no plot no problem revised and expanded edition

When I organized it again the following year, 140 people took part, and I was sure the event had peaked. But it turned out to be more fun than we ever dreamed. I thought we would start writing, get overwhelmed by our own ineptitude, drop out, and never talk about it again. Going into that first NaNoWriMo in 1999, I wasn’t sure most of us were going to make it through the first week. I would have thought they were talking about a different NaNoWriMo. Small Print Magazine: What would you say to someone in 1999 if they told you that 341,375 people would participate in NaNoWriMo in 2012 and that these participants would include published novelists and school children?Ĭhris Baty: Oh man. He’s the author of No Plot? No Problem! and co-author of Ready, Set, Novel. He also teaches classes on writing and creativity through Stanford University’s Writer’s Studio. Chris now serves as a Board Member Emeritus for NaNoWriMo. The event includes more than 250,000 writers in ninety countries. What began as a local lark has grown into an international annual event that breaks loose perfectionist restraints and sparks the imagination of hundreds of thousands.

The result? National Novel Writing Month, better known as NaNoWriMo. The goal? To write a 50,000-word novel in a month. In 1999 Chris Baty and nearly two dozen others set out on a writing odyssey, a month of literary abandon when word counts reigned supreme, when tight plotlines and punchy prose didn’t matter.

No plot no problem revised and expanded edition