I don’t know what sparked it, as I haven’t thought about this in almost two years, but today I found myself at Nanowrimo‘s website, thinking about signing up.

Nanowrimo–or National Novel Writing Month–turns November into Crazember, asking would-be writers and published novelists alike to crank out 50,000 words before December 1.

This is your brain on Nano. flickr:rex dart:eskimo spy

I’ve only “won” Nano once, and haven’t had time to participate for the last two years, but there is always something alluring about the prospect of speed writing.

When I was a Nano participant, however, I was in a college dorm, which meant it was simultaneously easier to not become a hermit and harder to actually finish the dratted thing. This time, it’d be just the opposite. I love the discipline of it, but it turns people (maybe just me) into crazy folk.

Despite all this, for some writers Nano can be great. I’ll talk more about that in a separate post.