Countdown to NaNoWriMo 2004
Three days to registration, 34 days to the first word tapped out on my Dana.
NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. For the longest time, I thought “No” stands for November as the challenge takes place in the month of November each year. Duh, Chet - see the banner on the NaNoWriMo homepage?
What’s the challenge about?
Write 50,000 words in 30 days. That’s 1,667 words a day, every day, during the month of November.
Not just any 50,000 words, but 50,000 related words that join together to make sentences, paragraphs, chapters, a story, and eventually a novel by 30 November.
I first tried it in 2002, and fell before the first 2,000 words.
The next year, I registered again, and this time, I persevered. And completed the 50,000 words just a couple of hours before the deadline. I was rewarded with a certificate, a winner’s logo, and the purple “winner” bar below my name whenever I posted at the NaNoWriMo forums.
Close-up of the purple “winner” bar below my name:
One of my posts at the forums:
If you look close enough, you’ll see what the post was about - not about the actual writing, but about the machine that I use to write the 50,000 words. The AlphaSmart Dana. A favourite subject, next to my giant pandas.
Hope I get to repeat my 2003 success again.
