by Rachelle de Bretagne

Created on: January 06, 2007   Last Updated: April 26, 2012

They say that every person on earth has a book dwelling somewhere inside them waiting to get out, though could you write a 50,000 word novel within the space of one month ? The whole object of this site is to give writers the incentive to write a whole book, and it somehow works.

I have been a member on the site for two years, and have written two novelettes. I call them novelettes because I don't think that 50,000 is a serious book, though what the site does is extraordinary and something I enjoy being part of.

In the month of November every year, people are invited to join up, and to get stuck into writing a book. There are no real prizes, so why would one bother ? Here, the prize is the achievement. If you finish the book, then you are a winner, and to me this means rather a lot, because it disciplines a writer to be able to write within a given time scale, and for me and many other writers, this discipline is what is lacking from their everyday lives. We can't seem to tie ourselves down to writing that novel, though the site is specifically for people who want to take that leap and try.

Nanowrimo, also known as National Novel Writing Month gathered from writers all over the world this year 982 million words, which means in effect that there is a call for a site like this, and that there are budding writers out there willing to try their hand at novel writing.

I like the site layout very much, and after you have registered, there is a friendly forum which is easy to access where you can talk to other writers who are trying to finish their books, talk about plots, or generally get some inspiration if you are lacking it.

Personally, I was too busy writing to be on the forum very much, but it was interesting to see which writers were back this year, and see friends from other sites amongst them. It's a friendly challenge and the only requirement is that you do your best. There is no pressure put upon members to finish, though that dreaded last day of the month is the last time that you can add to your word count, by uploading plain text files, and having your words counted.

What I like particularly about the site is the layout of profiles, and how the first part of your book is presented, in such a manner as to resemble a book, with pages that actually turn, the first of which show the progress that you have made towards your eventual aim. Little by little, uploading my progress every day, I got to the half way mark and there was no stopping me. I really did want

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