We are fast approaching the most exciting month of the year. November! Now, some (here in the US, at any rate) get excited because they are looking forward to their next supersaturation of L-tryptophan, but not this humble wordsmith. No, November 1st at 12 o’clock a.m. begins the hallowed National Novel Writing Month. 
NaNoWriMo — as it is known to those who love it — is the wonderful month-long foray into sleep deprivation and overclocking of the plot crank, yes, that caffeine-driven deluge of words on page without rhyme, reason, or regard to personal safety. If you’ve done it right, on November 30th at 11:59:59 p.m. you will have several things: 1) 50,000 words of a previously unrealized novel, 2) friends and family who complain they don’t see you enough, 3) a mean coffee monkey, and 4) serious bragging rights. What you will also have is an obligation to finish what you so hastily started: a novel!
Alas, I will not be participating in NaNoWriMo this year (heavy sigh). There is quite enough to do in the Wade household with The Boy now starting his third month of benevolent dictatorship. But I did want to weigh in with my full support to anyone who is curious about it or is planning to give it a go. Do it! It will be worth it. Go to the NaNoWriMo website and sign up. Just having access to the forums is worth the price of admission. Well, it’s free to sign up, but…you know what I mean.
There are also many bloggers out there who are posting NaNoWriMo content this month and the next, posts about how they are doing it and giving excellent tips on how to make it through this next great month of November. I’ll have another post, soon I hope, with links to some of those. In the meantime, all of you my faithful and teeming trove of readers are welcome to post comments here about their NaNoWriMo experiences and tips as well.
TTFN and keep cranking!
