It strikes me as somewhat counterintuitive that writing should be as difficult as it is.  After all, writing is arguably the most accessible of the creative arts: get a pen, get some paper, get an idea, and write it down.  Simplifying the process to such a degree is, while technically correct, nonetheless laughable.  For example, I spent well over an hour trying to figure out some way to write an opening paragraph for this article that wasn’t “everybody has a story” and it hasn’t even been an especially good opening paragraph. Imagine then the amount of effort that must go into writing an entire novel!  Thank goodness for NaNoWriMo.

No, I didn’t type that on a smart phone; NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month.  The concept is easy: devote this November to writing your novel.  You know your novel – that one idea floating lazily about in the nether regions of your brain’s “bucket list,” the one that you’ve said to yourself, “Wow, that would make a really great book.”  But you’ve never quite had the time or the inclination.  Well, much like the gym in January, NaNoWriMo gives you the formal opportunity to actually get started.