National Novel Writing Month 2009

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November is National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo.  This will be my first year as a participant and I’m excited, because everyone else is excited and I don’t know why yet, but I can’t wait to find out.  Here’s the website for details: http://www.nanowrimo.org/

“Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.”

The objective is to write a 175 page novel or 50,000 words between November 1rst and November 30^th.  They emphasize quantity over quality in the spirit of sheer fun.  In 2008, NaNoWriMo had 119,301 participants and 21,683 winners.  A little background:

Founded by: Freelance writer Chris Baty and 20 other overcaffeinated yahoos in 1999.
Now run by: The Office of Letters and Light, an august 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Oakland.

In my opinion, over-caffeination is genius, so NaNoWriMo must be, too.  They have a Young Writer’s program and on November 22 a Write-a-thon Fundraiser in San Francisco.  It’s a “night of writing dangerously”…

Many reasons exist for a writer to participate, but I’m asking myself, “Do I need a reason?”