NaNoWriMo – Bring Your Imagination To Pages

Growing up, did you ever notice if your imagination was in overdrive? Did you ever fantasize if you were in a faraway place that may never exist? What about battling all sorts of monsters or dragons or villains? Were you the damsel in distress or the knight in shining armor? Did you create your own characters or did they already exist? Did the adventure ever end or does it continue as your growing up?

For me, I’ve always had the spark of imagination. Many things would pop into my head and somehow end up either as a daydream or a dream itself when I go to bed. I always enjoyed the endless fun of imagination. With imagination, I could do anything or be anybody I wished to be. However, though I may enjoy daydreaming of a fun place in an alternate world, I also enjoy sharing it with others.

I started out just retelling the tales of my imagination to my parents or others and they enjoyed the fun stories I made up in my mind. Then, when I grew up where I got a job as a babysitter, one of the rules of my job was to tell the kids a story at some point before they went to bed. Sure I loved reading the several books available, but they were the same old tales read over and over again. So, I decided to finally speak of my own made-up stories and they loved hearing something different than the usual. One day, while I was surfing the internet back in 2005, that invisible light bulb above my head began making that buzzing sound then shined brightly! A wonderful idea came to my mind when I happened to come upon a website that held a writing program once a year. That program was known as NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month.

NaNoWriMo is a free and fantastic website in which you are challenged to write at least a 50,000 word story during the month of November. Thousands of people around the world look forward to this challenge every year because it gives them a chance to bring out their creative side. Sure you can write your own fun stories year-round, but NaNoWriMo is a bit different. It is different because every story that is submitted at the end of the month gets to be read by judges – authors, writers and publishers alike – for a chance to have their story published by an actual publisher! That means if you win, you get to share your awesome imagination with the world in book form! How exciting is that?

I have participated in this event almost every year, submitting different stories that were sparked from my imagination. Unfortunately, there was a point I either missed a deadline or wasn’t chosen in the top winners. However, I felt a surge of satisfaction that I was able to do it. It gave me a rush of adrenaline to finish something since I was on a deadline. Honestly, I have dozens of stories I have written that are pretty incomplete that I work on year-round. It seems my muse feels like leaving me alone sometimes which puts me in a slump and that never feels good to me, but when that happens, I do count on NaNoWriMo to help me out of it.

During, before and even after NaNoWriMo, they happily spread the joy of writing to everybody. On their website they have several resources you can use to get in the writing game. They also have social forums where you can interact with other locals who are writing just like you along with live Q & As with famous authors or publishers who answer the most basic questions about novel writing and to answer you as well. You can sign up – with parents permission of course – to receive updated emails with any event details.

For me, writing is one of the best things in the world. Not only does it make me happy to share what runs through my mind, but it also can help spark the imaginations of many around the world. So why not let your imagination roll out through your fingers to that keyboard and get typing your story?

To get to NaNoWriMo, just go to http://www.nanowrimo.org and spread your imagination! Good luck!