Illustration by S.K.

Looking for an excuse to write until your fingers go numb from repetitive stress injuries? Looking for a month of stress-filled, coffee-fueled (or whatever substance you abuse, pizza perhaps), mind-mangling writing mayhem? Don’t you just want to neglect school a little bit? Then next month is the time to get negligent!

Next month is National Novel Writing Month! Thousands partake in this expressive spree of writing all over the globe. An entire globe sharing in the suffering of the overworked artist for one month. A month – this is the time limit. Between 12 AM November 1st, 2010 and 11:59 PM November 30th, your sole obligation is to write 50,000 words. Yes, no one gives a damn if your writing is total crap. Quality doesn’t matter. For once in your writing career throw the internal editor out your window and write – write nonsense, write stupidly long sentences overwrought with compound adjectives, write paragraph after paragraph describing your left shoe, write a novel about a warrior-beaver! It doesn’t matter.

What do you get for accomplishing this harrowing feat? A certificate authenticating your awesomeness and sacrifice. But more importantly, the satisfaction of finally writing something novel-length. Leave the grading to the academics, the editing to the professional writers; you wrote without giving a damn and have a certificate to rub in their faces! Even more importantly you get to turn to your friends when they invariably ask you “what have you been up to?” and say, “I’ve just finished writing my novel.”

For more information and to sign up, go to nanowrimo.com and join in the frenzy for free. If you need someone to share the torment with, contact me at [email protected] and we can spend hours writing nonsense together.