What is NaNoWriMo?

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a fun, empowering approach to creative writing. The challenge: draft an entire novel in just one month. Why do it? For 30 wild, exciting, surprising days, you get to lock away your inner editor, let your imagination take over, and just create!

NaNoWriMo's Young Writers Program (YWP) takes that joyful, focused approach to creative writing and makes it accessible to young writers, educators, and families. How does it work?

For Young Writers:

Participants aged 17-and-under (18 is okay if still in high school) can sign up for accounts at ywp.nanowrimo.org. If you're participating with a teacher or group leader, you can join their online classroom to stay connected.

To work on a novel, you can join an official event (like NaNoWriMo in November, or Camp NaNoWriMo in April and July), set a word-count goal, and try to reach it by the end of the month. The Young Writers Program allows participants to set individualized goals. 1,000 words? 10,000? 100,000??? It's up to you! Use the progress-tracking tools on our site to stay on track. If no official event is happening, you can create a personal challenge with your own deadline for a new or existing project.

Young writers can write directly in their YWP writing space (or in a separate document), find inspiration in our noveling resources, and tap a worldwide community of fellow writers for support in our forums.

Learn more about how it works for young writers. 

For Educators (of all types!):

Educators and professional librarians can facilitate NaNoWriMo in schools and libraries around the world. We provide virtual classroom spaces on our site, as well as student workbooks, Common Core-aligned curricula, and free motivational materials. Educators can lead their groups through an official event (like NaNoWriMo in November or Camp NaNoWriMo in April and July), or create classroom challenges with unique deadlines and specifications. 

You might be thinking to yourself: can my students really write novels? Isn't that better left to older, more experienced writers? The answer, our friends, is no! Anyone can write a novel. You don't even need to know how to write a novel to write a novel. You may have to adjust word-count expectations based on age and language skills, but trust us: if you let a whole class soak in creativity and work like professional authors for a month, something awesome will happen.

To begin, sign up for an educator account at ywp.nanowrimo.org. Please note that, in order to maintain community safety, you will be asked to provide licensure information or other professional credentials as part of this process. 

Learn more about how it works for educators.

For Families:

Many families like to write together, whether as part of an official home school project or just for fun. Homeschool parents are invited to create an educator account at ywp.nanowrimo.org. Please note that all educator accounts require documentation demonstrating the official status of the applying adult. In lieu of providing a teaching license or other teaching credential, homeschool parents will be asked to provide a private school affidavit or the equivalent of whatever documentation is needed in your locality to establish yourself as a homeschool.

Parents and guardians of children 13 and older are invited to have each family member join nanowrimo.org and to connect with each other via our buddies and writing group features. These will allow you to interact on our platform and track each other's progress. We encourage you to set a goal and write alongside them, too! It's twice as much fun to write with a partner :) 

Learn more about how it works for families. (You might also want to read "How it Works for Educators.")

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A PROGRAM OF NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH, A 501(C)(3) NONPROFIT THAT BELIEVES YOUR STORY MATTERS.