So what are NaNoWriMo and Inktober?
In the months of November and October, there are two challenges to get people to be more creative, and to improve at what they love doing. Inktober and NaNoWriMo are encouraging folks to do different things, but at the core of both is a fun goal that invokes thought and creativity throughout the month.
Inktober:
Inktober is a worldwide art challenge for the month of October (Inktober is a play on October, but you know, ink). Every day there’s a prompt, and you draw something based on the prompt! It doesn’t have to be exactly what the prompt is asking for – it’s supposed to be a starting point, and then you can go crazy!
Here’s this year’s prompt list. (It’s never too late to start!)
The most important part of Inktober isn’t drawing perfectly, or creating a masterpiece; it’s simply drawing every day and enjoying it. You don’t even have to do a full drawing – a sketch a day is enough. Additionally, don’t worry about it being inked. That may have been how it started, but plenty of people do their Inktober drawings with pencil, pen, paint, markers, digitally, etc.; any medium is fine as long as you’re drawing.
Lastly, don’t pressure yourself to do it every day – it’s completely acceptable (and normal) to miss a day or two, or more. You can also just do the prompts that interest you, and leave the other ones. Just make sure you’re getting out of your comfort zone.
So what are you waiting for? Go draw!
(Want more information? Go here: https://inktober.com/rules)
NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month):
For adults, National Novel Writing Month is a time where they commit to writing 50,000 words of a novel in just the month of November. Kids (people from five to eighteen years old) can do the Young Writers Program (https://ywp.nanowrimo.org/), in which they set a reasonable goal for themselves and write to try to reach that. It’s a fun challenge that can add a lot to a book or story and a good way to develop smart writing habits and time management.
If kids have 10 minutes a day to write, they can set a goal that’s something like 150 words a day, totalling to 5000 words in the month. If they have an hour and a half, they could do 1,200 words a day. The goal can be changed at any time, and the YWP website helps keep track of how many words are being written a day and what might need to be changed. The challenge can be fit to anyone’s situation so everyone can take part and, if they work hard, be a NaNoWriMo winner.
The website also offers writing resources and exercises to help people with their plots, characters, and settings, and tips from other YWP writers are available as well. Kids over thirteen can talk to each other on the website forums if they choose, getting advice about writing. On the website, there are “pep talks” from published authors that kids can read and get advice from. NaNoWriMo also has a book, Brave the Page, that helps young writers through the process of writing a novel.
The YWP is a great way for kids to practice and improve their writing, especially of novels, and it’s just a fun thing to take part in as well.
