![]() Until I took part, I never thought I'd have a chance at being a novelist. Hollie Parker, a 27-year-old PR executive based in Bahrain, agrees: "The most important thing I think I've gained is the knowledge that writing a book isn't as impossible a task as it may seem. But one of NaNoWriMo's aims is to rid people of their fear of producing less -than-stellar work, as well as forcing them to take risks. Of course, there is no guarantee that those words will be any good. But the remarkable thing about it is that when you break it down into that daily total - 1,667 words - it becomes infinitely manageable." "It still sounds daunting, even when you say it'll be fine, it'll be 30 days' work. "Whether that's 1,000 words, or 15,000 words, or whether they reach the 50,000 goal or go beyond, what gets us so excited is that instead of thinking about writing, people are actually doing the writing. Not that reaching the 50,000 mark is the most important thing to achieve, at least according to NaNoWriMo's programme director, Lindsey Grant: "We encourage a lot of people to write just to write and not even worry about that word goal because, ultimately, they're going to write more during November than they would otherwise. Not bad for a non-profit, participant-funded event that initially saw a mere 21 people take part - producing a total of six winners. Taking place throughout the whole of this month, and now in its 12th year, NaNoWriMo has so far welcomed 612,935 people to its fold, and between them they have produced more than seven billion words. Additionally, I think that spending a month exploring your imagination is truly one of the best things you can do." Tackling a large creative project, you never feel more alive than when you set a goal that's slightly bigger than yourself and then nail it. "I think for most people it just feels really great. "It's always been a delightful moment when I've explained this to strangers," says Baty, the executive director of The Office of Letters and Light - the charitable organisation through which NaNoWriMo is run. But with no tangible rewards beyond this, what exactly is the point? ![]() People who successfully complete the challenge are listed as official winners and can collect a certificate. ![]() Uploading verifies the word count (you can scramble the document beforehand if you're worried about putting your manuscript into a stranger's hands). Participants must sign up to the website, and upload their work before midnight on November 30. The main aim is to produce 50,000 words - the equivalent of 175 pages - of a novel in 30 days. Otherwise known as National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo was started by the San Francisco native Chris Baty in the summer of 1999. Zaineb al Hassani talks to the organiser and some of the participantsĪs the clock struck midnight on Sunday tens of thousands of people began a journey into the creative unknown, all participants in the increasingly popular annual event known as NaNoWriMo. November is National Novel Writing Month, a US-based initiative that sees would-be authors around the world pledge to complete a 50,000-word work in 30 days.
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