National Novel Writing Month believes in the transformational power of creativity. We provide the structure, community, and encouragement to help people find their voices, achieve creative goals, and build new worlds—on and off the page.

NaNoWriMo

Defeating Writer’s Block

If you are one of those people who believe in writer’s block, stop! Start writing instead. It’s as simple (and as hard) as that. Grab a notebook with a pen or open up your laptop. Sit down on a chair, your sofa, the floor, the grass, or wherever you are right now and get down to it.

Not sure what to write? Then you may need to get your head out of your … way. Start by giving yourself a challenge. Something hard but realistic. Something inspiring but focused. Something that gets the ink flowing but that still meets a deadline, even if you need a pot of coffee or two to do it.

As a wise man from The Waterboy once said, “you can do it!”

Find Inspiration with NaNoWriMo

Baseball has the World Series, cycling the Tour de France, golfing the Masters, and tennis the Grand Slam. Even “ninjas” have American Ninja Warrior. Being an athlete is about pushing yourself to be better than you were yesterday. You can’t get to the big leagues without pushing your limits. Endurance challenges are not just for athletes though. Writers have NaNoWriMo.

For those of you that don’t know, November is National Novel Writing Month. It is the one time of year that hundreds of thousands of writers around the world get together to bring their stories to life. In a mere 30 days, each person dares to write 50,000 words in the genre of their choice. That’s 1,667 words per day. Whether they do it in short sprints or marathon sessions, they push through any mental barriers holding them back and get the job done.

Completing a novel is no easy feat. If you finish your novel (or at least the first 50,000 words) during NaNoWriMo, you are a “winner”. Less than 20% of writers will cross that NaNoWriMo finish line. Although the winners won’t walk away with a trophy, they can hold their heads up high. After all, they built a solid foundation for a new book. They accomplished something few people could. They proved to themselves that so-called “writer’s block” could not beat them.

Honestly, they are badasses. At least I like to think so, since I won NaNoWriMo back in 2013.

Writer’s Challenge Accepted

Being an athlete or a writer is not always about being the best. It’s about being brave enough to cross the finish line.

NaNoWriMo is an effective writing exercise because it teaches you to be resilient. There is no time to stop and worry about this sentence or that paragraph. There is only time to do, to play with ideas, to write and then write some more. Not only do you teach yourself to ride your momentum, you get a glimpse at your true potential.

Of course, winning NaNoWriMo does not mean you are done. There will be editing and tweaking to follow. Still, how awesome is that novels that started on NaNoWriMo turned out to be huge successes, even New York Times bestsellers? You may have even read some of these books.

• The Beautiful Land, by Alan Averill (2013)
• Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress, by Marissa Meyer (2012, 2013, 2014)
• The Darwin Elevator, by Jason M. Hough (2013)
• Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell (2013)
• The Forest of Hands and Teeth, by Carrie Ryan (2009)
• The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern (2011)
• Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen (2007)
• Wool, by Hugh Howey (2011)

According to the NaNoWriMo site, 474 “winner” novels have been traditionally published and 102 self-published since 2006. Could yours be next? If you call yourself a writer, it might be time to find out.