It is November 1st and the start of NaNoWriMo!
What is NaNoWriMo?
National Novel Writing Month is an annual creative writing project that began in 1999. It was started by Chris Baty in July of 1999 with only 21 participants. It was moved to November in 2000 and in 2009 the event had just under 170,000 participants.

The purpose of the project is to write 50, 000 words of a novel in 30 days. There is freedom in what qualifies your writing as a novel and according to the website’s FAQ, “If you believe you’re writing a novel, we believe you’re writing a novel too.” All that is required to win is to submit your manuscript, they instruct you how to do so it is scrambled, to verify that you have at least 50, 000 words before midnight of November 30.

I found National Novel Writing Month 4 years ago from another writer and was hooked. I participated for 3 years until my third child was born. My oldest child has participated each year as well. I set up an account for my daughter who was 4 the first year so she did not feel left out but we didn’t do much with it as she was not very interested. I did take some time to type up stories she told me.

The young writer’s program allows the writer to set a word goal to complete by November 30. If you meet your word goal, you are a winner! There are educator resources and one year I know I printed out a free helpful resource guide for my son. There is a Classroom Noveling Kit listed on the website this year that says you can order one free kit per educator if you have at least 5 students. I will need to dig to see if the free printable information I found was directly from NaNo or another source.

The fun thing about NaNoWriMo is that in addition to the challenge of writing 50,00 words in 30 days (or a set goal of words for the young writers), is the website with forums and resources and the meter that shows where you are in meeting your goal. There are encouragements, news and other information posted regularly on the website.

NaNoWriMo has a separate site and format for young writers up to age 17. So those signed up in the Young Writers Program can only communicate online with other young writers who must be 17 or younger.
To learn more, visit the website here:
http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/

The site for those aged 18 and up (Those 13 and up can participate on the main site but will have to meet the 50,000-word count goal.) can be found at:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Check out the website, learn more and if you choose to join in on the fun, post your user name here or your child’s to connect with other homeschoolers participating in NaNoWriMo. I won’t be participating this year, but hope to again in the future but my son who turns 13 this month is participating and enjoys connecting online with other writing homeschoolers.