It is day two of National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo as the cool kids like to say, and I’m on track. The concept behind NaNoWriMo is to write a book in a month, a fairly short one clocking in at 50,000 words. That’s 1,667 words per day in November, something I managed just before midnight yesterday by the way.

There’s a lot more written about NaNoWriMo on the official site, so I urge you to read up if you like.

NaNoWriMo is a good idea, I like it. It encourages people to write, which is always a good thing. So it is all good then, right?

Well yeah, but then there’s this:

Writers write.

This means that writers write, all the time. Not just in November, every month. So if you want to be a nasty little bugger you could sneer and point finger at the people who pretend to be writers one month each year. Most of them won’t even finish their project anyway.

Writer’s shouldn’t be doing that, obviously.

I like NaNoWriMo, I like that the project help people tackle their dreams. Surprisingly enough, a lot of people dream about writing a novel, which is madness as any writer will tell you. Still, follow your dreams and all that, so go for it, it is your life.

NaNoWriMo in my point of view is a possible kick over the ledge. The push you need to actually get started, and the deadline you need to actually finish the project. It is not for me personally, since I write some 2,000 words daily, every day and every month, but I still find it intriguing. NaNoWriMo for me isn’t about finishing a project, I do that already, but more an excuse to try something new.

Some writers tap the enthusiasm NaNoWriMo participants bring to the table, and that’s good too. This brings me to another thing about NaNoWriMo that I think should be communicated a bit more. While it is called “National Novel Writing Month”, I see no reason why you shouldn’t write whatever you like. The important thing is to get you started writing.

That’s just the thing. Whether you want to write the next big American novel, a quirky horror story that you can’t let go, or a book about WordPress just to prove me wrong, you should just get started and do it.

Whether you do start a writing project during National Novel Writing Month or not is beside the point.

But if you do, have fun and tap the NaNoWriMo community for advice and cheers. After all, it is hard enough to write a novel all by your own as it is.