Your Story Needs You

Ever heard of NaNoWriMo?

Maybe? Maybe not? Well, just in case you haven't. Don't let the strange term bother you. NaNoWriMo stands for 'National Novel Writing Month'. NaNo's a special kind of exercise; a writing spree of sorts. Millions of writers from around the globe are challenged to write a 50,000 word novel in just 30 days! It's an exceptional privilege for writers of all skill levels to explore their particulars. And it comes up only once in a year from the 1^st of November to 30^th!

Am I saying it's going on right now? Of course, and you can log on to www.nanowrimo.org and treat yourself to a variety of genres and bestsellers-in-the-making. Then again, you would be right on top of it like a hat if you stopped by www.writing.com. You could even help these burgeoning authors by dropping a critique or two. Feedbacks are diamonds. Plus, you could be encouraging the next Stephen King or Maya Angelou!

No gig's as uplifting as a little push to spur us on in the upward pull to the peak.

Maybe, it's your first time of learning about NaNo. So you missed out on it this year. So, you feel you ain't totally up to it just yet. Wanna do a little something worthwhile in the meanwhile?

Get your writing tools out. You got the next 365 days to get your juices fired up and your senses engaged. You can charge yourself up and be all set for next year's NaNo by starting off with short stories. Write a story a week or every other week. A 2000 word story a week will earn you 100,000 words come November 2011!

2000 word stories a week may look a little ambitious for you and you may not be particularly prepared for such escapades. You might want to settle for a 200 – 500 word shorts. Look's like a plan. The point is to get yourself ablaze and burning for the greatest event on planet earth every budding writer looks forward to or should once he gets in on it.

Writing stories, especially on the scale we are talking about requires the aid of writing prompts. You may have websites where you fetch yours. If you don't, www.writing.com has a link pointing to www.writingprompts.com, tons of ideas to set up for beautiful plots. And then, there's www.writersdigest.com there's practically hundreds of prompts doled out every week and they also have spots where you could post stories created from these prompts and get immediate reviews from fellow writers.

The list goes on. Hundreds of sites are out there on the www, all offering tips and prompts that could spark good stories. All you have to do is google the words, 'writing prompts'. Relax, and let your search engine go to work. You'll be amazed at the results coughed up.

(Stephen) King's formula for learning to write well is: "Read and write four to six hours a day. If you cannot find the time for that, you can't expect to become a good writer." He sets out each day with a quota of 2000 words and will not stop writing until it is met. www.wikipedia.org

And now writer, as they say in NaNoWrimo, your story needs you.

Eneh