Annual National Novel Writing Contest Targets Young Writers

All during the month of November, I have heard my teenage daughter speak of the fact that she had to continue writing for Nanowrimo. I finally asked what in the world she was talking about? My daughter attends an arts high school, majoring in creative writing. The school is located in Jacksonville, Florida. I have become accustomed to all sorts of acronyms for projects that she has undertaken in the creative writing department while being a student there, but Nanowrimo was a new one to me. When I actually researched the site and what my daughter and her fellow classmates were involved in, I came up with www.NaNoWrimo.org. She attend Douglas Anderson School of the Arts and the entire creative writing department is involved in the National Novel Writing Month event.

NaNoWrimo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Originally, NaNoWrimo was only for students in the United States, however in the last few years it has been expanded to include students in England, France, Sweden, and Denmark. The program is for students 13 years of age and older. During the 2006 campaign, 79,000 students signed up to be a part of the event Nearly 13,00 finished and reached their goal. The goal is to write 50,000 words during the month of November. The site is sponsored by a literary company called the Office of Letters and Lights. Their objective is to introduce students to writing for the sake of writing. Too often students are told to edit and revamp what they have written . NaNoWrimo states that this often takes away from the ability to just write - to be creative without any restraints about editing or perfection. The goal of the program is for every student who has enrolled through their school or local library to write 50,000 words. The words should be around a central theme or a proposed novel, but freelance writing of creative ideas is allowed.