NOVEMBER IS NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH (or NaNoWriMo, for those of us who like a little shortening with our bread). While NaNo may not be news, it is a great wake-up call 
for folks whose writing projects made like Rip Van Winkle over the summer. The scoop, according to the official NaNo site, is this: “On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 PM on November 30.” Sign up and receive beaucoup support for this annual challenge.
There’s a NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program, too! The Young Writers Program allows 17-and-under participants to set “reasonable, yet challenging, individual word-count goals.”