November 1st marks the first day of National Novel Writing Month, a ten-year institution that has become a worldwide novel-writing movement. Starting with humble beginnings in 1999 San Francisco, National Novel Writing Month has taken the literary world as the hallmark of self-discipline and an intense sense of community. With a rising roster of accomplished novelists, NaNoWriMo (as it is affectionately called) calls upon anyone and everyone to write 50,000 words in one month.

Tall order? 20,000 annual winning participants don’t think so. As a matter of fact, many in the professional writing community have swooped in to endorse the program and provide weekly “pep talks”.

In addition to encouraging the greater world to write novels in November, NaNoWriMo does a great deal for the community as well. This year, donations will benefit their Young Writer’s program benefiting 1,000 schools.

So grab your hard-earned time, sit down, and pound the keyboard. Who knows where it will lead – The Way Thing’s Are’s own Kathleen Kaufman wrote her debut novel The Tree Museum for National Novel Writing Month. She’s not the only one: look at all the other NaNoWriMo authors that have been published.