While this is their bigger challenge, they do run a smaller initiative, called CampNaNo, during April and July. It’s a lot more relaxed with each author setting their own goals and they’re encouraged to write anything they want from dissertations to short stories to musicals to even just a structure of a novel.
Blog Post
#iDare Blog: By young people, for young people
How Much Could You Write in a Month?
3 November 2020
The latter half of the year always ends up being a busy time for me. September, or Sketchtember, starts the beginning of a creative challenge of just trying to sketch daily. October brings the challenge of Inktober, a fully finished piece a day. Although a good cheat is to use your Sketchtember art as a base!
Then November brings in what I think is the hardest challenge; NaNoWriMo. A challenge to write 50,000 words in one month.
for your new post
NaNoWriMo, or National November Writing Month, is a non-profit organisation, well prepared with a structure, community and any encouragement for anyone would wants to tackle their mammoth task; Write a 50k novel in 30 days. It’s a worldwide challenge to write 1667 words each day, all mounting up to the 50,000 word goal.
50,000 words in a month may seem like quite a lot but it’s an achievable amount and definitely counts as a novel – F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous novel ‘The Great Gatsby’ is just over 47,000. The organisation's definition of novel is ‘a lengthy piece of fiction,’ which gives the author the freedom to write about whatever takes their fancy.
Both challenges are open to anyone 13 and up but they do have a Young Writers Program that is specifically open to authors 17 and under. The Young Writers Program gives younger authors the chance to create their own word goal so they don’t necessarily have to write 50,000 but they can edit the goal any time they want.
The NaNoWriMo community forms a wonderful support network and it’s easy to find your home region which means you can band together with those in your area to compete against other communities to reach the highest overall word count.
Your home region also connects you to the forums where you can introduce yourself and meet the other participants, including the Municipal Liaison, ML, who’s a volunteer who organizes the in-person events.
Due to Covid-19,there sadly won’t be any in-person meets so some regions have added other means of being in contact.
The Swindon Borough community has added both a Discord Chat and a Facebook Group as a way to share ideas. Discord, an instant messaging app with both voice and video call software, should help writers feel like they are experiencing a close approximation to the in-person meets from the comfort of their own home.
As I am a part of the Swindon Borough, I can attest to their support. While it may seem a bit daunting at first, the group are a welcoming bunch. When they meet in person, they do their best to sit next to those with a similar goal at the session. Those who want to use the meet ups as a bit of a social environment cluster together, while those who want to write as much as they can sit together, often with headphones on.
The in-person meets were often held in the Central Swindon Library and although participants could pop to the Library’s cafe for a snack and a tea or coffee, authors would bring in baked goods to share, usually cookies and brownies.
As there is a range of ages, it’s a well-balanced group, with even the most dedicated writers taking their headphones off to hear about other novels being written and offering up advice if needed. Even if you’re not sure on what you want to write, the environment is great. Sometimes just listening to other participants can spark an idea that can lead to you hitting your target goal.New paragraph
The second set are Personal Achievement Badges. They’re ones that the writers can claim for themselves and they’re often not fully marked off. The first set are more to work out what kind of writer you are.
If you mark the “Planner” badge, you start on November 1st with an outline or notes.
A “Pantser” will start with a completely blank document and their own spontaneous ideas on the day.
And the “Plantser” badge is for when you have a loose structure of what you want to write but are letting yourself improvise.
There is a variety of other badges like; taking care of yourself, if you’ve backed up your document or encouraged a fellow writer. It may seem like such a small thing but it really can motivate you to continue.
The organisation is set out to inspire and encourage with participants receiving messages from NaNoWriMo HQ and Pep Talks from famous authors, which are now archived so they can be looked at to provide help, by inspiring, giving advice, or reminding the writers that it’s good to have a little break so they don’t burn out.
Below are some thoughts from our current ML, Sophie Maria Boyce and an ex-ML, Kat Armstrong.
The first time someone hits that 50k target for NaNoWriMo is a powerful moment that helps them to realise they can. They can write. They can finish. They can. Much more than that, it helps writers – typically solitary creatures – to find and build great friendships based on this wonderful mutual interest.
-Sophie Maria Boyce
As a NaNoWriMo Municipal Liaison I think the best part about NaNo for me is the community it helps us build. Writers come back year after year and it's like having a group of friends that never stops growing. We support each other to create a space where all writing is allowed and that's a really great experience.
-Kat Armstrong
Each year our Municipal Liaisons try to do something to bring joy to the crowd that shows up to the in-person meetings. One of my first years, I received a crochet bunny, aptly named a ‘Plot Bunny’, with a tag saying ‘Trickster’, a challenge for me to include one in my writing, along with an envelope containing an inspiring quote, a phrase to put into my novel and a hexaflexagon with various fantasy creatures on it. (Hexaflexagons are six sided flat models, usually constructed by folding strips of paper that can be folded in certain ways to reveal faces besides the two that were originally on the front and back.)
It’s completely free to take part, just sign up via their website; https://nanowrimo.org/
Images courtesy of National Novel Writing Month
The website is very helpful in itself with little badges that are automatically marked off when you reach the set goal.
The first set of badges are Writing Badges awarded for things like updating your word count, writing for consecutive days and meeting word goals. The first word goal badge is the daily word count so it’s definitely achievable at 1667 words. The badges for consecutive days range from just 2 days to 14 days, up to 30 days, giving you a bit of self satisfaction if you’ve managed to achieve writing for the full 30 days.
Read the Blog Posts here
Youth Publishing Competition submission by Filip (age 11).
Youth Publishing Competition submission by Giselle (age 11).
Youth Publishing Competition submission by Hannah (age 14).
Youth Publishing Competition submission by Abir (age 12).
Youth Publishing Competition submission by Abbie (age 15).
Youth Publishing Competition submission by Gaia (age 11).
Youth Publishing Competition submission by Joshua (age 13).
Samantha's character reference sheet for Platform Pledge
Be part of the project
The #iDARE youth publication is a a fully funded project open to any young people aged 13-20 (or up to 24 if disabled) based around Swindon.
If you would like to become a participant, volunteer your time to help run it,
or suggest something we should feature in one of our editions, please get in touch!
To find out more, please contact us
© Publication run by The Platform Project CIC E: info@platformproject.co.uk
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED TERMS AND CONDITIONS APPLY
