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, or edit an 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!):

Adults can facilitate NaNoWriMo in schools, libraries, and community centers around the world. We provide virtual classroom spaces on our site, as well as student workbooks, Common Core-aligned curricula, and free motivational materials. To join, sign up for an account at ywp.nanowrimo.org.

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.

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. 

Learn more about how it works for educators.

For Families:

Many families sign up to write together, whether as part of an official home school project or just for fun. Parents and guardians, you can sign up for educator accounts and host classrooms for your children. We encourage you to set a goal and write alongside them, too! It's twice as much fun to write with a friend. :)

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

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