30 Day Novel

For something that started as a "what if we all got together and ...?" question amongst 21 friends back in 1999, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) has excited the creative minds of thousands, extracting from each of them 50,000 words of potential greatness.

Chris Baty, founder of NaNoWriMo, had no great expectations from the challenge to his friends, but out of a personally gratifying month-long experience, was born a book-writing panorama.  While many would proffer that it is not  possible to write a great novel in 30 days, the supportive communities surrounding the event have facilitated the creation of some worthy draft novels which have later become great publications.  (See our choices below and share yours in our comments box).

Count down to the big month has begun.  

Google Hangouts designated to the sharing of ideas and getting ready kicked off in mid-October.  Smashwords a website devoted to helping NaNoWriMo participants is running a promotion that could help ease the journey to the finish line on November 30th.

And for some additional inspiration and motivation...



So does this exercise actually produce great works of art?  Here are two of our favorites.


The God Patent by Ransom Stephens
Sex, drugs and quantum physics collide with artificial intelligence, faith and free will in this perspective-altering story.  The memo said they'd get bonuses for submitting patents, so why not?  Money came easily during the dot-com boom.  Concealed in engineering jargon, Ryan McNear submits a patent for the soul disguised as a software algorithm and his best friend Foster Reed rewrites Genesis and calls it a "power generator".  A few years later, amid the fallout of a ruptured technology bubble, his career ruined and family shredded, a desperate Ryan discovers that a company headed by his old friend Foster is developing his patent.  What he thought was a joke is generating stacks of money amid claims that it will provide a source of limitless energy and prove the existence of God.  Willing to try anything to rebuild his life, Ryan stakes a claim to the patent.  He soon discovers a sinister undercurrent in the venture.  Racing against time and aided by a motley group of assistants that includes an attorney/conman, a beautiful and passionate physicist and a death-obsessed adolescent math prodigy,  Ryan gets caught in a battle between hard science and fundamentalist religion that threatens his sanity, his freedom and his son.  Before long Ryan will test the limits of faith and free will, evaluate the nature of desire and comprehend the human soul in a way that requires a single step, rather than a great leap of faith.

Losing Faith by Denise Jaden

A terrible secret. A terrible fate.

When Brie's sister, Faith, dies suddenly, Brie's world falls apart. As she goes through the bizarre and devastating process of mourning the sister she never understood and barely even liked, everything in her life seems to spiral farther and farther off course. Her parents are a mess, her friends don’t know how to treat her, and her perfect boyfriend suddenly seems anything but.

As Brie settles into her new normal, she encounters more questions than closure: Certain facts about the way Faith died just don't line up. Brie soon uncovers a dark and twisted secret about Faith’s final night...a secret that puts her own life in danger.

November is National Novel Writing Month