In case you don’t know. November is National Novel Writing Month, known to its friends as NaNoWriMo. Which, according to their website is:

…a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing on November 1. The goal is to write a 50,000-word (approximately 175-page) novel by 11:59:59 PM on November 30

I know this not because I am writing a novel, nor even ever plan to write a novel, but because of Mr Snail-of-happiness.

When I first met him, he was part way through writing at least one novel and this continued for many years, with nothing getting finished and drafts being abandoned. Then last November he decided to participate in NaNoWriMo… and wrote 50,000 words in a month. Well. in less than a month because he had some work to do for the first week before he could get started. It turned out to be part one of a story that, with some editing and extra work was ready to be published as BATDIG. It’s started receiving some good reviews, so that’s encouraging. Now the second part is underway, along with the beginning of another story, and so we return to him spending his free time in November in front of a computer screen tapping away, or not as the case may be. He’s even blogging about it (not sure that isn’t a waste of words!?) and tracking the amount that he writes each day.

However, the purpose of this post is not to give support to all of you others out there writing madly, but to give a big shout out to all the NaNoWriMo widows… those of you who have some lonely evenings ahead for the next few weeks, who will have to walk the dogs alone, do the shopping alone and watch whatever you like on the TV alone… hang on, that’s a bit of a plus isn’t it? Conversations will revolve around word counts, plots, characters, writer’s block and writer’s block (yes, I know I’ve mentioned it twice, but it does seem to be particularly important), and meals will be hurried affairs before the writer in the family disappears again to engage with whatever literary odyssey they are embarking upon.

Don’t get me wrong… I think it’s a great idea, I just think that the Office of Letters and Light, who run the thing, shouldn’t just provide pep talks for authors, but should have a support group for NaNoWriMo widows and orphans… I know I’d be joining!