Prior to last week, I didn't know either! After hearing about it from my writer's group leader, I went home and did some research. What I found was a cool, grassroots adventure that I'm happy to now be a part of.
Started in 1999 by 21 San Francisco Bay would-be novelists, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Each November, writers pledge to start a new project, and complete 50,000 words by the last day of the month. Only 10 years later, and participation now exceeds 100,000 people worldwide.
The project has a interesting history, I encourage you to check it out: http://www.nanowrimo.org/
Once you sign up, join your regional group. Your word count is included in your group's count - which seems to be a big part of the fun...there's some trash-talking on the forums...gives you that same feeling as the Seminole/Gator rivalry!
The only downside for me personally, is that you are supposed to start a brand new project. You can use an outline for a project you haven't actually started writing, but otherwise it should be brand new. This presents a problem for me, as I have two other stories I'm working on, and to start a new one will leave less time for the others. But I'm biting the bullet, because I really want to be a part of this.
There is no monetary prize, just the satisfaction of completing the job. I read several forums, people excited to be coming back for another try...people who had actually hit the 50K and had the honor of posting a Winner's web badge on their own site.
If you're looking for inspiration to start that new novel, here it is.
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