As a NaNoWriMo Winner in 2007, I can tell you that you NEED to do this at least once (and then, as they say on the bottle, Rinse, Lather, and Repeat).
If you've opened this thread and read about NaNoWriMo, that means something in you wants...no NEEDS to write during this year's event.
Sign up now. NOW!
Its free and no one will pressure you to do anything you don't want to do, but you will find a ton of support and the deadline lends some urgency to drafting that idea you've been harboring for years.
Go download yWriter5 (free) from
Simon Hayne's site and spend October outlining your Great American Novel (or insert your country/state/city). Outlining is acceptable, but no writing before midnight 31 October (what else were you going to do on that Halloween candy sugar rush anyway?). It only takes 1667 words a day to meet the NaNoWriMo goal of 50,000 during the month of November.
I promise it will teach you something about yourself. It will give you a new appreciation for the craft, talent, and raw determination professional novelists must deliver to create the marvelous novels we all enjoy. It may show you that you have a need and hunger to spend more time writing. It may point out that you need to let go of editing more often and spend much more time being creative without having to constantly edit.
So go to
NaNoWriMo right now and write now!
(Hmmm...this entry is about 250 words, or about one-sixth of my daily allotment. I wonder if I can recall what I wrote here and work it into my storyline?)