November is National Novel Writing Month, which means that writers across the world will be starting the challenge of writing 50,000 words of their novels in 30 days. There is a large community online that allows you to create a profile and connect with other novelists or access a variety of resources they’ve provided. Planning and outlining during October is helpful, but absolutely not necessary to dive into a new project. The main goal of the campaign is to write every day to get the words out of your head and onto the page. Relinquish the pressure of creating a perfect (or even “good”) draft and permit yourself to create a first draft.

Register here to officially begin the challenge on November 1st and, if you write 50,000 words (1,667 per day) by November 30th, you are considered a winner! Of course, most would agree that any writing progress made this month would be considered a win, but if you complete the main challenge you are given a banner and the opportunity for other prizes. Their website is also helpful in creating other goals, or even participating in this challenge in a month that is better suited for you.

If you’d like to get involved with the local NaNoWriMo events, there are a few options! The Creative Writing Society at OSU has a channel in their main Discord dedicated to NaNoWriMo and welcomes excerpts from this project to workshop in the terms following this challenge. There’s also a registered group for the Corvallis-Albany region on the NaNoWriMo website who have their own Discord and events hosted in Corvallis throughout the month:

• Novel Planning Party!

Monday, October 30th, 5:30 p.m.-7 p.m. in the C3 Oak Room at the Corvallis Community Center (2601 NW Tyler Ave., Corvallis)

• Write-Ins

Tuesdays, 5:30 p.m.-7 p.m. in the C3 Oak Room at the Corvallis Community Center (2601 NW Tyler Ave., Corvallis)
Wednesdays, 3 p.m.-6 p.m. at the Monroe Community Library (380 N 5th St., Monroe)
Saturdays (except 11/11), 2 p.m.-5 p.m. in the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library’s 2nd Floor Board Room (645 NW Monroe Ave., Corvallis)