Twenty years ago this month, an Internet-based creative writing project was born establishing November as National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo.

For those who are interested in writing a novel, the project challenges participants to write a 50,000-word manuscript between Nov. 1 and Nov. 30.

Last year, I wrote a story for The Vicksburg Post about a local fellow, Chris Baty, who has participated in NaNoWriMo for several years.

Baty, who is a published author, explained to me that in writing this manuscript, you don’t necessarily have to worry about having a publish-ready novel by the end of the month but to think of it as more of an exercise in just sitting down to write.

He added that for him, the NaNoWriMo project also served as a way to hone in on his own writing skills.

“It has really improved some of my sentence structures and punctuation, because I have had some problems like forgetting to put a comma in. But with the project, the more you write the more punctuation comes like second nature to you,” he said.

I was intrigued with the idea of NaNoWriMo, but since I had interviewed Baty almost two-weeks into the month of November, the thought of participating didn’t cross my mind.

However, this year has been a different story!

My friend Kelle Barfield, who owns Lorelei Books, the local bookstore on Washington Street, sent me an email to let me know she was organizing the River City NaNoWriMo group. (Anyone is invited to participate)

Later that week, I saw Kelle at a brunch and told her I was toying with the idea of getting involved.

Admittedly, I was hesitant to jump on board seeing as to how my job has me writing, so the thought of adding another 50,000 words to my November to-do-list sounded a bit daunting.

But I decided that if I were ever going to attempt writing a novel, I needed to stop making excuses.

I don’t have a solid story line idea for a novel as of yet; therefore, I decided I would just start writing about events that have happened in my life to just get my word count going.

I would imagine most who participate in the NaNoWriMo project set a goal of so many words, a day.

I have not been that proficient, and realize now that we are more than a week into November, there is a good chance I won’t reach the 50,000-word mark.

However, that does not mean I am not accomplishing something with my writing.

Purging past experiences on paper has been quite cathartic and liberating.

By releasing parts of my life story on paper and seeing it in black and white, it reminds me these things did happen, and I get to see how far I have come.

I know most people don’t have a goal of writing a novel in their lifetime, but if you need to get rid of built up junk in your life or just want to give an account for prosperity, writing it down is definitely therapeutic.

Hopefully, after writing all those words, you won’t choose to burn it up!

There is a saying, we all have one novel inside of us.

Terri Cowart Frazier is a staff writer at The Vicksburg Post. Readers are invited to submit their opinions for publication.