National Novel Writing Month Tops 100,000

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) was a big success this year. Novelists from more than 70 countries typed frantically toward the finish line of a 50,000 word manuscript.

This year, more than 100,000 novelists participated in NaNoWriMo — only about 15,000 authors actually crossed the finish line. And while NaNoWriMo stresses fun and creative exploration above publication, sixteen NaNoWriMo novelists have had their NaNo-novels published, including Sarah Gruen, author of New York Times #1 Best Seller, Water for Elephants.

My own novel in stories, TRACKS, began as a NaNoWriMo winner. Sure, it took more than a year to rewrite and revise, but only a month for that initial draft. So far, six of the stories from TRACKS have been published or accepted for publication in literary journals and magazines; excerpts from TRACKS have been read at book festivals and on National Public Radio's WYPR.

Not to mention that TRACKS was a semi-finalist in the Gather-Borders-Simon & Schuster sponsored First Chapters Novel Contest.

All this is to say that writing a novel draft in a month is nothing to scoff at. It can be done, has been done, and the seed that results can reap success if properly cultivated.

This year was my fifth consecutive win with National Novel Writing Month. Don’t expect to see CLICK! in stores anytime soon. My NaNo-Novel from 2004, however …

You can learn more about National Novel Writing Month -- and even read an excerpt of CLICK! — in my NaNoWriMo lounge.

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/34003


Learn more about TRACKS at the online station.

http://www.train-tracks.blogspot.com/