It's NaNoWriMo time - start writing!

This year, I swore I'd do it. And I'm already running behind. But that's okay ... I'm pretty good on deadline.

I'm talking about NaNoWriMo, of course - National Novel Writing Month. It runs from Nov. 1 to Nov. 30, and the goal is to write a 50,000 word novel by the time you're through. The deadline is the impetus here - by writing as much as you can as fast as you can, you don't have time to tweak or second-guess yourself. You don't have time to listen to that little voice in your head that tells you that you can't do it.

You just write. And write and write. Will you write a bunch of crap? Maybe. But you're setting your imagination free. And you'll be creating - instead of just thinking about creating. That's a pretty big accomplishment. Who knows where it could lead?

I have a lot of friends who participate happily every year in NaNoWriMo. They gleefully tell me how horrible their creations are. Until one year ... they weren't that bad. Then last year, well, one was pretty good. And sometimes, a few of those friends can't stop writing once they start.

You can even sign up officially at www.nanowrimo.org and get a word count widget, check word counts all over the world, and get motivation from other writers tearing their hair out all in the name of literature on demand.

I think it sounds like pretty crazy fun. So what are we waiting for?