NaNoWriMovember is coming!

November is all about remembering things.

Firstly, we Remember, remember, the fifth of November. Gunpowder treason and plot. I see no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes Day. Which, to be honest, in Australia has little significance and, up until a few years ago, the only people who remembered this were those who paid attention in history class, and Alan Moore readers.

Then there's Remembrance Day, on the 11th of November. Lest we forget.

Two of my ex-girlfriends also had birthdays during November. Lest I forget.

However, my attention has been drawn to the further significance of the impending month; Movember and NaNoWriMo.

Yesterday, I was approached by a colleague to donate toward their team's effort in Movember. The cause: Men's health issues, namely depression, testicular cancer and prostate cancer. The plan: participants shave off all their facial hair on the 1st of November, and through the month, they grow a moustache - or "mo".

Now, I personally find moustaches to be the most displeasing of facial hairstyles. Yes, even more than the "Shannon Noll" tuft beneath the lower lip. However, this may just be some repressed jealously on my part, owing to the fact that I have an inability to grow convincing facial hair. I blame the Asian genes on my mum's side (she can't grow facial hair either). However, I was happy to console this fact by donating money in the knowledge that somebody else got to look silly for a month for the sake of health research.

And then, today, former colleague and fellow bibliophile, Jonathan, posted on Reading Hacks about NaNoWriMo - or "National Novel Writing Month". The plan: write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days.

Now, I've often watched friends attempt NaNoWriMo, some successfully, and others failing after a week. I personally have, in the past, never felt the urge to write a novel (possibly due to a traumatic semester with University of Melbourne English Department's Creative Writing coursework many years ago). But I do write, albeit intermittently.

Ten years on, I'm starting to feel the flow of inspiration returning to my system, and have all sorts of stories that are half-developed in my brain, swimming around with various songs, jokes and poems. However, the one thing that I don't have is discipline - a regular writing regime.

For my writing, necessity tends to be the mother of all invention, and I tend to do the bulk of my writing in the last days before a deadline. However, lately my deadlines have been scarce, and thus also my writing.

And so, I'm going to do it. I've got a couple of projects sitting on the back-burner, hardly more than a couple of writing pads full of notes. It's time to make them happen. I'm going to call it NaStuWrimo - or "National Stuff Writing Month". 1667 words, every day. I can't promise a novel. I can't even promise quality. But it'll be stuff, and hopefully some of it will be a keeper.

Come and be my NaNo buddy.