Writing challenge november series#
Writing challenge november download#

That’s why I teach writing and publishing-so you can improve your odds. While the figure may be unscientific, it’s not hyperbole. Until you do the math.Ī rule of thumb in book publishing is that an unsolicited manuscript has about a 1 in 1,000 chance of landing a traditional book deal. That means the authors were paid to be published rather than paying to be printed. NaNoWriMo reports that over the years, 250 of its participants have seen their manuscripts sell to traditional publishing houses. If it’s the trigger that results in your first finished novel, bravo! Now, hear me, I’m not trying to talk you out of trying this. So, yes, I’m all for anything that motivates a would-be novelist to start and (more importantly) to finish. He compliments novice filmmakers for merely finishing.

I can’t count the number who have told me they can’t get started, let alone finish.Īnd as my film director son says about movies, simply producing one is a major accomplishment, let alone a good one. Over my four decades teaching writing, I’ve learned that the single most debilitating barrier to writers finishing writing their novels has been fear-fear that kills impetus. The NaNoWriMo folks “believe stories matter.” So do I.Īnd in the last 18 years since this effort began, countless writers have raved to me that NaNoWriMo was the vehicle that finally motivated them to actually finish. If you complete or “win” the challenge, you earn banners and certificates and can purchase t-shirts and other merchandise. Once you hit 50,000 words, you upload your manuscript to the site for verification. You create an account on the NaNoWriMo site and log your daily progress starting at 12:01 a.m. You’re encouraged to outline your novel in September and October. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to shake you out of your writing comfort zone and show you what’s possible while providing resources, support, and accountability. These days, you may continue a book you’ve already started as long as you count only new words written in November. The official challenge is to write the first draft of a new, 50,000-word novel in 30 days - an average of 1,667 words per day.

Writing challenge november download#

(And by “flowing fountain,” I mean writing at least a paragraph or two each day, LOL.Need help writing your novel? Click here to download my ultimate 12-step guide.

I want to go from a water pump with a handle so rusty it won’t move to a flowing fountain by the end of the month. So if I don’t do this-if you don’t see a daily post from me here-hound me until I do it. I may even have to use the daily blog post to compose my sentence for that day. Just a sentence of whatever fiction writing I did that day. I will write at least one sentence of a story-any story-every single day in November.Īnd my secondary commitment is that I will share one sentence of what I’ve written every day here on the blog. So now, in a month where it seems that half the world’s population will be focused on writing a story, I’m making a commitment to myself.

And instead of following my own advice, given countless times to aspiring writers over the past couple of decades, instead of making myself sit down and write whether or not I felt motivated to, I just didn’t write. Then October came and the motivation didn’t. I even had a story idea I was interested in working on. My goal was to write something every day-the idea was at least five to seven hand-written pages on my reMarkable tablet, which would be about 500 to 750 words. In October, I was supposed to be doing a writing marathon with a small writing group I’m in.

Writing challenge november series#

I’ve even written a NaNo prep series in order to help prepare myself and others for this daunting task. I’ll write at least 1,667 words per day for the next thirty days. Many times in the past, I’ve signed up for this challenge, assuring myself that even though I haven’t created a daily writing habit in. November 1 is once more upon us, which means millions of published, unpublished, and first-time writers are picking up the challenge to write 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days.