An Introduction to the Mass Hysteria: National Novel Writing Month.

Have you ever considering writing a book? Were you overwhelmed once you thought of sitting and facing a blank page that you must fill, or maybe that sensation didn’t strike until you had the sudden realization that you had to fill another page and another. Well, never fear aspiring author! It just so happens that your time has come to shine and to do a long side thousands upon thousands of others just like yourself. Yes! It is the insanity dubbed NaNoWrimo.

You may be asking yourself: What is this NaNoWrimo that you speak of? I have never heard of NaNoWrimo, you say. You may be placing it with Pokemon or other Japanese anime, but you’re wrong to think such a thought. Nothing against Japanese anime, because we all know that Japanese artists did the Real Ghostbusters cartoon animation. But! That’s irrelevant. The point is that NaNoWriMo is a movement: a mass movement. NaNoWriMo means National Novel Writing Month.

That’s right. There’s a month solely devoted to writing a novel. Can you believe that? None can at first, until it takes hold that’s it real and the possibility makes one ecstatic. The sheer idea that one can write a book in a month is madness. Oui—but aren’t all authors a little mad? Was Poe not found raving in the streets before being taken to the hospital to die? Did or did not Hunter S. Thompson wish for his ashes to be shot from a cannon? Are you mad enough to attempt the near impossible? Are you willing to attempt to write a book in 30 days?

If so, then, NaNoWriMo is the place for you. It’s an interactive community with forums, private messaging, PodCasts, merchandise and even a book to help light the way: No Plot? No Problem. By Chris Baty, who also happens to be the founder of NaNoWrimo. He must be batty. The mass writings have been held annually since November 2000, and have grown to include participants not only in America but internationally; so Japanese anime artists don’t feel excluded.