Hurry! 15 days left to write your book

For those who hope to write their novel ‘some day’, here’s a chance to dive right into it. This is the tenth year of the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), a US-based online ‘literary marathon’ that began in San Francisco Bay Area in July 1999 with 21 participants.

For those who hope to write their novel ‘some day’, here’s a chance to dive right into it. This is the tenth year of the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), a US-based online ‘literary marathon’ that began in San Francisco Bay Area in July 1999 with 21 participants. Till November 10 this year, the site had 1,58,716 authors registered worldwide. From India, nearly 250 authors (75 per cent of whom are first-timers) have contributed over 9 lakh words so far, according to updates on the website.

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The interactive forum that started on November 1 will continue till midnight of November 30 (local time). It’s a global non-profit platform where the aim is to write at least 50, 000 words in the designated month. There are no prizes for ‘best novel’ or ‘quickest-written novel’ but those who complete the word count within the deadline are given certificates after getting their word counts validated by the website.

The organisers’ philosophy is simple — creative satisfaction. For those planning to cheat, the website says they are not worried because “those who upload 50,000 words they copied from Wikipedia just to see their name on the winner’s page are pitiful indeed, and likely need more help than a downloadable winner’s certificate can provide them”.

According to a news report, over 200 Indians registered last year. Manish Malik, 29, a Delhi-based telecom professional participating for the second time says the experience is like “escalating from a half-km runner to a marathon runner”. He adds that Facebook and Twitter have boosted participation.

For tips/inspiration he suggests going to the website — nanowrimo.org. Minimum age to participate is 13.