NaNoWriMo--your one week warning!

In one week it will be November 1st, and you know what that means! National Novel Writing Month is upon us! For the unlikely people who have not heard of NaNoWriMo, the point is to write 50,000 words of a novel between 12:01 a.m. on November 1st and 11:59 p.m. on November 30th. The point is not to write the next great American (or English or French or Chinese or Finnish) novel--the point is to write the novel you've always said you'll write one day, and to give yourself a deadline to do it in. I know it is entirely possible. The first year I participated I wrote 60,000 words, and I wrote 50,000 in half a month in July one year.

I'm not doing NaNo this year, though I'd like to. I have two reading and writing intensive classes, a lot of German homework, and a job. I don't need to be more stressed, and I would like a tiny bit of a social life. This year is not the year. But please, don't let busyness deter you. Half the point is to be crazy and underslept along with a bunch of other crazy people.

Put your plotting hat on--or don't, and make it up as you go--and get ready to write.