As the weather turns cooler and the leaves begin to fall, writers around the world hunker down with their laptops and draft outlines, focused on just one thing: NaNoWriMo. November is National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo, as it’s colloquially known) and we can’t think of a better way to spend the start of the chilly season than writing your first (or tenth!) novel.

Maybe you’ve always wanted to write a novel but didn’t know where to start. Maybe you’re a seasoned writer in need of a little motivation–a gentle push to keep you focused and on deadline. Or maybe you’re just plain tired of carrying a jumble of characters around in your head, begging to be let out, and you’ve decided that this is the year you’ll get your story down on paper. 

Whatever your background is, you’re likely to find a group of like-minded writers participating in NaNoWriMo–in fact, more than 450,000 writers participated in 2019 alone. The founders of NaNoWriMo know that writing a novel can be a lonely and daunting task. Even just saying the words “I’m writing a novel” can spark fear into the hearts of the hardiest writers among us! That’s why they created the NaNoWriMo community: It’s a place to find fellow writing buddies, participate in write-a-thons, and get encouragement and inspiration when facing the dreaded writer’s block.

The goal of NaNoWriMo is simple: Write 50,000 words in one month. Sound ambitious? It is. But the program provides the tools and structure you need–like daily writing goals, motivational emails, draft outlining workshops, and more–to get going. And, of course, it’s worth remembering that NaNoWriMo is generative. You’re not expected to finish the month of November with a fully polished, completed novel. For that, you might need the help of a program like BookEnds.

But that doesn’t mean that good things don’t come out of NaNoWriMo. Plenty of now-published novels began as November drafts, including Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants and Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus. So what are you waiting for? Bust out those outlines, fire up the coffeemaker, and get writing. 

To help you get started, in our next post we’re featuring 30 tips for novel writers–one tip for every day of NaNoWriMo. Hear what writing experts like Zadie Smith and Neil Gaiman have to say on everything from craft to character development. When December 1st rolls around, you might just be the proud author of a novel’s first draft–and eventually, with a little elbow grease and some keen editing, that same novel you started in NaNoWriMo might even be ready for BookEnds.  

Happy NaNoWriMo!