Well guys, I'm not going to bog you down with too many words--I get that you want to be writing because it's November 1st and you still feel like this is super possible (I mean the goals are so small right now!)

What is NaNoWriMo, you may ask? Well, it's a month (30 days) where over 300,000 people participate in writing 50,000 words. They begin November 1st at midnight and go until midnight on the 30th. It's a holiday for us writers that is oftentimes even bigger than Thanksgiving.

If you've ever thought about writing a novel or just writing, in general, this may be the specific November activity for you.

Having a NaNoWriMo Manifesto is very important, so here ya go. Please. Don't think you can't do NaNo because you aren't a "great writer." Chances are you've got a good idea and need a way to get it out.

You don't become J.K. Rowling, Kiera Cass or Veronica Roth without choosing to write. You have to make a plan and follow it or ride by the seat of your pants. Either way, here are som calendars for those who need them.The first one is a calendar that gives you inspirational quotes to motivate you

and another one that will just make all your Doctor Who fan friends freak out and want to do it too

not to mention this one for all the caffeine addicts

and then, of course, this wonderful motivational one that tells you that you are a novelist.

There is no reason to ask yourself if you are a writer. People say that they aren't a real writer all the time even though they have drafts upon drafts of stories they couldn't get to shut up so they had to write them. If you need to ask yourself if you're a real writer, please use this chart to answer the question.

This is how NaNo works, y'all.

You go through phases, similar to a college student writing an 8-10 page paper.

1. You look at the blank word document (or whatever you use to write and question yourself. You don't know what you're doing and you don't know how to get to the end. You haven't even begun yet! There ya go, that's the stressing stage.

2. Then you go through the acceptance stage. You recognize that if someone you never thought would have been able to write 50 words, let alone 5, can do it then you can too. Especially if it's Nick Miller... Come on, guys. He is the laziest person!!

3. You will go through days of writing a lot and days of writing basically nothing. It's all good though because some might be good and some might be bad. You can do this, though. It's just like when you wrote your essay and had to scrap an entire page because it SUCKED. THIS IS A DRAFT.

4. You will struggle with your inner editor, but remember there is no way you need to edit stuff during the course of November. It's a rough draft, let it be rough! Don't worry about it just yet.

5. You'll begin thinking that even if it is terrible, at least it's something. You will know that you wrote stuff down and you completed a story. In a few months, go back and look it over, but in the meantime know that it's all good and that you have succeeded in getting your novel written. It's better than nothing.

With those steps, you will learn that completing NaNoWriMo is very similar to doing a lot of difficult things--over and over again in one month.

However, if there was one time of the year to write a novel--this would be the time to do it. It's cold, snowy and definitely the time to cuddle up and write.

So, without anything further to distract you: Let's get writing! I know you and I both need to!