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National Novel Writing Month (also known as NaNoWriMo) is an annual internet-based creative writing project which challenges participants to write 50,000 words of a new novel between November 1 and 30. Despite its name it accepts entries from around the world.

Nanowrimo.org

Whoop! You bet your rockets, I'm gonna do it! It'll be my second year participating, and I've been looking forward to this event for a good, long time. 3nodding Maybe the guild could set up a record of the event, for the folks who wanna participate? It is a phenomenal thing!

I was in my senior year in high school at the time, so a small band of vagabonds joined me in the event, each of us working on our own project to complete by the deadline. Out of the 5 or 6 of us that started, I think only 2 actually completed, myself one of them. True fact: only about 10% of the people who originally start off the event actually complete it. It's hard. Believe me, it is hard. But the community on the nano site forums, and the people you can find that live near to you, can really benefit you in the long-run. There is so much I could say about it, but it really did help the progress of my novel, more than just plodding along a little bit at a time.

Expect your writing to be bad during that one month, and don't give a flying shoe about it. You can edit it after you have those 50,000 words.

Well, i would not mind setting something up for ....whatever its called...

Ive only just heard of it. So i have no idea what it is. Let me know what you want tracked and I'll set it up in the main forum (or would you rather it be in the sub forums?)

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing on November 1. The goal is to write a 50,000-word (approximately 175-page) novel by 11:59:59 PM on November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking 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.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. This approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that’s a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.

In 2011, we had 256,618 participants and 36,843 of them crossed the 50K finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.

So, to recap:

What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month’s time.

Who: You! We can’t do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let’s write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.

Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era’s most enchanting art forms! To give yourself permission to write without obsessing over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To stop being one of those people who say, “I’ve always wanted to write a novel,” and become one of those people who can say, “Oh, a novel? It’s such a funny story–I’ve written three.”

When: You can sign up anytime to add your name to the roster and browse the forums. Writing begins 12:00:01 November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at 11:59:59. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.