Right, I’m doing it. I’m going to start a book and finish it, once and for all (and I mean write, not read – reading is the easy bit). And, I’m going to lash it out, all 50,000-ish words of it, in 30 days.

That’s the idea behind NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month. It started in 1999 with 21 participants vying to start and complete a novel within the month of November. Last year it had 119,000 beginners and 21,000 finishers. Only a deadline can focus the mind right now, so come Sunday the 1st, I’m off. 50,000 words in 30 days means a daily  average of more words than I have ever previously managed in one sitting; that’s how bad I’ve been.

I think I’ve got the seed of a pretty good story in my head, which I will be dousing with Miracle Gro come Sunday, and hopefully have a a little book tree worth looking in a month’s time.