by Jackie Houchin

Na-

NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. You knew that, right?  But did you know that it is the largest writing event in the world?  More than 300,000 writers sign up each November for a “simple but audacious” challenge: Write 50,000 words of a novel in a month. In the twenty years of NaNoWriMo, approximately 3 million writers have taken that challenge, including many bestselling authors.

Fifty thousand words in a month means 1,667 words per day. Doesn’t sound too hard, right?  Maybe an hour and a half at the keyboard? Two at most? A mere sliver out of your day.  HA!

I’ve entered NaNoWriMo five times since 2004 and it IS a heck of a lot of writing time; my bottom got numb, my fingers stiff, everything around me was out of my mind except “The Story.”  Sadly, I only completed the challenge once with…