The Beginning of the Challenge

Today, I'm beginning what is perhaps my biggest writing challenge yet: I will attempt to write 50,000 words in 30 days.

Every year, thousands of writers participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short). To finish, writers have between November 1 and 30 to write a novel at least 50,000 words long. Many writers have taken the work they created during NaNoWriMo and later published it with success.

Not everyone who participates writes fiction, however. Some write nonfiction. Some do academic writing. Some will even edit another author's work. I've decided to do 50,000 words of blogging. It's my challenge and my writing, so I can do whatever I want, right?

To become better at anything, including writing, you need to keep practicing. And to grow as a writer, you have to challenge yourself and set goals that are difficult yet achievable. I'm hoping that through this experience, I'll learn more about myself and grow as a writer. I'm not planning to publish what I write during this month, though that is the goal that some writers have. I'll share some of it with my family and friends, but the biggest reason I'm doing it is for myself.

I've done a lot of writing over the years. I've written for several newspapers and websites. I've written many term papers under the pressure of a tight deadline. I've even written a book. But this may the most difficult project I have taken on yet, both because of the short amount of time I have and also because I'll have to come up with enough topics to write about. I'm hoping I'll have the time and patience to get this done, but above all else I hope I have fun and become a better person because of this. If you all enjoy what I write, that will only make it better.

To get to 50,000 words, I'll have to write about 1,667 words per day. I plan to update my progress on my Facebook page and even on here. And my goal is to provide quality writing, not a bunch of run-on sentences, like the one you are reading right now, in order pad my word count, although this sentence will be the exception to the rule, and I promise not to do it anymore after this.

Thanks in advance for reading and for your support!

(Be sure to visit nanowrimo.org if you want to learn more about this program.)