5 Reasons I Love NaNoWriMo

5 Reasons I Love National Novel Writing Month (in no particular order) and why:

1. NaNoWriMo CD Swap.
I've already written a blog about it, which you can read here.

2. The Writing Dares
Where else are you going to see people dare you to add killer penguins or pantless characters to that novel brewing in your head? View the bulletin board topic here and wade through it. For those with no ambitions to write a novel, do so for the hilarity and absurdity you will encounter. Well worth your time, I promise.

3. It's a world-wide community of support.
From word sprints to n00b adoption to sharing what songs could make a goth MC want to come out and play next month on the boards... everyone who participates is in this to win this, and to help other participants to do so along the way. Much thanks to The Office of Letters and Light, who work their tails off every year to not only put on NaNoWriMo, but ScriptFrenzy in April as well. They do an incredible job during NaNo with weekly pep talks, constant website updates, and in general encouraging over-caffeinated, slightly crazy novelist-wannabes to crank out 50,000+ words in 30 days. And script-writing wannabes to finish a 100-page script in 30 days - depending whether you're talking about November or April.

4. It's an excuse to write that novel brewing in my head this past year.
Yes, there has been a novel idea brewing in my head for the past year. Several have been, as a matter of fact. If not for NaNoWriMo, I would probably never make myself find the time to flesh them out and see if I can, in fact, turn them into a novel. Thank you for giving me a reason to write.

5. Procrastination... go far, far away.
What better way to fend off procrastination than by emphasizing A) the overwhelming nature of cranking out a 50,000+ word manuscript, and B) the enormously important and quickly looming deadline of 30 days? As much as I love to put a lot of things off as much as I can get away with, with NaNoWriMo, I have no valid excuse. It's do or die, baby.

I realize that almost half these reasons aren't related so much to NaNo as they are to a specific character trait of mine... All I'm trying to say is these are some of my reasons. Agree or disagree, you can't deny that the power of a collective agenda cannot be denied. In this case, the agenda happens to be writing novels.

To all my fellow NaNoWriMoers, this collective jump off a bridge is well worth it. I look forward to seeing what comes out of this year's attempts.