How to write a novel in a month

NaNoWriMo: how to write a novel in a month

If you've always suspected there's a novel in you, an American project could help you get it on to paper in just 30 days

Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon in the 2011 film Water for Elephants, based on a book written during NaNoWriMo Photo: Twentieth Century Fox/David James

By Charlotte Runcie, Arts writer

The telegraph -  01 Nov 2013

Plenty of us like to imagine that we have a novel in us, if only we could find time to write it. It's the most complete form of literary art, requiring deep thought, emotional commitment and, usually, the total alienation of family and friends. But what if you could knock it off in a month?

For a growing online community, NaNoWriMo is that month. Short for National Novel Writing Month, it's an internet hub of budding writers who each spend the whole of November working on a book, from start to finish.

Fourteen years since it was founded by Chris Baty in San Francisco, NaNoWriMo now has online novelists on every continent (including, apparently, Antarctica). Technically it's now International Novel Writing Month, but the original name has stuck.

Participants register for free at nanowrimo.org to log their progress and share anxiety levels in the forums. Last year 341, 375 people took on the challenge. This year, organisers expect around 500,000 to sign up.

What are the rules? According to Baty, a novel is 50,000 words. Some would argue that's a novella (though it's almost double the length of Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's, at 26,532 words), but the NaNoWriMo website defines a novel as "a lengthy work of fiction. Beyond that, we let you decide whether your writing falls under the heading of novel. 
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