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What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month’s time.

Who: You! We can’t do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let’s write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.

Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era’s most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from your novel at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.”
– What is NaNoWriMo? – from nanowrimo.org

50 000 words in a month?! That?s crazy but it sounds like fun. And that?s the idea behind the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo ? to you and me.)

I first heard about this idea from Richard MacManus (whose 2003 NaNoWriMo effort is on my hard drive waiting to be read) and I immediately loved it.

Writers are in constant battle with that nagging internal editor that shouts, hisses and spits ?This sucks, that sucks, you suck!? with every punch of every key. He?s whispering in my ear right now, if you?re real quiet you?ll hear him ? shhh, listen.

The bastard.

NaNoWriMo shuts up the internal editor and lets you get on with the job at hand ? producing your masterpiece. Okay, it won?t be a masterpiece. Chances are it will suck. But it?s a 1st draft. A start. Something to build upon. (Alternatively, you could screw the rewrites and just publish it as an ebook, as everyone else seems to do.)

If you?re a writer (even if you aren’t) and you have an idea just waiting to get out, November is your chance. Unplug the phone, cancel the cable, buy some whiskey and get writing.