National Novel Writing Month

NaNoWriMo logo. Image courtesy of National Novel Writing Month.

National Novel Writing Month

Register to join the club

NaNoWriMo Resource Links

 So What is NaNoWriMo?

NaNoWriMo is what crazy people do in November… we go novel crazy and try to write a 50,000 word novel in thirty days! According to the official site:

  • Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.
    Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly. — “What is NaNoWriMo?”

How to Participate

There are three levels of NaNoWriMo participation at Burnaby North:

  1. Secret (just for you!)
  2. Recreational (just for fun!)
  3. Competitive (fun and prizes!)

Secret Participation

If you just want to write a novel for the sheer joy of the exercise and don’t care if anyone knows you’re doing it, then go ahead… be a secret novelist. Just sit down and write. But be aware that in order to keep your secret you won’t be able to use “I’m writing a novel” as an excuse for not doing your chores (I’m not saying it ever works, but you can always try), or to participate in the school NovelNights, or to bounce ideas off other crazy novelists, in person or online.


Recreational Participation

If you want to write a novel the sheer joy of the exercise and to join a community of crazy people sharing wacky ideas and consuming vast quantities of caffeine, you should register as an official participant with NaNoWriMo.

  • Register with the official competition run by The Office of Letters and Light (formerly the small group of crazy volunteers who run NaNoWriMo.org). There are two options here (you may register for both):
    • If you are 12 or younger OR you want to join the school group online AND you have parental permission:
      • Register on http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/
      • Join our vitual classroom: Viking Novel Nook
        • This site has resources for you to access and forums that are open ONLY to students in K-12 and their teachers.
        • The word count you update on this site will count towards our Word Wars against other schools.
    • If you are 13 or older AND want to access the regular (i.e. not school version) NaNoWriMo resources and forums AND have parental permission:
      • Register on http://www.nanowrimo.org
        • This site has resources for you to access and forums that are open to anyone in the world. These forums may contain objectionable content.

Competitive Participation

If you want to write a novel for the sheer joy of the exercise, to join a community of crazy people sharing wacky ideas and consuming vast quantities of caffeine, AND to win actual prizes, you need to register as a Viking NaNo:

  • Fill in the registration form (Nov. 25 is last day to register. you’d have to write 10,000 words a day to finish if you don’t start until then, but hope springs eternal?)
    • You may also join the online community (see the instructions above for Recreational Participation).
    • You may track your progress publicly on the Triumphant Chart of Noveling Progress on the bulletin board in the English Wing for all to see. Can you beat the teachers?
    • When you are finished, you must email your file (.doc, .txt, or .rtf) to Ms Cowley at Jennifer.Cowley@burnabyschools.ca so she can verify your total word count and award prizes as needed. (NOTE: Ms Cowley will NOT read your novel, but if you want to encrypt it, use the search and replace function in your word processing program to replace letters so the novel is unreadable… this will not affect your word count.)