If you're seeing some writerly types walking around looking a bit more haggard, worn out and overly caffienated than usual it's only because November is NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month. For the entirety of November, NaNoWriMo participants are tasked with writing a 175 page (50,000 word) novel. That sounds like a lot, but as the founder and leader of NaNoWriMo, Oakland's own Chris Baty, points out, it comes down to writing two hours a day, five nights a week. So easy. And the point of all this? From the Web site:

"valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over talent and 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."

In other words, Just Do It.

NaNoWriMo was started in 1998 when Chris Baty, wondering why he had yet to write the Great American Novel, thought it would be a cool idea to write a novel in a month and get friends to join in with him. Over the years, word spread to the point where the thing has over 40,000 participants of all ages and from all over the world.

How this thing works is that all the wanna-be novelists, or NaNos, sign up on the NaNoWriMo Web site and as soon as November comes, they write away, posting the number of words they've written each day. Included on the Web site are forums for people to talk about their experiences and to give encouragement. There's also inspirational words and advice given for those who need it, including a weekly pep-talk e-mail that goes out to all the participants (some words of advice given out- "be sure take lots of walks and bike-rides" and "putting on special clothes makes writing feel more like a festive event." Once the end of the month comes, those still writing send in their manuscript to get verification that they’ve achieved their goals and from there, it's party time. And while some people have actually been able to sell a novel or two to publishers, for most people, the pot of gold at the end of the NaNoWriMo rainbow is to just say that they've written a novel. Which, we think, is a pretty cool.

For the next few weeks, Friend of Sfist, Brenda, will be sharing her experiences as a participant in NaNoWriMo. Her thoughts and observations about taking part in it, her fourth time, comes after the jump.