November is National Novel Writing Month.  Bet you didn’t know that.

If you have a novel within you, or think you might, then Nanowrimo is for you:

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 write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.

When: Sign-ups begin October 1, 2007. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.

You can sign up (it’s free) here.  No plot?  No problem.

In case you think this is a fly-by-night silly thing, just check out the stats mon Nanowrimo:

Founded: 1999 in Oakland, CA

Annual participant/winner totals:

1999: 21 participants and six winners

2000: 140 participants and 29 winners

2001: 5000 participants and more than 700 winners

2002: 13,500 participants and around 2,100 winners

2003: 25,500 participants and about 3,500 winners

2004: 42,000 participants and just shy of 6,000 winners

2005: 59,000 participants and 9,769 winners

2006: 79,813 participants and 12,948 winners

Number of official NaNoWriMo chapters around the world: Over 500

Number of K-12 schools who participated in 2005: Over 100

Number of K-12 schools who participated in 2006: Over 300

Number of NaNoWriMo manuscripts that have been sold to big-time publishing houses: Many (list of them are here)

Percent of NaNoWriMo’s net proceeds from donations and merchandise sales that went to build libraries for children in Southeast Asia 2004-2006: 50%

Number of libraries NaNoWriMo has built through this program: Twenty-two (three in Cambodia, seven in Laos, an anticipated twelve in Vietnam, pending 2006 financials)

Number of words officially logged by participants during the 2004 event: 428,164,975

Number of words officially logged by participants during the 2005 event: 714,227,354

Number of words officially logged by participants during the 2006 event: 982,564,701

Now get writing!