1) Sign up for the event by clicking the sign up link and sign up as a "Young Writer."
2) Click on "My NaNoWriMo," and once there you'll see three edit options on the left-hand menu bar. Click on each one and tell us about your writerly self. Add a photo and exciting info about you and your book-to-be.
3) Starting September 1, 2009 you can set your word-count goal! This is really important. You can do this by going to "My NaNoWriMo" and then "Edit Novel Info" located on the left-hand menu bar.
4) Set your time zone. This is just as important to setting your word-count goal. You can do this by going to "My NaNoWriMo," then to "Edit Profile Settings." If you don't know what your time zone is, ask your parent or teacher.
5) On November 1, 2009 begin writing your novel on your computer or with a pen and paper. Your goal is to write a novel by midnight on November 30. Starting November 1, we’ll add some new items to "Edit Novel Info": spaces for you to enter your cumulative word count for the month and a place for you to post an excerpt from your novel in progress.
6) Write like crazy for thirty days. If you reach your word-count goal by midnight, local time, November 30, 2009 you will be added to our hallowed Winner’s Page, and receive an awesome winner’s certificate and web icon. Don't worry, we'll post step-by-step instructions on how to upload your novel to our team of superpowered counting robots (flown in from Germany every year) in November.
7) Win or lose, you rock for even trying. To make sure that you know that we know you rock, we give each and every National Novel Writing Month Young Writers Program participant a certificate from NaNoWriMo headquarters just for writing with us.
And that’s it! If you have any questions, just check out our General FAQs.
Best of luck in November!