No more excuses! This is the year you finally write that story.

I’m here to talk to you about that story. You know the one. That story you keep saying you’re going to write someday.

I know, I know. You’ll write it later, when you have more time, after the kids graduate, when you retire, or whatever excuse you’re making this week.

Let’s be honest. At the rate you’re going, you’ll keep putting off writing that story for the rest of your life. Your idea doesn’t deserve that. It’s a good idea! Heck, it’s a great idea, and you know that or you wouldn’t keep carrying a torch for it all this time. An idea that good shouldn’t be hidden away in your head; it should be shared with the world!

Which is what I’m here to talk to you about. That story? It’s time to write it. Forget about your mythical someday.  We’re setting a real, concrete deadline, which is exactly what you need to finally get your idea down on paper. You’re writing it this November.

See, every November, a whole bunch of us all over the world decide we’ve had enough of our own procrastination and take the National Novel Writing Month writing challenge. It’s actually pretty simple. When you sign up for National Novel Writing Month (which those in the know call NaNoWriMo for short), you commit to completing a novel in the month of November, no matter what other distractions you have in your life. That’s it. You get to tap into this huge worldwide community of writers all aiming for at least 50,000 words by the end of the month and all those writers focused on the same goal makes for a frenzy of inspiration and camaraderie.

You’ll make some friends. Better yet, you’ll have a finished draft of your story in your hands by December 1st. OK, sure, it’ll be a rough draft that you rushed to finish in 30 days, but you can edit a rough draft. You can’t edit nothing.

And maybe you don’t have that one big epic idea for a novel. Maybe it’s dozens of ideas. Maybe you’re just kicking yourself because you’ve got tons of ideas for short stories, one act plays or personal essays and you know they’d all be great if you just had the time to write them down. Maybe your NaNoWriMo won’t be a single 50,000 full length novel but rather five 10,000 word short stories, 50 one thousand word blog posts or some other combination that you’ll complete as a NaNoWriMo rebel. The November deadline could be just the thing to kick-start your new era in productivity.

Or maybe you’ve been hitting the writer’s block pretty hard and you’re in one of those funks where you feel like you’ll never write ever again. From one writer to another, let me tell you that there is no better cure for writer’s block than staring down a terrifying deadline. There’s just something about knowing you’ve got 50,000 words to write and only 30 days to do it that unshackles your creativity and really lets your imagination fly. When you challenge yourself, your mind steps up in ways that can surprise even us experienced scribblers.

So, come on over and join the NaNoWriMo madness  It may seem crazy but sometimes amazing things happen when we just buckle down and finally do that thing we’ve been putting off. Sometimes you just have to jump out of your comfort zone and see what happens. Besides, it’s not like you’ll be going into this alone. There will be thousands of us all over the world making this same dash to finish by the end of November.

30 days. 50,000 words. November. Are you in?