One of my favorite cartoons when I was a child was Wacky races - 34 episodes produced by Hana-Barbera between 1968 and 1970, a series of races picturing crazy competitors, each one hoping to win the title of the "World's Wackiest Racer." Some characters are in people's minds to today.

Tonight at midnight, a modern wacky race is going to start, a 30-day race to write a 50,000-word novel: NaNoWriMo. It is an international writing challenge happening every year for the past 12 years in November. One hundred and sixty thousand people from all over the planet took part in the competition last year, More than 30,000 of them crossed the 50K finish line by the deadline. The prize is personal satisfaction for having defeated writer's block, lack of creativity and having written a liberating piece (even if it doesn't have any literary value).

The organizers believe that the kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly. So, to take part in this race you need to:

1. Write a 50,000-word (or longer!) novel, between November 1 and November 30.
2. Start from scratch. None of your own previously written prose can be included in your NaNoWriMo draft.
3. Write a novel. - defined solely as a lengthy work of fiction.
4. Be the sole author of your novel.
5. Upload your novel for word-count validation to the site until midnight on November 30, 2010.


Visit NaNoWriMo site
Follow NaNoWriMo on Twitter

(Previosly posted to Meet me in Paris)