When I finally publish my first novel, I'm pretty sure I'm going to dedicate it to the founder of NaNo WriMo, Chris Baty. Why? Because without him and his genius idea of NaNo WriMo, I might never have finished a book. I worked for YEARS on a manuscript that I only ever half finished, but with the structure and pressure of NaNo WriMo to force me to plow through that first draft, I've not only reached the end of two first drafts, but I've also become vastly more productive in my short story writing.  

The point of National Novel Writing Month, or NaNo WriMo as it's commonly known, is to write a complete first draft of a 50,000 word novel in thirty days.

Sound impossible?  

That's what I said when I first heard about it. But the next year I tried it, and succeeded. The following year, I beat the 50,000 word goal by more than 30,000 words and still got done two days early.

And I'm not a fluke or a rare exception or anything. Thousands of people win* NaNo WriMo every year. Other members of my writers' group, Creative Minds Collective, have done it with me the past two years in a row. It is very, very possible.  

What NaNo WriMo has taught me, more than anything, is not to stop and revise along the way, and not to put off writing for when I'm "in the mood" or "feeling inspired." When it's time to write, I write. Period. It's the greatest lesson in writing I've ever learned.

Click the logo below to visit the official NaNo WriMo website, http://www.nanowrimo.org. The "winner" logos on the right side of the page link directly to my own NaNo WriMo author's page.  

Also on the right is a link to Chris Baty's book, No Plot, No Problem, which is a sort of handbook to NaNo WriMo, at Amazon.com.