NaNoWriMo on the BBC

Sitting in front of BBC Breakfast morning magazine programme this morning and up pops a short feature about Nanowrimo.

It was a rather trivial piece and would likely go unnoticed by most people, but it is good to know that what is a growing activity every November is gaining some attention from mainstream press – and the one thing any online gek-thing needs for growth is traditional media coverage.

There was an interesting point made by the reporter, however. Writing is traditionally seen as a very solitary activity. Hour after hour locked in a room, locked in a battle with ideas, words, and plots. Nanowrimo has not only started to change that virtually, by focusing thousands of individuals’ efforts on a synchronised goal, it seems to be bringing people together in the real world, too. Small groups of writers have been gathering together and actually writing together – not co-writing, just sitting in close proximity, working on their individual Nanowrimo projects. Who would have thought that writing could be a community activity.

The slight downside to Nanowrimo is the number of one month novels which have found their way into print – just 18. But being published is not hat Nanowrimo is all about. It is about achievement, about reaching a goal thousands of participants might not have reached without the self-imposed soft deadline of one month to write 50,000 words.

I love the idea, and hope that the future sees tens of thousands more people giving it shot each November.

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