What the heck are PREPTOBER & NANOWRIMO ?

Ah yes, the fall season is upon us; and while many are simply enjoying the small comforts of the season (sweaters, cool-air, pumpkin spice lattes) there are some of us who know that with the season of fall also comes the most joyous (or pain-inducing) time of year: National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short.

FUN FACT: The idea for my current WIP came out of NaNo in 2015. I wrote an entire first draft, however, decided to make massive changes– biggest of all, the genre– so this NaNo I’ll be working with the bones and skeleton of my first ever NaNo novel and transforming it into a very different, much better story! How fun, lmao.

NaNoWriMo is an online writing event that challenges the participants to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. So essentially, 2,500 words per day on average. It’s a great challenge, but it’s also an understandably hard challenge. Especially if you do not prep.

Which brings me to Preptober. Where you have 31 days (err… 25 days now) to plan, prep and outline the novel that you are going to be writing in November. For some, this means coming up with a completely new idea or concept and starting at the very beginning. For others, NaNo is a time to revise or re-draft a novel that they have already been working on.

I won’t get into tips or tricks for mastering NaNo because honestly, I’m still a spring chicken myself, but I will direct you to some wonderful resources if you are interested:

• Jessi Elliot recently posted a YouTube video all about getting prepped for Preptober! You can watch it here!
• Lindsay Bilgram posted about her plans for week one of NaNo which can give you an idea of where to start if you are completely lost! Read it here!
• Kristen Martin also posted a video about Preptober and getting ready for NaNoWriMo. Watch it here!
• There are TONS of NaNo related blog posts and YouTube videos out there so do some research if you want to learn more!

 

If you are interested in participating in NaNoWriMo all you need to do is sign up on their official website. It’s free and easy to use and has tons of great resources built within it!  You can do that here. 

If you do sign up, or if you are already a NaNo participant be sure to leave your username down below so that we can become writing buddies and keep each other motivated!

 

 

FUN FACT: The idea for my current WIP came out of NaNo in 2015. I wrote an entire first draft, however, decided to make massive change– biggest of all the genre– so this NaNo I’ll be working with the bones and skeleton of my first ever NaNo novel. How fun, lmao.