Headmare Twilight has an assignment for all of you! This marks the first time the School of Friendship is participating in National Pony Writing Month (renamed National Creature Writing Month on school property).
Everycreature is excited and ready to earn that sweet, sweet extra credit, so let's get write down to it (puns are a given).
Goal: 50,000 Words
Time-Frame: November 1st 12:00 a.m — November 30th 11:59 p.m.
For those of you more recent to the land of Equestria, National Pony Writing Month is a community-wide event where we fanfic authors unleash unholy amounts of words and meet writing goals!
In order to teach her students about the value of the written word, Twilight's decided to challenge her students to do the same! The students, bright little ragamuffins that they are, had some questions about the event, and Twilight's posted the answers here for all to see:
Q: Wow! A whole entire month of telling stories? That sounds exciting! How can we enter?
A: Excellent question, Silverstream! Every student who wants to participate can give me their name or pen-name, the title of the work(s) they'll be writing, and their personal word count goal. At the end of the month, every student who entered can submit their final word count and finished work! That way we can all share the wonderful stories together!
While the students give their info to Twilight, you can enter by emailing your info to [email protected]. (EDIT: Previous years have been sent to [email protected]; but this year we have a dedicated EQD email)
For example:
Author Name: MarvelandPonder
Story: The Disappearance of Sunset Shimmer
Word Count Goal: 50,000
Author Name: MarvelandPonder
Story: The Disappearance of Sunset Shimmer
Word Count Goal: 50,000
Q: But what if I can't write 50,000 words in a month? That sounds like a lot...
A: That's perfectly alright, Ocellus. Not everycreature needs to write 50,000. The true spirit of the event isn't to write more than your friends, but to write more than you normally would. Set your goals as high or as low as you think will be challenging, but realistic for you.While the standard goal is 50 k, don't feel like you have to write that much (or that little) if you know that's not you. Take care of yourself and your life. You're more important than your creations, as awesome as they are. Even if you don't reach your goal, writing anything is impressive.
That said, I challenge you to challenge yourself! Prove to yourself you can. It's the most rewarding feeling, I promise.
Q: What kinds of stories can we write, Headmare?
A: Any kind you can dream of! Poetry, long-form, short stories—and you don't have to limit yourself to one! Or even start a new one, if you have a story in progress you'd like to continue. Just make sure that if you want your story shared with the class, it meets the guidelines on that handout I gave you.If you want your name and a link to your story up on EQD in the compilation post, here are some general guidelines you have to meet:
- Has to be fanfiction of Friendship is Magic, Equestria Girls, and/or any other generations of the show. Human, anthro, and any other AU is a-okay!
- E for everyone, T for teen, but nothing above that. Meaning, no clop, gore, etc.
- Only words written in November count
- Stories and poetry only. Nonfiction, outlines, and brainstorms don't count
- There are no quality requirements. NaPoWrMo is about writing as much as you can!
If you have questions about anything, ask away!
While Twilight hosts the event in the school, I'll be hosting here on EQD.
Speaking of, some of you may be wondering why I'm here and not Novel Idea, past years' host and all around fantastic guy and writer. Novel needs this time to focus on his recovery. Mental health, especially when you have one or more disorders long-term, is always a journey, and I wish Novel a safe, healing one.
He'll be in our hearts this November, as always, but especially now.
With that said, let me know if you'll be entering! Every week, I'll be back to cheer you on and inspire you to new word-count heights!
And while I can't be there myself everyday due to university obligations, I welcome you to send in your Discord name along with your story title and word count goal to join the dedicated Discord channel to talk to other NaPoWrMo authors. Support can make the difference.
He'll be in our hearts this November, as always, but especially now.
With that said, let me know if you'll be entering! Every week, I'll be back to cheer you on and inspire you to new word-count heights!
And while I can't be there myself everyday due to university obligations, I welcome you to send in your Discord name along with your story title and word count goal to join the dedicated Discord channel to talk to other NaPoWrMo authors. Support can make the difference.
Let's get writing, fellow penmonkeys.
