I'm not sure whether those planning to do NaNo this year have signed
up or not yet. If you haven't, but want to, fear not. Just pop over to
the NaNo site, you can sign up over the next week, the sooner the
better though. www.nanowrimo.org

If you want to write a novel, but don't want to sign up. You are still
more than welcome to come to the write-ins each Wednesday.

Finally, I'll leave you with some advice from Tom Robbins...

Dear NaNoWriMo participant,

When you sit down to begin that novel of yours, the first thing you
might want to do is toss a handful of powdered napalm over both
shoulders---so as to dispense with any and all of your old writing
teachers, the ones whose ghosts surely will be hovering there, saying
such things as, "Adverbs should never be...", or "A novel is supposed
to convey...", et cetera. Enough! Ye literary bureaucrats, vamoose!

Rules such as "Write what you know," and "Show, don't tell," while
doubtlessly grounded in good sense, can be ignored with impunity by
any novelist nimble enough to get away with it. There is, in fact,
only one rule in writing fiction: Whatever works, works.

Ah, but how can you know if it's working? The truth is, you can't
always know (I nearly burned my first novel a dozen times, and it's
still in print after 35 years), you just have to sense it, feel it,
trust it. It's intu itive, and that peculiar brand of intuition is a
gift from the gods. Obviously, most people have received a different
package altogether, but until you undo the ribbons you can never be sure.

As the great Nelson Algren once said, "Any writer who knows what he's
doing isn't doing very much." Most really good fiction is compelled
into being. It comes from a kind of uncalculated innocence. You need
not have your ending in mind before you commence. Indeed, you need not
be certain of exactly what's going to transpire on page 2. If you know
the whole story in advance, your novel is probably dead before you
begin it. Give it some room to breathe, to change direction, to
surprise you. Writing a novel is not so much a project as a journey, a
voyage, an adventure.

A topic is necessary, of course; a theme, a general sense of the nexus
of effects you'd like your narrative to ultimately produce. Beyond
that, you simply pack your imagination, your sense of humor, a
character or two, and your personal world view into a little canoe,
push it out onto the vast dark river, and see where the currents take
you. And should you ever think you hear the sound of dangerous rapids
around the next bend, hey, hang on, tighten your focus, and keep
paddling---because now you're really writing, baby! This is the best part.

It's a bit like being out of control and totally in charge,
simultaneously. If that seems tricky, well, it's a tricky business.
Try it. It'll drive you crazy. And you'll love it.

Tom Robbins

--
Tom Robbins is the author of eight novels, including Even Cowgirls Get
the Blues, Jitterbug Perfume, and his latest, Villa Incognito.