NaNoWriMo
LoNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month
Local Novel Writing Month

NaNoWriMo is the National Novel Writing Month. Visit nanowrimo.org for more details if you're unfamiliar with this event. In brief, the goal is to write the first rough draft of a complete novel, spanning no less than 50,000 words, in the space of a single month.

NaNoWriMo takes place in the month of November. Because November is a less than ideal month for some people, we also hold our own novel-writing month in March, and call it LoNoWriMo.

We use No Plot? No Problem!, by Chris Baty, as our guidebook. If you would like to participate in one of our month-long novel-writing exercises, you are strongly encouraged to read this book.

Here are some quotes from the book's introduction that illustrate the ethic behind this unusual exercise:

"If you spend enough time with your characters, plot simply happens."

"The biggest thing separating people from their artistic ambitions is not a lack of talent. It's the lack of a deadline."

"I had high hopes of delaying any novel writing attempts until I was older and wiser, and had achieved a state of complete literary enlightenment.... Having written a not-irreedeemable novel as a twenty-six-year-old made me realize that ‘sooner’ definitely trumps ‘later’ when it comes to writing."

"The single best thing you can do to improve your writing is to write. Copiously."

"But if, in your heart of hearts, you really want to write a book about a pair of super-powered, kung-fu koalas who wear pink capes and race through the city streets on miniature go-karts, know that this is also a wonderful and completely valid subject for a novel."

Here are some other inspirational quotes from other authors:

"I am largely able to proceed by telling myself that nobody will ever see this thing."
— Brian Raiter

"Note: if your world lacks baseball, do not use the phrase ‘throw a curve ball’ in dialogue."
— Don Coffin

"If, come April 1, this turns out to have been an April Fool's joke and I'm the only one who has actually been writing, I will come to Seattle to julienne you and feed you to the seagulls."
— Ryan Finholm

Here are the records of our past efforts (including a few of the resulting novel drafts):

LoNoWriMo 2005.
NaNoWriMo 2005.
LoNoWriMo 2006.
NaNoWriMo 2006.
NaNoWriMo 2007.
LoNoWriMo 2008.
NaNoWriMo 2008.
NaNoWriMo 2010.
NaNoWriMo 2013.

If you think you would like to participate in the next event, consult our FAQ for more information.