Where did October go?  Ordinarily I wouldn’t comment on the ending of a month, but with October ending, it means November is starting.  November means National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo.  For those not familiar with NaNoWriMo, it’s a celebration of writing with a challenge for all those who wish to participate: write a short novel (50,000 words) in the month of November.  I use it as a writing challenge to up my productivity for a month, and have succeeded the past five years running.  I don’t always write a novel, and I won’t this year either—I plan to write a complete novella instead.  The novella, combined with my continuing novel edits, should fill my time for November.  I’ll post periodic updates here, but I’ll likely be a little scarce in these parts for much of the month.

If you’ve never done NaNoWriMo before and have always wanted write a novel, I suggest you give it a try.  It has a great community that offers a lot of support and inspiration (if you’re into that sort of thing).  Last year  I even offered a little advice on what I think is needed for success—unfortunately I haven’t followed all my own advice this year!  Even if you don’t succeed, it’s an opportunity to put butt-in-chair, and let’s face it, that’s at least half the battle right there.  Once you start, you might just surprise yourself.  Good writing to you all.