cuddling her dog.