Get ready… get set… write!

Over 200,000 people from all over the world will be doing just that come Nov. 1. They’re participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short), an event that takes place in the month of November.

The goal? Write a novel – defined for the purposes of the event as 50,000 words of original fiction – in 30 days.

Last year, over 30,000 of over 200,000 participants crossed the finish line.

NaNoWriMo began in 1999, when Chris Baty and 20 other people decided to try to write a novel in a month.

They originally chose July, although the event was later moved to November to take advantage of bad weather. Six participants succeeded.

Every year since, NaNoWriMo grew. It turned out that lots of people wanted to try their hand at writing a novel.

According to Baty, anyone can write a novel. It’s simply an issue of having motivation.

In his book No Plot? No Problem!, he wrote, “The biggest thing separating people from their artistic ambitions is not a lack of talent. It’s the lack of a deadline. Give someone an enormous task, a supportive community, and a friendly-yet-firm due date, and miracles will happen.”

Miracles or not, the event has become very popular. Over five hundred NaNoWriMo chapters exist worldwide, and the Kansas City, MO region has 1794 registered members.

The program even has success stories – the acclaimed novel Water for Elephants began during NaNoWriMo.

If NaNoWriMo sounds interesting, registering is simple. Participants can set up a profile at nanowrimo.org and start plotting – November isn’t far away.