The memoir I'm writing resulted from my participation in National Novel Writing Month 2004. Yes, I know, everyone else was writing fiction. I cheated.
NaNoWriMo, as it is affectionally called, is the brain-child of Chris Baty in which authors around the globe produce 50,000 words in thirty days - the month of November. That's approximately 1667 words per day, or for those of us who didn't begin until November 6th, that's 2084 words per day (give or take a decimal point). I had Natalie Goldberg's "writing practice" technique to lean heavily on and I surprised myself at the sheer volume of words I could produce on the same topic.
Although I'm busy revising my book, I miss the pressure, excitement, comaraderie and structure of that month. For old times sake, I visited the NaNoWriMo website to see if anyone was hanging around and found a list of other nanowrimo type events:
NaNoFiMo.org - National Novel Finishing Month (December). Goal: 30,000 words.
JaNoWriMo January Novel Writing Month (January). Goal: 50,000 words. Must be a LiveJournal user to participate.
NaNoEdMo.org - National Novel Editing Month (March). Goal: 50 hours of revision
NaNoWriYe.com - National Novel Writing Year (Year-Round). Goal: 100,000 or more words in a year.
Why wait until November?