On November 1, National Authors’ Day celebrates the brilliant writers who spend countless hours brainstorming and creating different stories for readers.

National Authors’ Day became recognized as a holiday in 1949 after Neille Verene, a former member of the Illinois Women’s Club, pushed for it to happen because she wanted a holiday made to appreciate her favorite authors. To celebrate, you can spend the day with your favorite book and a cup of coffee.  Also, you can send your favorite author a message to show your appreciation.

National Authors’ Day fits really well into the beginning of the month which is known as National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. This began in 1999 in an effort to challenge writers to write 50,000 words of a novel, writing it all throughout the 30 days of November.

NaNoWriMo is a nonprofit organization that supports writers and education.  They provide a tool that tracks words for writers, similar to the way a pedometer tracks steps. The event has over 900 volunteers from all over the world who coordinate writing sessions in thousands of places, coffee shops and libraries.

NaNoWriMo works year round to help upcoming writers find their voice and achieve their goals to write a novel. In the last 20 years, nearly 800,000 novelists have participated and they have completed over 350,000 novels during the program.

Each year, authors offer mentorship through pep talks. Past author mentors have included Gene Luen Yang, Roxane Gay, John Green, Andy Weir, N. K. Jemisin, and Veronica Roth. If you are inspired to become an author in the future and want to progress your writing skills and want more information visit https://nanowrimo.org/.