Thomas Muirhead

Written by

Thomas Muirhead

27 October 2018

NaNoWriMo

Why We Love National Novel Writing Month

National Novel Writing Month is part of Novlr’s history. It was when I (Thomas) took part in NaNoWriMo a few years ago, that I realised there wasn’t a tool that just did novel writing properly. I tried Scrivener, then ended up in Google Docs because that was the best there was at the time. So out of that was born the idea of Novlr.

For anyone who doesn’t know, National Novel Writing Month is an incredible initiative started in California, which challenges you to write a ‘novel’ in a month. It classifies that as 50,000 words. Around 400,000 people around the world take part every year. It has become a phenomenon throughout the writing community.

1613 words a day sounds easy…

IT IS HARD. Writing 1600 words in a day may not sound that hard. Doing it twice, three times still doesn’t sound that hard. But, inevitably, you miss a day and then you need to write 3200 words the next day to catch up, which you might not manage. Miss another day and it all begins to add up. It’s really tough and requires resolve and determination. Cancel all other activities, let all your family and friends know you will not be around. It will dominate the month of November.

IT IS GREAT FUN. It is hard and it will be stressful from time to time, however, there is no doubt that forcing yourself to produce 50,000 words in a month is a great writing exercise for any writer. They probably won’t be your finest words, but amongst them will be gems. Once you get going and into a rhythm, it becomes hugely satisfying.

How do I take part in National Novel Writing Month?

So, quite simply, you just need to write 50,000 words in the month of November. You can register on the NaNoWriMo website to confirm that you’re taking part. They provide a lot of great support too, setting up writing groups and much more across the world. Do it, you won’t regret it.

Using Novlr Goals to track your NaNoWriMo writing

You can set the in-app writing tracker to 50,000 for the month to keep track of your National Novel Writing Month goals.

National Novle Writing Month Goals