National Novel Writing Month

In case you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to plant your hindquarters in a chair and write a 50,000-word novel in thirty days, here’s your chance to find out. Yes, November is National Novel Writing Month, in which slightly insane people (just like you) commit to writing a novel in one month.

Impossible, you say? Actually, if you are willing to do the work and basically have no life for a month, this task is difficult but feasible. I know because I did it last year and ended up with the first draft of my first book. If you’re anything like me—meaning you think about writing all the time but only do it a couple times a year—having this kind of deadline may be just the thing you need to get you motivated. And if you’re the kind of writer who wants to get everything perfect in the first draft—like me again—trying to write a novel in a month will break you of that habit, at least temporarily.

Getting started is easy. Just visit the NaNoWriMo website and sign up. Gather your notes and ideas and start writing on November 1. (No cheating—you can make as many notes as you want, but don’t you dare start writing until November 1.) Write, write, write every day for thirty days, submit your draft to the NaNoWriMo word counter (you can scramble the letters if you worry about someone stealing your fabulous idea), and you get a nifty certificate to print out and show proudly to friends and family. Oh, be prepared for some friends and family to think you’ve lost your mind, but don’t take them too seriously; just keep writing.

Now that I’ve told you how wonderful NaNoWriMo is and how much it will improve your writing production, I have to tell you that there is no way in heck I will be participating this year. I have ideas—three ideas, in fact—but I would literally have to give up sleep for a month, and I am really unpleasant when I haven’t had enough sleep. So I’ll save my ideas for next year, or until I figure out a way to add a few hours to every day, whichever comes first.