Why every aspiring writer should try NaNo?

Are you an aspiring writer? but don't have an idea of where to start? Or just have a lot of ideas yet feeling lost? NaNo is a great place to start your writing journey. Whether you write for pleasure or thinking to pursue a full-time career NaNo is a great way for starters.

What's NaNoWriMo?

For those who are unaware, NaNoWriMo is (short for National Novel Writing Month) a creative-writing initiative started in 1999. Since then it promotes aspiring writers to write a 50000-word manuscript in just thirty days in the month of November, every year. Anybody who is passionate about writing can take part in the challenge and write their minds out. They can upload their finished manuscript by the 31st of November to receive their NaNo certificate. It's a great community of writers one can join in to share their views, ask for support, help others, give advice, and a lot more.

Time constraint

The time given to finish a 50000-word manuscript is just 30 days. While still the months of September and October could be used to outline your novel, the actual writing - creating your story begins on 1st November. While it might seem impossible at first, I feel such a short deadline actually urges writers to get as creative as possible. Having set a deadline, writers can no longer procrastinate to start writing their stories. It might be a novel, non-fiction, your personal notes, or short stories, this tight deadline gives the kick to start writing without any further delay.

How to win?

As long as writers manage to touch the 50000-word mark by the 30th of November everybody wins. Writers have to upload their work in the word count calculator available on the NaNo website to generate their NaNo certificate about their accomplishments. Most people stick with this target set by NaNo organizers, by default, yet, writers can set their own goal they wish to achieve before starting to write. What counts is if they finish their set goal by the end of the month. 

Why NaNo?

NaNo is just helping aspiring writers to start writing by having a short deadline. Once the manuscript is ready there are lots of other works that follow if the writer is keen on publishing their work. Most newbie writers will have no idea what goes next. People here can help them with editing, formatting, and publishing advice. While they don't directly help to edit a manuscript they will guide where to find help with any of the needs that follow after your manuscript is ready.  

What's next?

It doesn't matter whether one is able to reach that 50000-word mark or not, writers can still continue writing even after the month of November. Writers can continue to work on their story and keep writing until they finish. Although it works in full swing in November, the website conducts year-round engagements by conducting writing camps and pep talks. 

Community

It will be a rich experience to be in a community of writers that comprises people from different backgrounds pursuing various other careers yet still sharing their common love for writing. Both experienced writers and amateurs meet at this point to share their doubts and discuss the opportunities available. People can take part in the forums that are already present to clear their doubts and can start new ones to get their questions answered by someone else. But advertisement is strictly not allowed here. 

Sponsors

After having successfully finished 22 years last year, NaNo is going strong garnering lots of writers around the globe and supporting many young writers to achieve their dream. With its number of users going up, so are its sponsors. There are a lot of sponsors in collaboration with NaNo to help with your writing endeavours. Book pipeline, Scrivener, Wattpad, Storyist, Dabble are to name a few - all of these serve different purposes; Wattpad helps with publishing, Scrivener is a software for crafting your fictional world by writing in it. There are also a few sponsors that are available only during the month of November - a great boost to finish your work on time. And their sponsor list is growing by the year.

Offers

These sponsors offer various software packages for purchase at a reduced price for winners - a privilege only for NaNo participants. Some sponsors also host contests thereby encouraging writers to take part in publishing as well. All these sponsors and various offers encourage writers in one way or the other to help them stay focused on their writing journey wherever they are. NaNoWriMo serves as a meeting point for writers and organizations that supplement them making it easy to bring out their talent. 

NaNo is the best place to see your dream come true. I'm sure this initiative will bring out the dormant yet best talent to the face of the world. After all, most successful authors today were the ones who didn't even think of becoming an author!

Here's the link to explore https://nanowrimo.org/