Additionally, I think that spending a month exploring your imagination is truly one of the best things you can do.' Tackling a large creative project, you never feel more alive than when you set a goal that's slightly bigger than yourself and then nail it. 'I think for most people it just feels really great. 'It's always been a delightful moment when I've explained this to strangers,' says Baty, the executive director of The Office of Letters and Light - the charitable organisation through which NaNoWriMo is run. But with no tangible rewards beyond this, what exactly is the point? People who successfully complete the challenge are listed as official winners and can collect a certificate. Uploading verifies the word count (you can scramble the document beforehand if you're worried about putting your manuscript into a stranger's hands). Participants must sign up to the website, and upload their work before midnight on November 30. The main aim is to produce 50,000 words - the equivalent of 175 pages - of a novel in 30 days. Otherwise known as National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo was started by the San Francisco native Chris Baty in the summer of 1999. Zaineb al Hassani talks to the organiser and some of the participantsĪs the clock struck midnight on Sunday tens of thousands of people began a journey into the creative unknown, all participants in the increasingly popular annual event known as NaNoWriMo. November is National Novel Writing Month, a US-based initiative that sees would-be authors around the world pledge to complete a 50,000-word work in 30 days.

Book writing challenge