Today is the second day of Nanowrimo, which means that by midnight tonight, I should have somewhere in the neighborhood of… math, math, math… 3,334 words. That’s all of my stories for the Storytime Blog Hop next year, and a solid start on something a little more serious to submit for publication. Obviously, this post is pre-scheduled.

My region is leveling up its pandemic prevention game again. (Is that what you call it, when you leveled down, and then realized that it was a horrible mistake? Well, let’s just call it leveling up, anyway.) It’s November. There’s literally nothing to do. Let’s write a novel. (Or, in my case, 50,000 words worth of short stories.)

I have a few writer friends in real life, and every year, I try to recruit them for Nanowrimo. I think it would be a good experience for them. (I think it would be a good experience for you.) And every year, I fall just a little bit short of convincing these wonderful, amazing, creatives that they can do it.

Maybe I should backtrack a little.

When I say writer friends, I mean friends who ought to be writers. Friends who have some part of their soul weighed down by the need to tell stories. People who need to be kicked off the ledge without a parachute.

The one who’s been working on the same story since she was twelve. The one who gets ahead of herself and worries about being rejected for a story that hasn’t been written. The one who is probably going to keep putting it off, until he retires and “has time.”

They’re capable of amazing things.

Nano puts a timeline on it. Brings it into right now. Gives you the momentum to keep going, even though it’s not perfect, and pushes all those qualms to the back of your head. Maybe it gives you an excuse to write, just to see if you can do it. 50,000 words in a month.

I’m enthusiastic about it.

I like the community there, too.

But seriously, if you want to write a novel, why not now? It’s still early in the game. You can catch up, if “winning” nano is your thing. And there’s definitely time for you to enjoy the support of the forum.

Come along, little children. It’s going to be fun.

We’ll see if I get any of the people from real-life to join us.