NaNoWriMo!!!

That’s “National Novel Writing Month” to the uninitiated. (But, just try saying it out loud….NaNoWriMo sounds much more cool!). To those in the know, National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short, is an international, internet based, creative writing contest that takes place annually every November. NaNo challenges writers (professional, amateur, wanna bes, and everyone in the middle) to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. As it’s website states, the contest is designed to “value enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft”. Meaning, in simpler terms,  what you write doesn’t have to be good, there just needs to be a lot of it.  The rules are very simple: starting at midnight, November 1st, you have until 11:59:59 on November 30th to complete your  novel or your 50,000 word draft novel in progress. You can plan and outline as much as you like prior to the starting date, but what you write must be original to that time frame, i.e., no previous written work should be included.  No prizes are awarded for quality, speed, or proficiency.  In fact, the only way to win this thing is to finish it.  And when you cross that finish line, simply upload said masterpiece to the NaNoWriMo website, where whole teams of eagerly awaiting Nano-ites will verify the word count and declare you a WINNER.  Hell, you even get a certificate saying so.
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