National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo, is a global event held in November. It encourages thousands of people to try to write a novel in a month, and that is what I do every year.

The goal of the month is to write a novel with a certain amount of words (that you decide for yourself) in thirty days, from November 1 to November 30. The standard word count goal is 50,000 words in one month, but it can vary. The standard for younger kids is 30,000, which means writing one thousand words a day. 2013 was my first year doing National Novel Writing Month, which makes me excited to do it again. The first time I did it I had a word count goal of 30,500 words, and surprisingly I reached it. It was one of the first times I figured out that I was very good at writing.

This year, I am aiming for a goal of 35,000 words, which means about 1,200 words a day. I normally write 1000 words a day, which means that this will be a challenge for me. But there are things to get me motivated, such as the prizes! The biggest prize you get at the end of the month is a code for a few real copies of your book with a self publishing company called Createspace, so thinking about getting a copy or two of my second novel really motivates me to write.

I hope you consider doing this during November! It’s a challenge of persistence, motivation, and imagination. It is really fun and I hope you like it as much as I do.