As much as we love eating turkey on Thanksgiving, there's another reason we love November: National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo is a nonprofit organization that offers the tools, community, and encouragement you need to achieve your creative writing goals. The free (!!) site helps you track progress on your work, set milestones to work with, and connect with a variety of other writers.
Writing a book is definitely a weighty task, but it can be easier if you write what you know (that way you're able to dig into the details of your story well), and start reading more (that way you get the hang of the imagery that you like and what both good and bad writing looks like). The NaNoWriMo programs are available year-round, but if you're looking to write a book this month, or you're just looking for some cozy ideas to make future writing more fun, keep reading.
Everything You Need To Know About NaNoWriMo
Image via Vlada Karpovich/Pexels
What Is NaNoWriMo?
NaNoWriMo began as a month-long writing experience through November where you take part with other writers to write 50,000 words of a novel. Now, you can both take part during November and participate in their programs year-round.
Who Has Taken Part In The Program?
Over 400,000 writers participated in the programs in 2021, but there have been a ton of other writers throughout the years as well. Some of the books that started as NaNoWriMo projects include Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, and Cinder by Marissa Meyer. Yours could be the next bestseller!
How Do I Participate In NaNoWriMo?
The first step is to sign up (which you can do here) and then you can decide if you want to write at your own independent pace or set a deadline for the end of November. There are prizes and special messages, and when you reach your word-count goal, you're able to access a winner's page full of fun gifts.
When you're writing, it can be tempting to go back and edit, but you don't want to mess with your creative process — wait until you're done before editing! One thing you can do when you're writing and there's a detail you can't think of off the top of your head is add brackets instead. Then when you're done, you can go back and replace the brackets with what should be there.
You can check out our journal prompts for growth and creativity or try some our 30 creative writing prompts, but here are a few that are specifically for fiction. They might only turn into one scene, but they might also inspire a whole other body of work.
NaNoWriMo Creative Writing Prompts:
- Write an entire story that takes place within a small amount of time. It's harder than it sounds! Focus on details, inner thoughts, and what your characters are feeling.
- Turn your favorite quote or lyric into a story. What makes it your favorite? Is it the words themselves, or how they make you feel?
- If you love houseplants, spend a few minutes every day writing about your plant. Is it growing? Is it losing leaves? What does the soil feel like?
- Write down everything around you. Focus on all of your senses: what you see, hear, smell, feel, and taste. Go into as much detail as you can to make the reader experience everything that you're experiencing.
- Take your favorite iconic story and completely rewrite it by switching every trope. Damsel in distress? Make her a skilled assassin who leaves everyone in the dust. Enemies to lovers? Turn it into a lovers-to-enemies arc. Is the main cast a bunch of kids growing up? Add a bunch of superpowers that will make puberty way more complicated.
- Turn your favorite season, element, flower, or animal into a human. What would their personality be like? What would their favorite food be? How would they spend their time?
- Write a story that takes place in a completely different world. This is a fun way to come up with different economies, cultures, and languages.
- Fill a few bowls with paper that says different words (places, foods, names), and draw one from each bowl at random. Write a story with what you pick.
- Go on Pinterest or Instagram and save a bunch of images that inspire you. After you have a collection, view them all at once to get a feel for their aesthetic and then write a story based on how it makes you feel.
- Turn your latest dream into a story. Whether it was a happy dream or a nightmare, you have the power to adjust what happens!
Ideas To Help You Stay In The Zone While You Write
Slippers
It's important to feel comfortable and cozy while writing when it's cold outside. So grab yourself a pair of slippers or fuzzy socks to keep your toes warm.
A Good Playlist
Music can help you get in the zone or feel a particular emotion that will help you focus in on an aspect of the story that you're creating. Here's our assistant editor Chloe's creative writing playlist, but you can also check out our Spotify for a few different vibes!
Notebooks + Pens
Whether you're jotting down ideas during your writing process or you write down inspiration when you're out and about, every writer needs some good pens and a notebook. You can also grab a planner to have a place to track your plans + progress.
Long Walks
Walks will get your blood pumping, and the change of scenery can help inspire you. It's also helpful to be away from your computer (especially if you work from home), but feel free to bring some music with you. One of our favorite things to do is to go on a solo weekend writing retreat to visit a town we've never been to before and still get some work done.
Snacks
We're talking potato chips, dark chocolate, or a variety of healthy snacks. We'll take it all, especially when you coordinate your snacks with the time of day.
Have you ever participated in NaNoWriMo? Let us know in the comments if you have any advice, and check out our email newsletter for more creativity tips and inspiration!
Featured image via Liza Summer/Pexels
