November 01, 2011 
Stephanie 
Well readers, it’s November 1st, which can only mean one thing (aside from the start to the Christmas season in my book). It’s time for National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. This is, of course, the annual communal writing experience that challenges people to start and finish a 50,000 word novel in thirty days. Over the years the movement has grown from a handful of participants to thousands, so there clearly is something to be said for this large-scale timed writing exercise.
The great thing about NaNoWriMo, besides, of course, its celebration of the art of writing, is that it encourages discipline and imperfection. It celebrates the fact that, for better or for worse, writers must develop, write, and complete a novel in only a month. It’s a very quantity-over-quality-minded task, but either way by the time November 30th rolls around, the result is (fingers crossed) a finished novel. And that is something to celebrate. In searching for some reading material about NaNoWriMo, I found this hilarious post from the blog, Terrible Minds, which provides some wonderfully honest observations about this challenge.
So how about you: are you getting in on the fun this year?
I am in the middle of a novel and so are most of my critique group members, so we’ve decided to do NaNoFiMo. We plan to finish our current novels.
Funny Yat-Yee! I’m doing NaNoEditMo and finishing my revisions.