How To Lose Your Mind In Thirty Days

National Novel Writing Month, like eating raw garlic, jumping in really cold swimming pools and fitting as many people as possible in a Mini, is one of those ideas so monumentally silly that it really has to be done for its own sake, and I thank the good people at Blogger for clueing me in to its existence. The theory is simple: in November, anyone bloody crazy enough to think it's a good idea tries to write a novel of at least fifty thousand words. If they succeed, or if they are pathetic enough to cheat (which certainly isn't an achievement in itself - it's pretty much honour-based), they are declared winners and are promptly shipped a generous supply of bragging rights.

Now, "just for the sake of it" may not seem like the best reason to churn out a novel in thirty days, but when weighed against the reasons not to (a list running to approximately zero entries) the sensible course of action is pretty clear. I'm going for it. You should too. The worst that can happen is nothing.

If you want to follow my progress in this undertaking, there's a handy meter on the sidebar that, provided I actually write something and remember to update the bloody thing, will slide slowly towards 100% during November. Whether it will get there remains to be seen.