National Novel Writing Month

November is national novel writing month.  I can't remember where I heard about it but it was at least two years ago.  It's a not-very-serious effort by thousands of people to write a 50,000 (at least) word novel from November 1 through November 30.  That's a little over 1,666 words per day.  No one is working on a great, beautifully written novel; they're just writing a draft of a novel.   There's a website that explains what few little rules there are - nobody else's writing but your own, nothing you've written before (it all has to be written in November although you're allowed to have an outline and have done some research), and do not write the same word over and over 50,000 times. 

The website says that about 40,000 people finished a novel in 2011.  On November 1st there were a bunch of middle school teachers, mechanics, out of work actors, etc. and on December 1st there were a bunch of novelists.  For the rest of their lives they can brag that they've written a novel.  All of the novels are posted on line.

I'm thinking it's a great way to establish a daily writing habit without any pressure except to get the words on paper.  I'm thinking I will sign up.