Why?

NaNoWriMo is this month! Obviously, I’m very late in talking about it. Oh well. I had better things to post about ;-)

For the rest of this month, I want to talk about NaNoWriMo. There’s a lot to talk about, for us writers, and a lot that we should consider when we’re thinking about starting our manuscript or even when we’re in the throes of it all. So that’s what I’m going to do.

The first thing I want to talk about is NaNoWriMo in general.

Why the heck is this thing so popular?

Let’s start by defining it, for the few of you who don’t know what it is. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and actually takes place twice a year: once in April, and once in November. The latter one is usually the biggest of the two, though I couldn’t tell you why. Personally, I get a lot more writing done in April than I ever can in November, holidays and all.

But this is a month when everyone tries to write a book. Whether they’re writers or not, they dedicate this month to sitting down and getting a book out of themselves. After all, they say nearly everyone has a story inside them, just waiting for the opportunity to come out and play.

So that’s what it is… but again, why is it so popular?

I’ll tell you.

The world, in its current state, frequently tries to shut down creativity. They want the masses to go with the flow and be predictable, to do what they’re told to do. Which is exactly how things like NaNoWriMo get to be so huge. They’re a way for all of us, whether we associate with the term “creative” or not, to break out of the bubble and do something different for a change, something that’s creative and (hopefully) beautiful.

These months are the two times in a year when people unite together and are proud to be creative, to be expressing themselves in this new and exciting way. These days, that doesn’t happen very often. So November and April become times when we can band together instead of pushing each other apart. We unite under one banner, if only for a month, to declare that we are writers.

But no, not all of us actively participate.

That, dear friends, is what I’ll be saving for next time.

This time, I just want to say this:

Whether you’re a fan of NaNoWriMo or not, this is a chance for you to unite with people you would never otherwise find anything in common with, an opportunity for us to stretch ourselves and join a community unlike any other. So whether you always join NaNoWriMo or you utterly despise it, don’t look down on those who do it. We’re not all in it for the glory of writing, or for the purpose of publication. Some of us just want to write, to do something we’ve never done before, and to stand with a group of people who would never otherwise consider us.

Stand tall, my friends, my NaNoWriMo compatriots, and write on.

[love]

{Rani Divine}