I’m running NaNoWriMo challenge on 'Author Circle'

You're invited to write the first draft of your book in 30 days.

Back in 2011, I was sitting in Kathy Kituai’s (one of Canberra’s renowned poet) kitchen for a writing workshop when one of the participants mentioned NaNoWriMo.

“What is NaNoWriMo?” I asked.

I hadn’t heard of it back then—many hadn’t—but the response I got changed everything.

“It’s a worldwide challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days,” she explained. “Thousands of people join every year!”

Intrigued, I went home and looked it up. The idea started in 1999 by Chris Baty and friends as a way to motivate writers to get their stories out without worrying about perfection. ‘Just write, and have fun’ was their motto. Fast forward to now, and NaNoWriMo has grown into a global movement.

I have been wanting to write a book for a long time, but each time I tried I found myself overwhelmed by self-doubt and distractions.

As the days turned into weeks, and the weeks into months, I realized that waiting was not just a passive choice but an active thief, stealing my creativity and enthusiasm.

The longer I hesitated, the further away my book drifted, leaving me to grapple with the frustrating ache of unfulfilled ambition.

NaNoWrimo could be my answer—a 30-day commitment to embrace the discomfort and transforming my frustration into words. To reclaim my narrative before it slipped entirely out of reach.

This realization ignited a determination within me. I immediately registered. That first year, I only wrote 2,340 words—far short of the goal. But those were 2,340 words I wouldn’t have written otherwise. And that was just the beginning.

Each year, I committed to NaNoWriMo, and each year, I grew stronger.

That was the beginning of my fascination with NaNoWriMo.

Each subsequent year, my performance improved:

• In 2012, I wrote 13,458 words toward my memoir.

• In 2013, I won the challenge wrote a collection of short stories (50,148 words).

• In 2015, I won again and wrote the first draft of my first novel (52,504 words).

• In 2016, I cranked out 40,516 words for a travel memoir.

• In 2017, I completed 14,169 words in a diary-style personal writing.

• In 2018, I won agains and wrote a self-help book, totalling 55,757 words.

• In 2019, I wrote a collection of blog articles (15,437 words).

• In 2020, I drafted my second novel (17,370 words).

• In 2021, I wrote another memoir about my writing journey (16,670 words).

• In 2022, I wrote and published a non-fiction book on Medium.com (52,246 words).

Altogether I have written 661,230 words in the month of November in the past ten year.

These were the words towards my memoirs, novels, short stories, and blog articles—words that would have stayed in my head if I hadn’t committed to setting a date and just writing.

Looking back, the lesson is clear: If you keep thinking about writing a book but never take action, you’ll never write it.

Dreams don’t get written. Books do. And the only way to get there is by setting a deadline and sticking to it. Stop thinking. Start doing.

I’m running NaNoWriMo challenge on Author Circle.

Write the first draft your book in November this year.

You’re are all invited to participate.

You can choose how many words you want to write. You can chose anything from 10,000 to 50,000 words in 30 days.

Divide your goal with 30 days (10,000/30 = 333) and that’s how many words you’re writing every day.

If you’re interested, sign up on this Google Sheet.

Whether you want to write a memoir, a novel, or a collection of essays, this is your chance to make your dream real.

To support you in winning the challenge, I’ll be writing a series of articles in October and November to help you outline your book, followed by another series in November on how to write your book while you participate.

• How to validate your book idea.

• How to outline your book.

• How to meet your daily word count.

• How to construct a chapter.

• How to do research.

• How to tell stories.

• What to do when you get stuck.

• How to silence your inner critic and keep writing the first draft.

• How to keep going when you’re tired but the finish line is so close.

Additionally, I’ll be holding workshops and podcasting masterclasses with establish writers on writing, storytelling, publishing and marketing your books.

It’s not about perfection, it’s about progress.

Set a date.

Set a goal.

Let’s make it happen together.

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To get you ready for NaNoWrimo I just published 3 articles on how to validate your book. Rather than spamming your inbox, I thought, I will give you the links:

Are You Writing A Book People Will Pay For

Don’t Let Your Book Idea Die in Silence

Validate Your Book Idea Using 'The Mom Test’

That’s all from me this week.

As always, thanks for reading.

See you next week.