It’s writing season, again!

We’re excited to announce our participation in NaNoWriMo this year. NaNoWriMo (or National Novel Writing Month) is an annual event where writers try to complete a 50,000-word novel during the month of November.

Along with hundreds of thousands of writers worldwide, several DWL members are aiming to win the 2015 writing challenge. To compete in the challenge, writers simply need to register on the NaNoWriMo website, update their word counts and post their novel’s final draft between November 1 and 30.

In order to motivate and support the DWL membership, we have planned online interventions on the DWL Workshop forums and our blog, as well as offline activities in Karachi, Pakistan.

DWL member Slay Belle, the NaNoWriMo municipal liaison for the Pakistan region, is a veteran of the annual writing challenge. She will be taking the lead in coordinating NaNoWriMo activities with DWL.

Read: In 2014, Papercuts magazine prose editor Soonha Abro participated in NaNoWriMo and shared her experiences on the DWL blog.

To prepare for the intensive writing in November, we’ll have some preparatory exercises posted on the DWL Workshop forums and the blog in October. These exercises will be available on a dedicated NaNoWriMo board on the forums.

(Note: you’ll need to sign up for the Workshop membership to participate in the warm-up writing exercises. If you are signing up especially for the NaNoWriMo prep, please let us know in the writing sample field of this registration form. Non-DWL members can always keep up through the blog and our Facebook page.)

For writers in Karachi, we will be organising write-in sessions on November weekends at T2F. These sessions will include discussions, mentorship and advice about the challenges the NaNoWriMo participants are facing. If you intend to participate in the sessions, please email us at karachi@desiwriterslounge.net. Space is limited and there will be some nominal entry fees to cover for the cost of renting the space.

We also have write-in sessions going in Islamabad. If you’d like to join us, write to islamabad@desiwriterslounge.net or contact us on the Facebook event page we have created for the Islamabad write-in sessions.