National Novel Writing Month kicks off in November. The task is simple, well relatively simple, 50,000 words in 30 days. I’m still fiddling with this blog so maybe next year I’ll give it a go.
I’m guessing that there are not many readers of this blog that are going to enter the contest, but if you run a creative writing group, or even if you are on your own, why not set your students or yourself a challenge – say 20,00 between now and the end of November!
As it is just an exercise we’ll bend the rules a little bit more and let you include material you’ve already started on. If you’re on a re-write we’ll let you away with that to.
The important point here is not the quality of work you can produce, although it should be up to your best standard. Rather it is the word count, 20,000 over thirty days averages out at about 6,700 words a day so it is no mean achievement and it will teach you to write under pressure.
Of course you can use this idea in many ways. If you’re running a class for beginners then why not 2,500 words over seven days, that’s about 360 words a day and for a beginner that can be quite challenging.
Challenge yourself, how many words can you write in the month. If you’re a short story writer could you turn out one a day.
Think about the challenge.
