It comes from the Latin Nano, meaning project, and Wrimo, meaning for crazy people who can’t accept that their life is already too busy, especially during November, and decide they are going to write a novel.

I may be paraphrasing a bit.

NanoWrimo is short for National Novel Writing Month. It’s a creative writing challenge, where lunatic writerly types sign up and try to write 50,000 words between 11/1 @ 12:00AM and 11/30 @ 11:59PM.

In case you didn’t know, I am one of those lunatic writerly types. Most of us around these parts are, in one fashion or another. I mean, we write posts about running, and cooking, and not running, but we write about other things too.

I’ve already ‘won’ Nano once. In 2011, I did the (previously) unthinkable and wrote 50,000 words of a novel. A really crappy, unbearably angsty, wreck of a young adult novel that will never see the light of day. Ever.

But still, it was a novel, or the very rough start of one, anyway. And while the book itself was mostly drivel, the experience was pretty awesome. I felt like a real writer. I’ve written as long as I can remember. There have been dry spells (the last 3.5ish years) and not-so-dry spells (2009-2010). But I’m always a writer, so whether I’m writing or not at any given moment, writing is part of who I am.

I look at the world through writer’s eyes. When I see a couple sitting on a park bench, faces terse, voices hushed and angry, and one of them stalks off, I want to know their story. I want to know what led them there, and what happens next. And since they are strangers, and I’ll never know, I want to tell their story. I want to give them the happy ending I don’t know if they’ll have. Because I’m a writer.

And also, clearly, a romantic. So, what am I going to write? ROMANCE, of course! I love love. A lot.

Working title: Rooftops and Carparks

Synopsis: Boy meets girl on a rooftop. He falls in love, she falls asleep. And then some other stuff happens, some of which is adult, and some of which is very childish, because most of us never grow all the way up, not really anyway.

I have a rough idea, but it’s been kicking around in my head for a while, so it’s pretty well formed. I have no outline, but I’ve still got… holy moly, I need to get on that. Or not. Sometimes it’s good to work without a net.

So, if you need me for the next month, I’ll be in my dining room, muttering to myself about stupid characters that don’t want to do what I want them to do. And I’ll be writing. Around 1700 words a day, give or take.

If, in addition to reading rambly blog posts, you are also one of those lunatic writerly types, and you sometimes like to not sleep, and you think the month in which Thanksgiving falls is the perfect month to make your life complete chaos, you should join me! (It’s not as bad as it sounds. It’s actually a lot of fun. Don’t rub that in my face on day 20, when I’m 8,000 words behind and crying, please).

This post is not remotely related to diet or exercise. My diet for the next month will involve a lot of coffee, and a fair amount of sugar. Exercise will include long walks to the fridge. Basically, I’m not sweating it. Or sweating at all. Sometimes, you have to feed your soul a little. And mine likes words.

And pie.

Do you write? Do you think Bec is insane? Do you think you maybe want to get insane with her? DO IT.