Many of you who have been following this blog for the last year or more know that it has a sister blog called Write Nonfiction in November, affectionately called WNFIN. Although you can read the great posts at WNFIN all year long, like Sleeping Beauty (or maybe Rip VanWinkle), it lies “dormant” almost 11 months of the year, only “waking up” and becoming active for the 30 days of November each year.
WNFIN began as my response to National Novel Writing Month (NANOWRIMO), a contest that has fiction writers writing 50,000 words in 30 days during November. However, it’ s not just a blog; it’s also a challenge for nonfiction writers to start and complete a work of nonfiction during the month of November. While they do so, the blog discusses nonfiction writing, publishing and promotion and provide a way for nonfiction writers to comment on their writing experiences during November each year. WNFIN is not a contest! No one counts your words. No one looks over your shoulder or really knows if you started or finished your project.
To participate, simply “sign in” if you want (you also can remain anonymous) describing your WNFIN project and goals. Then ]go off and write for 30 days. You can tell others how you are doing on the status updates page. You also can comment on the various blog posts or on the WNFIN Facebook page. The latter offers a forum to converse with other WNFIN participants.
All that said, this year WNFIN does, in fact, offer an actual contest. No, I will not be counting your words. (Never have, never will.) I will be looking at all the projects described by those WNFIN participants who ACTUALLY SIGN IN here and choosing someone who plans on writing a complete book manuscript in 30 days to win a copy of Rochelle Melander’s just-released book, Write-a-Thon, Write a Book in 26 Days (And Live to Tell About It).
I’ve got a review copy of Rochelle’s book, and I’ve been thrilled so far with what I’ve read. It’s jam-packed with useful information on how to get your book written in no time flat. And that’s what you need to do during WNFIN. I typically am too busy with WNFIN the blog to do much other writing in November (and this year I’ll also be at the Blog World Expo as well as in New York for Turkey Day), but I’ll be trying out her suggestions in December when I have a book project I need to get done.
Rochelle has written books fast…in less than a month…26 days actually. So, you might want to SIGN IN to WNFIN so you get a chance to win her book and learn from her experience.
This WNFIN contest does have a few some rules. They mostly involve providing me with some information when you do, in fact sign in. Here they are:
- SIGN IN by November 1 at noon PT.
- Describe your book project — topic and type of book (memoir, self-help, etc.) as well as how you plan to produce it (traditional publisher, self-published, printed, ebook, blogged, etc.).
- Tell me how you plan to meet the deadline of completing your book manuscript in 30 days. In other words, what’s your plan, what have you done to prepare, or how will you ensure that you actually write a nonfiction book in 30 days? Will you blog it? Do you have an outline? Have you got a table of contents and a synopsis of each chapter? Did you do all your research already? You get the idea…
I’ll pick one WNFIN participant who has a great book idea and a great plan for carrying it out. That’s it. (I’ll send the book out on Nov. 1 priority mail.)
If you’ve already signed in, just go back and comment on your original comment. That’s fine.
Each year so many people participate in WNFIN and never sign in, comment or use the Facebook page. I’d like to encourage all of you “non-joiners” to SIGN IN this year join in the fun! Become part of the on-line community. Win a free book…
Oh…and please use the #WNFIN to tweet out your status updates and to share any WNFIN blog posts you particularly find useful.
Okay, then. I’ll be waiting for those SIGN IN entries. The contest begins…NOW!
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