Tina Haapala, Excuse Editor

Today is the last day of NaNoWriMo , and writers around the world attempted to finish a novel – or at least 50,000 words of one (most novels out there are closer to 80,000 words)-- in 30 days. For most, this meant a regular, daily commitment. Others opted for long weekends locked away from the world in order to build up their word counts. Either way, they set time aside and met a personal commitment. Although millions around the world collectively took up the challenge, it was up to each individual writer to do the work themselves. Besides the lessons of time management (you CAN schedule writing time in, even when the rest of your life seems chaotic) and priorities (is another round of Words With Friends important, or is that last 200 words for today?), writers learned the strength of momentum! You remember Newton’s laws of motion , right? Basically, an object in motion tends to stay in motion. This could be a law of creative writing as well. Once your writing creates move...

I love the idea of NaNoWriMo.  One month. One big, fat rough draft. It brings writers and wannabe writers from all over the globe together in an effort to bring brand new groundbreaking, fun, interesting, entertaining novels to the world. Or, it gives those who have toyed with the idea of "maybe" trying to write something a deadline and a goal. However it happens, it begins the process, and writers start to get the words down. And they start off with a shot, if the sluggishness of the NaNoWriMo site is any indication. As of 11 AM Central Time, there were already over 800,000 words drafted in the name of speedy-noveling (that's almost as much as 2 copies of War and Peace !) Now, you may be able to use the month of November and NaNoWriMo as inspiration to finally get some work done on that novel that you have mapped out, created character sketches for, have oodles of research at the ready--everything is done except for the actual story. Go for it! However, for some writ...

It's that time of year again, when thousands of wannabe novelists challenge themselves to write a whole book in 30 days. NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, started 11 years ago and now has a worldwide following. The general idea behind NaNoWriMo is to encourage writers to achieve a lofty word count goal: 50,000 words. The aspiring authors blow the dust off their calculators to forecast their daily targets. As they write, the NaNoWriMo site gives them a visual representation of their work: a bar graph showing them how close, or far away, they are to completing their "NaNoNovel". 50,000 words. If that goal is reached, you would have written a 200 page book! In one month! Sounds out of this world? Well, consider this: A journey of a thousand sentences begins with a single word. Any writing, whether it's War and Peace or a simple tweet , starts with a blank slate. The mystery and the joy of composition: pulling words out of the air, one by one, to give bi...