by Laura Hinds

Created on: April 14, 2009   Last Updated: April 15, 2009

National Novel Writing Month celebrated its tenth year in November of 2008. It is a fabulous online resource for writers who are looking to write the first draft of the novel they have always dreamed of. There is no fee to enter, and you may sign up at any time during the year.

The basic concept is very simple: from November 1st through November 30th your goal is to write 50,000 words without having to come into it with a plot, a plan or characters. While many people do plan ahead of time, some of us, just jump right in with both typing hands and see what pops out of our inner creative beast.

NANOWRIMO, as it is commonly called on the Internet, offers members message boards with experts and other members to answer your questions and help you through stumbling blocks both large and small. If you become stuck on a plot point, or just have no idea of a genre or direction for your story, you can post your question and be fairly certain of several, if not numerous suggestions and pointers.

You write offline, using a word processor and your upload your copy as often as you want and have your word count verified. Of course, you can write the old fashioned pen and paper way, but you must get it typed and be able to upload it to the NaNoWriMo site, to your own account. Your copy will not be saved or transmitted and is safe from plagiarism. In fact, there is a tool available for you to scramble your text and use that to verify word count.

In most areas of the United States, there are local and regional groups who meet regularly at libraries, coffee houses and other such locations for group writing sessions. These are very popular and a really good way to meet other writers in your area, and perhaps form critique groups.

This year a prize was awarded to the thousands of people who did complete their 50,000 word goal in time. The prize was a free proof copy of your manuscript from CreateSpace. I took advantage of this, and learned how to edit my own work, upload my word document as a PDF file, select and create my cover design, and to get my book listed for sale at Amazon.com.

To join, just go to http://www.nanowrimo.com where you can learn even more and decide if this is the right road for you. It sure was for me! My book was published as a Print on Demand title via http://www.createspace.com and it didn't cost me a penny.

Have fun! I know I did!

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