I’m interrupting my movie marathon to remind people we are just two weeks away from National Novel Writing Month.

For those who’ve never heard of it, or anyone who has heard the name but did not know what it meant, National Novel Writing Month is a challenge. Starting November 1st, you have 30 days to write 50,000 words. That’s it.

It is not raising money or awareness for anything like Movember or the Ice Bucket Challenge, instead, NaNoWriMo is a kick in the pants and motivator for people who always wanted to write a book but lacked the confidence, or maybe the inspiration or drive to put pen to paper.

I have attempted the challenge five times and only succeeded twice, but if I can do it even once, then trust me, anyone can do it if they try.

Tips that helped me.

• Don’t look back. If you are not 100 percent happy with what you have written so far, don’t worry about it, keep going forward. This is a rough draft, you won’t be going from here straight to the publisher, this is where you get all your ideas out and you’ll polish it up with revisions and editing beginning in December.
• It doesn’t have to be an original novel. Last year I wrote a fanfic, it was much easier since most of the heavy lifting of character design and world building had already been done by someone else.
• This doesn’t have to be something you ever intend to let anyone else read. You can think of it as spring training for what you REALY want to write. It’s practice to get you in the habit of writing every day.