National Novel Writing Month

A favorite of Red Room authors Loren Rhoads, David Henry Sterry, Barbara Mountjoy, Chris Baty, Jennifer Van Bergen, and Red Room founder and CEO Ivory Madison.

Mission: NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Each year, participants begin writing November 1st. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30th.

Founder or Executive Director: Chris Baty

Year founded: 1999

Accomplishments:

• Of more than 142,000 participants in 2009, more than 21,000 turned in manuscripts by the deadline

Profile: 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 participants to lower their expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Participants ("Wrimos") 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.

To learn more and sign up for this year's National Novel Writing Month, visit the organization's website.To donate, go to its Donation/Store page.

–Huntington W. Sharp, Senior Editor, Red Room

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