It’s that time of year again when writers all over the globe are participating in National Novel Writing Month and posting tweets on Twitter using the hashtag #NaNoWriMo.

This is a fantastic program for authors.  Why?

For those who haven’t been writing long, it’s a wonderful affirmation and networking opportunity with your peers.  At this stage, the author is typically the only person in the world who really cares whether or not s/he is writing.  So that “we’re all in this together” opportunity to encourage and be encouraged is a treasure.

For those who have been writing a while, it’s a connection or reconnection to other writers opportunity.  These are the people who won’t get glassy-eyed when you talk about characters and craft, structure and motivations.  And you won’t scare the socks off them when you talk about fifty ways to commit murder and wonder aloud how much noise the victim will make, how long it’ll take him/her to die, and what will be happening during that process.  These people KNOW you’re talking only about the book!

For those who have been writing for a very long time, it’s nostalgic of all the years you spent in the first and second groups above, and it’s your chance to reach out to participating authors and encourage them in their efforts.  The way other authors encouraged you–or you wish they had.  It says I’ve been where you are, and I remember the challenges.  It says, I care.  That’s a gift to the participants but also to the very long-time writer.

All writers can get energized and enthused, can look at writing challenges in new ways, can accomplish an awful lot in a short time by granting the work intense focus.  And there are those who encourage, race even, and it’s fun and wonderful and inspiring.

So if the authors you typically chat with in social media, or whose blogs you read are posting a little less often, odds are good that #NaNoWriMo has something to do with it.  I’m asking you to indulge them.  Because every moment spent on that month-long project feeds something that the author needs or wants or finds value in, and in the end, that benefits us all.

I’m not actively participating in the writing this year.  I couldn’t give it my all because of Risky Brides just being released and it needing my attention.  But I’ve checked on #NaNoWriMo participants and followed tweets and I’m pulling so hard for everyone participating.  I’m cheering them on, and I hope you will, too.

This is very important to authors.  And they’re very important to me.  I hope they all succeed and surpass their goals!  I hope whatever they need from this effort, they get.  And I hope they find all the energy involved helps them to stay excited and fascinated by writing.

Because if a single voice is silenced, we’re all poorer for it.

Good luck, Participants!  Go, go, go!!!

Blessings,

Vicki