PinoyWrimos

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that’s a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.

In 2007, we had over 100,000 participants. More than 15,000 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.

So, to recap:

What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month’s time.

Who: You! We can’t do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let’s write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.

Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era’s most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.

When: You can sign up at the official NaNoWriMo website anytime to add your name to the roster and browse the forums. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.

For more information, visit the NaNoWriMo website for more fun information and answers to your questions. And while you’re at it, sign up and join the fun! :)

50,000 words in 30 days. Crazy, yes, but it’s a lot of fun.

About PinoyWrimos and PinoyWrimos.com

In NaNo, the world is divided into regions, where participants, called Wrimos are classified depending on the location that they put into their profiles. Each region is headed by a Municipal Liaison, who plans the activities for the region and basically cheers all Wrimos in that area on.

It was around 2005 when a group of Filipinos wandered randomly into one of the general Asia region thread in the NaNoWriMo forums. After some discussions and convincing, the region was officially formed and recognized in NaNoWriMo on October 15, 2005, with the creation of the Philippines Regional Lounge. The region was headed by the first Municipal Liaison, Erwin (lumitao), who is then joined by Inez (illustria) before the end of the month. The ML position was handed off to Tina (tinamats) on 2007 when Inez had to leave to pursue her studies and when news of Erwin’s passing was known.

With 300+ members (and counting), the Philippine NaNoWriMo community reached the #103 rank among the 350 regions (#2 among Asia regions) in November 2007, with 2,283,893 words written. This year, who knows what could happen? :P

PinoyWrimos.com is the official website of the Philippine NaNoWriMo community. If you’re a Filipino, a Wrimo and you need community news, statistics, information, events and resources, this is where you’ll most probably find them. :D

Feel free to browse around the site and send an email if you find any bugs or if you have NaNoWriMo or PinoWrimo related inquiries. Cheers!