FREE Preptober & Writevember Romance Challenge

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is coming in November! Millions of writers across the globe set out to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Here at Write with Harte, I want to support your effort in accepting the NaNoWriMo challenge, or through WWH Writevember, achieve some other writing goal, whether it’s getting your lead magnet written, writing a novella, finishing a manuscript, etc. To help with either or both goals, Write with Harte is running its free Preptober and Writevember challenge.

What is Preptober?

Preptober is the name given by NaNoWriMo participants to the month of October, where they plan out their project for November. While NaNoWriMo rules state that writer must work on a brand new project in November, there are no rules against planning and plotting.

At Write With Harte, the Preptober challenge provides a daily email to help you plan and plot your project (even if you’re a pantster), so that when November rolls around, you are all set to start and finish on time.

What is NaNoWriMo?

If you’re a writer, odds are you’ve heard about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), in which writers attempt to write 50,000 words in 30 days during the month of November. It sounds crazy. It sort of is, particularly if you’re a writer who can’t stand to write badly. Chris Baty, the creator of NaNoWriMo, and other participants agree that the month-long writing marathon is all about getting a badly written rough draft. You might be wondering, why bother to write like a madman just to get a bad draft? The answer it two-fold:

1) Bragging rights. Let’s face it, it sounds impressive to say you wrote 50,000 words in a month.

2) Completing a draft of a novel. Yes, it’s bad draft, but often the hardest part of writing is the first draft. Whether you write the draft in 30 days or 30 months, it’s not going to be presentable. No first drafts are. With NaNoWriMo, At the end of the 30 days, you have 50,000 towards a completed book. Most people never finish a book. Others who write a book take months if not years to finish. If you’re serious about writing a book, NaNoWriMo can jump start your effort.

Many NaNoWriMo particpants have parlayed their 50,000 words, after lots of editing, into a published work, including Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants, Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, and Harley Jane Kozak’s Keeper of the Moon.

I’ll be doing NaNoWriMo and I challenge you to join me. I know it sounds daunting, particularly in the middle of the holidays, but it can be done. The trick to success in NaNoWriMo is to have a plan (that’s what Preptober is for) and to average 1,667 words a day, which is really not that much, if you know what you want to write.

Some writers believe NaNoWriMo is a gimmick that promotes poor writing. I can spend a whole other blog post questioning why writing more words in less time is automatically considered “poor writing.” Instead, I’ll share my thoughts that NaNoWriMo is a great way for a would-be or struggling writer to jump-start new writing habits and to start and finish a book.

What is Writevember?

Writevember is Write with Harte’s version of NaNoWriMo. It’s set to coincide with NaNoWriMo if that is what WWH members want to attempt. However, I also know that writers might have other projects they want to work on that don’t fit into the NaNoWriMo rules (50,000 words of a new, never-before started novel). Writevember allows writers to pick their own writing challenge for November. Ideas include finishing an already-started novel. Writing a 30,000 word novella. Writing two 30,000 word novellas. Writing 60 or 80,000 words.

Further, writers who join WWH’s challenge receive daily tips, support, and motivation to achieve their goal.

FREE Preptober and Writevember Romance Writing Challenge

I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo for more years than I can remember. I haven’t always been successful at hitting the 50,000 word mark, but even then I came out with more words than I might have if I’d never signed up. The challenge for me was running out of steam and words about 10 days in. that coupled with the idea that 1,667 words a day was crazy, sometimes I’d give up.

Since I’ve become a ghost writer, averaging a book a month, I’ve learned that 1,667 isn’t so much IF you have a plan. In the WWH Preptober and Writevember Challenge I share with you my tips, hacks, and secrets for writing a lot of words in a short time.

The goal of the Preptober and Writevember is two-fold:

Plan a novel (October)
Write a novel (November)

The challenge starts October 1st, and each day in October, you’ll get an email with information, tips, and homework to plan your romance novel. Most lessons won’t take very long. Others might take an hour. Of course, finding time will be covered so that when November comes, you have the time and organized ideas to write 1,667 words in an hour or 90 minutes (or whatever your daily goal will be).

You’ll continue to get a daily email in November with additional tips, inspiration, and pacing cues to help you stay on track.

Along with daily emails, there will be weekly Zoom meetings to recap the week’s goals, ask questions, and get support.

Participants can connect between calls by joining the private Romance Writing Challenge group here at Write with Harte. If you haven’t joined Write with Harte, it is free, and gives you access to a variety of tools, as well as the ability to take part in groups and forums.