What is NaNoWriMo?

By- http://www.nanowrimo.org/

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and -- when the thing is done -- the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.

In 2005, we had over 59,000 participants. Nearly 10,000 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.

So, to recap:

What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month's time.

Who: You! We can't do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let's write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.

Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era's most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.

When: Sign-ups begin October 1, 2006. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.

NaNoWriMo By The Numbers

Founded: 1999 in Oakland, CA

Annual participant/winner totals:
1999: 21 participants and six winners
2000: 140 participants and 29 winners
2001: 5000 participants and more than 700 winners
2002: 13,500 participants and around 2100 winners
2003: 25,500 participants and about 3500 winners
2004: 42,000 participants and just shy of 6000 winners
2005: 59,000 participants and 9769 winners

We're estimating about 75,000 participants will head out into the noveling frontier on November 1, 2006.

Number of official NaNoWriMo chapters around the world: Over 250
Number of K-12 schools who participated in 2005: Over 100
Number of NaNoWriMo manuscripts that have been sold to big-time publishing houses: Nine (details below)
Percent of NaNoWriMo's net proceeds from donations and merchandise sales that go to build libraries for children in Southeast Asia: 50%
Number of libraries NaNoWriMo has built through this program: Ten (three in Cambodia, seven in Laos)
Number of words officially logged by participants during the 2004 event: 428,164,975
Number of words officially logged by participants during the 2005 event: 714,227,354
How NaNoWriMo Works (in Ten Easy Steps)

1) Sign up for the event starting October 1, 2006 by clicking the Sign up Now link at the top of the site.

2) After creating an account, log into it. Click "Edit Profile" in the top tab, and tell us about your writerly self. Then head to the "My NaNoWriMo" section and add a photo, choose some writing buddies, and pick a home region. This tells our computer which NaNoWriMo Regional Lounge to offer you in the forums, which local events calendar and photo links to show you on the Local Events page, and gets you CC'd on emails pertaining to any wild novelist gatherings going on in your area.

3) Begin your novel-planning procrastination by reading through all the great advice and funny stories in the forums. Post some stories and questions of your own. Get excited. Get nervous. Eat lots of chocolate and pamper yourself in preparation for the fiction-fueled escapade to come.

4) On November 1, begin writing your novel. Your goal is to write a 50,000-word novel by midnight, local time, on November 30th. You write on your own computer, using whatever software you prefer.

5) This is not as scary as it sounds.

6) Starting November 1 you can go to your My NaNoWriMo page to post excerpts of your work for others to read, and update your escalating word count.

7) Write like crazy for thirty days. If you write 50,000 words of fiction by midnight, local time, November 30th, you will be added to our hallowed Winner’s Page, and receive a handsome winner’s certificate and web icon. The adding of your name to the Honor Roll of Winners requires that you send in a version of your novel in text format (scrambled for security) to our site to be counted.

8) This is not as scary as it sounds either, and we'll post step-by-step instructions on how to upload your novel to our team of superpowered computational robots (flown in from Germany every year) starting in mid-November.

9) Win or lose, you rock for even trying.

10) That's it! If you have any questions, just check out our FAQ's And best of luck in November!