National Novel Writing Month, better known as "NaNoWriMo," is an international creative writing project with the goal for each participant to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. The NaNoWriMo tagline is, "Thirty days and nights of literary abandon..." and that is exactly what participants experience.

Aspiring novelists register for free, from all around the world, to participate, spurring each other on through profile pages, local and global forums, and local in-person meet ups. Writers range in skill level and experience from multiple published authors to fledgling writers who have never written a novel.

NaNoWriMo also has a Young Writers Program, for aspiring writers under the age of 18 to participate in the same writing challenge as their adult counterparts.

National Novel Writing Month began in 1999, on less than a shoe-string budget as just a fun thing for a bunch of friends and acquaintances to share. Now, in 2009, NaNoWriMo is still going strong, and is an international challenge with more than 100,000 participants from around the globe. The Office of Letters and Light is the nonprofit governing agency for NaNoWriMo and its other projects, like the Young Writers Program and ScriptFrenzy.

NaNoWriMo Year #1--1999

NaNoWriMo Year #2--2000

NaNoWriMo Year #3--2001

NaNoWriMo Year #4--2002

NaNoWriMo Year #5--2003

NaNoWriMo Year #6--2004

NaNoWriMo Year #7--2005

NaNoWriMo Year #8--2006

NaNoWriMo Year #9--2007

NaNoWriMo Year #10--2008 - Coming soon.

NaNoWriMo Year #11--2009 - Register Now!

Following the idea that the best way to be a writer is to write, Chris Baty founded National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo, to provide support and inspiration for writers to break away from the traditional hangups that stall that stagnate a writer, and simply do one thing: write.

The goal of NaNoWriMo -- to complete a "crappy" first draft of at least 50,000 words toward a novel in the thirty days of the month of November -- ideally, NaNoWriMo will help to train writers to write. The goal of the challenge is to help a writer continue that habit of daily writing after the NaNoWriMo event ends.

In order to achieve the NaNoWriMo goal of 50,000 words in less than thirty days, the participants must write nearly daily. For American NaNoWriMo participants, this event has to be worked around the Thanksgiving holiday.

Participants have from 12:00 AM on November 1st through 11:59:59 on November 30th to finish their novel and validate it through the on-site word count validation software in order to be declared a NaNoWriMo 'winner'.

Click this link for information on How to Win NaNoWriMo.