Turns out November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). All across America but also around the rest of the world people are working away on 50,000 word novels that they have to complete by the end of the month. You can check how they're doing on the NaNoWriMo website, which describes the scheme as
"a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.
Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved."
Enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, I love that. Maybe next year …
[Illustration, Elliott Banfield]