I participated in NaNoWriMo once in the early 2000's and enjoyed it greatly. I was inspired by the challenge and the community. People read what I wrote and gave feedback, and vice versa,

Remembering my first experience fondly, I decided to participate again this year and was very disappointed. It is no longer about creativity or community, but about commercialism. They sign you up for an email which they explicitly state you cannot opt out of, and which they use to solicit donations and purchases of their "swag" on a daily basis.

Meanwhile, there were no communications whasoever from anyone running NaNo, or any fellow participants, welcoming me or asking me about what I was writing. I posted some writing and no one commented. I tried reaching out several times to various parties and received zero response. I stopped updating my word count about halfway through the month, and that was that. I continued to get the solicitation emails, and never could get off the list.

After NaNo was over, I received a link to give feedback. Some of the form fields asked me about my experience with various entities who were in charge of creating community and shepherding writers along. Um, huh? I literally didn't even know these folks existed until I saw them referenced on the form. No one at all ever reached out to me, welcomed me, said anything about my writing, or made me feel like I even existed for that matter.

This was an invalidating, lonely, disappointing experience and I will have nothing to do with NaNo again.

I try to participate every year, and it's hard work, but it's so fun! It really helps me get back in the groove of writing, even if I don't finish the whole event.

NaNoWriMo is awesome! I've had so much fun participating in Nanowrimo each year since I started. Even in the years I don't win I get a lot done. The website also has helpful resources for writers and a great community feel. A+ website.

This site is pure love.

Love of millions of people with the same objetive than you, being the creators or the people who participate in the events. A diverse community who will support you, give you ideas and prep talks. And each and every one of them wants to achieve something.

The forums offers help of other people who is writing, ideas, games and suppurort in general. The website loads fast, is nice to the view and gives you a sensation of community, because this is it. The cost of participating is zero (sí, cero), but if you want to, you can donate or buy something nice for you (or a friend of yours).

An excellent choice if you want to complete something you wanted to compete years ago, or if it´s your first time writing a novel. I recommend it to everyone who tries to tell a story in their own words.

I love the concept of writing a novel in a month (and I'm well on my way), but the NaNoWriMo community is comprised of people with low morals and a vague sense of right and wrong. They produced a pep talk by an author who used the word "suck" ten times, and when a few of us complained, we were lynched by people who thought we were prudes. Even the moderators defended the trashy, no-class pep talk. Considering the work they do with kids, it was surprising they'd even think such a pep talk had merit. (It was all about how writing sucks--and that's not my word choice. I never use that word.)

November is National Novel Writing Month, and this is where it all begins. When it all begins, is one second after midnight on the morning of November 1st, and it all ends exactly thirty days later, during which time you are challenged to write your very own novel of 50,000 words or roughly 175 pages. Yes, they're talking about you.

The bad news, which is that you've never written anything more challenging than a shopping list, is considerably offset by the good news, which is that your novel can be utterly dreadful. That's not the point. The point is to write, and get to 50,000 words, by the very last second of the very last day of November. And if you upload your novel to this site and get it validated for length, you're a real novelist.

You'll need to write using your computer, so don't get 175 pages of notebook filled and then realize it's supposed to be a computer file of some sort. Aside from that, there aren't many rules. You can write alongside your friends, or on your own, as long as you're the sole author. And it's entirely a matter of quantity, not quality, just as long as you write. You mustn't start writing the book itself until the right moment, though you can have rough ideas beforehand.

Hundreds of thousands of people get into this, so you won't be on your own by a long way.

After it's over, you might want to carry on with rewrites at a more sensible pace, and look for a publisher, and get into the writing business seriously, or you might want to forget it ever happened, and delete the file, it really doesn't matter as long as you participate.

Hmmm... 50,000 words... just a few of my average-length reviews, then;-)