This coming November 1, people all around the world will be opening a fresh Google Doc, sitting with a cup of coffee or their favorite pillows and blankets, and start writing. And writing. And writing.

National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short, is an international event occurring every November, when participants of the challenge attempt to write 50,000 words of a novel in only thirty days. For comparison, Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” is 46,118 words. The goal of 50,000 words requires participants to write at least 1,667 words daily to meet their goal. Some participants may choose to set a lower goal if they’re new to the challenge. 

The challenge forces readers to “lock away their inner editor,” as the website says, and simply put down words on the page to reach their goal. Due to this, the challenge faces controversy; it prioritizes quantity over quality, when most writers prefer to write with quality over quantity (and your English teachers do, too). However, most participants choose to do this challenge not to improve their writing skills, but simply to try a challenge and have fun. It gives participants a chance to simply create instead of worrying about whether their story is good or not— because chances are, when you take quantity over quality, it will be bad. 

Be sure to visit nanowrimo.org for more information. If you choose to take the challenge, create an account on either that website if you’d like a goal of 50,000, or the young writers program (ywp.nanowrimo.org) if you’d like a different goal. The website will help you stay motivated and track your progress. Lastly, remember that even if you don’t do NaNoWriMo, you can always challenge yourself creatively to do better and better.