It’s that time of year again. National Novel Writing Month aka NaNoWriMo is almost here.

I’ve participated for the last two years and I have to admit I never made it to the 50K mark for either year. But I did log in to my NaNoWriMo account because I really do like getting those Pep Talk emails. Feel free to buddy me if you’re participating, I’ll be sure to cheer you on!

I don’t know yet if I’m “officially” participating since I’m in the midst of this revision and got most of my work done with the Summer Challenge.

But NaNoWriMo is a GREAT opportunity for writers who have a book idea and wish to expand on it. It forces you to write a draft quickly without a lot of backtracking (something I’ve learned this summer may be a good thing). But the real benefit of NaNoWriMo: You’re trying to find the story and sometimes you don’t know what that story will be until you’ve written a draft. The beauty comes in revision. I don’t think you’ll be able to start submitting your NaNoWriMo novel in December but you’ll have something a lot aspiring writers don’t have: a draft novel.