I was just reminded that November is National Novel Writing Month. The NaNoWriMo challenge is designed to get you to write a 50,000-word novel between November 1 and November 30. Writer Gayle Brandeis (a previous winner of the Bellwether Prize for Literature of Social Change for her excellent novel The Book of Dead Birds) says in this month's Self magazine: "Think about the things that make your heart beat faster. Write about what you love and write about what scares you, too, because that's where the most energy is."
I haven't done the challenge before but I have forced myself to write 2000 words per day for several weeks. Honestly, a lot of the writing just sucks. But some of it is brilliant and will no doubt end up in the final draft. If you are one of those people who has always wanted to write, but haven't, do this challenge. There will be about 100,000 people suffering with you (including me). Sign up at www.nanowrimo.org.
