A month brimming over with words is upon us as today marks the commencement of NaNoWriMo 2012! I wish I could be struggling to meet daily word goals with the other 200k+ people taking part in this year's National Novel Writing Month, but studying for tests and filling out graduate school applications takes priority this month.
If you do have the free time, I plead with you to take part in the writing frenzy. A talent for weaving pictures out of words is not needed, just a desire to tell a story -any story- however simple. Some people who have no stories to tell use this month to write blog posts, poetry, or correspondence to family members.
Don't worry about actually meeting word limits if you like to take a slower approach to fabricating your stories. The story I began in last year's NaNoWriMo is still incomplete and I never met more than a week of word goals, but I had the time of my life reading through all the interesting forum posts and I now have 27k of words of a story that I wouldn't have had without the support and motivation granted me by knowing an army of writers was out there with me sweating to find just the right way to say something.
Signing up for an account is free! Even if you decide not to participate, this month can still be one where you pause and think about the craft of writing just a little longer than you normally would. I know I will be writing more than I usually do this month, even if it’s not 1,665 words a day.
