National Novel Writing Month 2008

I've written about National Novel Writing Month here before, and crikey o'blimey if November hasn't come round again.

For those of you who haven't heard of it, the basic idea is - yes - that you write an entire novel in a month; for the purposes of NaNoWriMo (as it's known), a novel is anything upwards of 50,000 words, which works out at about 1500 words a day.

I've never really done it properly - I usually cheat and use it as a springboard to get on with a novel I'm already working on, and even that with mixed results - but I think it sounds like a great way to just get the ever-problematic first draft done, and there are lots of people around the globe doing it at the same time, which removes the isolation that often comes with writing.

It's based in the USA, but it's more International than National, with groups meeting up for 'write-ins' all over the place (there were definitely meetups here in London last year, for example).

So, if you fancy taking up the challenge, click on the link above to find out more - it costs nothing to participate, and all you need is something to write on/with and a willingness to be honest about your wordcount. I won't be doing it as I have non-novel writing (there's an ambiguous turn of phrase) to get on with, but if you do join in, let me know how it went - I know Laura's taking part, but are there any other takers?

NaNoWriMo runs until the end of November, so (glances at watch) you've only lost a minute so far (and we could attribute that to the time taken to read this post, right?)...