Wednesday, October 28, 2009

 November hosts the end of Daylight Savings Time, Veterans Day and Thanksgiving. If you're a fiction writer November marks the beginning of National Novel Writing Month, affectionately called NaNoWriMo (www.nanowrimo.org). For those writers who don't write fiction (ever or anymore...), November also constitutes the time to begin working on a piece of nonfiction for the annual Write Nonfiction in November challenge.

Write Nonfiction in November is a unique writing challenge. Unlike its counterpart, NaNoWriMo, which requires fiction writers to complete 50,000 words in 30 days to "win," Write Nonfiction in November (WnFin) involves no contest. None of the writers are required to submit their work for a word count. Indeed, WnFin simply poses a personal challenge to every nonfiction writer: start and finish a work of non-fiction over the course of 30 days. They can write an article, a booklet, a newsletter, an ebook, or a book.

And while they write, they learn. The largest part of the WnFin experience involves a 30-day blog hosted by Nina Amir, the founder of the challenge. While she wrote every post the first year, last year she invited guest bloggers to join her. This year, the challenge's third year, she will again be joined by expert guest bloggers – 28 of them! So, readers will learn about editing, writing, forms of nonfiction writing, the business of nonfiction writing, publishing, and much, much more. The blog is hosted at http://writenonfictioninnovember.wordpress.com There readers (and writers) can post comments, and this year they can also participate in a forum.

With October coming to a fast close, it's time to take the challenge…to learn to be a better nonfiction writer and to meet a personal nonfiction writing goal.

Nina Amir, a journalist, writing coach, freelance non-fiction editor, and author has written several booklets, hundreds of articles and five anthology essays. She is currently working on several books while promoting them and herself with her writing. For information on her writing or editing services, visit www.copywrightcommunications.com or email her at cpywrtcom@aol.com.