National Novel Writing Month

November is going to be a big month in our family. I need to get my house in order, and then my mom is going to move in with us. Fortunately, I will be getting some much-appreciated help from family members with the house organization. But, I'm still pretty stressed out just thinking about it.

It's crazy to think about adding a major project to my November itinerary. But, yesterday I found out that November is National Novel Writing Month. I've always had novels in the back of my brain that I've thought about writing, but never went farther than that.

I'm seriously thinking about doing it. The idea is that you spend a month writing like crazy, and not worrying about polishing it up, character development, etc. Every day you write, and go to the website and record the number of words written. The goal is to write 50,000 words between November 1 and November 30. If you do, you win.

I'm also thinking of having the two older kids enter the Young Writers Contest for the month, instead of their regular writing assignments. Maybe Madeline will have a goal of 20,000 words, and Henry a goal of 10,000 words.

I know it's crazy to add something like this to my schedule right now, but, it might be just the thing to keep me from stressing out too much.