Tomorrow I plan to start my latest idea: NaNoWriMo.  What is a NaNoWriMo you ask?  Let me try to tell you.  And yes, it’s as weird as it sounds.  NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month.  It is a literary challenge started 11 years ago by a group of writers in the bay area.  Read more about it here. 

NaNoWriMo is designed to help writers turn off the inner critic and get their story out.  It’s a great motivator for wannabe writers like me who have always wanted to write a novel but are waiting for the perfect time to start.  The rules are simple (but also kind of kick-ass): write a novel in a month.  It can be about anything and it can even be a worthless piece of crap.  The only requirement is that it be at least 50,000 words long.  The point is to just do it which is what the nagging little voice in my head has been telling me for years. 

What month do you embark on this insane notion?  November.  What do you get if you actually complete your novel at the end of the month?  Um, I don’t know.  An email I think from the NaNoWriMo website saying “Congratulations!”  And maybe a badge kind of like this one only it says “Winner” instead of “Participant.” 

Yes, I am crazy. 

What is my novel going to be about?  Don’t you wish you knew!  So do I for that matter.  Actually I do have an idea which I have loosely plotted out.  Good taste and my own sense of humility prevent me from sharing too much but I will say this: a sex phone operator and a family of evangelical Christians will be involved. 

Here goes nothing.