The shelves of Qatar National Library (QNL) are filled with thousands of books but a few more have been typing away each week in a bid to write a 50,000-word book in just one month. The authors are all members of the Library’s creative writing group — a group of individuals who have taken on the challenge of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) for the fourth year running. The goal is simple yet challenging — to write 50,000 words in just 30 days, the length of an average novel, averaging out to around 1,700 words per day.
The rules of the challenge are fairly loose, with the novel not necessarily having to be finished and the 50,000 words may be made up of planning and character development. The main aim is to encourage people to learn to love creative writing and to write every day.
Lynne Fraser, Senior Writing Specialist at QNL, said the event was a great chance for new writers to build up their confidence and an opportunity for seasoned authors to focus and get support and input from others.
Reem said that she is still in the invention and planning stage of her novel — set in a dystopian world of science fiction — so is using her writing to develop the plot and characters.
Greig Parker, a seasoned participant, achieved 74,000 words in this year’s NaNoWriMo and is currently searching for a publisher for his second novel. He found that mapping the novel out beforehand worked best for him and enjoyed the excitement of getting the words down on paper.
