by Randy Pinion

Created on: December 16, 2006   Last Updated: May 08, 2007

"That's actually an interesting way to start your lead: I have to fill six pages about this, so it's good that word count is encouraged!" says Travis Kelley, one of two Municipal Liaisons leading the Boston-area National Novel Writing Month participants in their yearly struggle to write 50,000 words in November. Around him, the remaining writers at the table laugh appreciatively; they all know the lengths they'll go to for the sake of word count. It is around 8:30 on a cold Wednesday night in a Cambridge ice cream shop and Travis, his co-ML Anna, and a fluctuating crowd of 15 to 20 laptop-toting participants are gathered with one goal in mind: write.

These people have come together in a scene eerily similar to the very first group to ever do NaNoWriMo. Led by Chris Baty in 1999, that tiny collection of 21 brave individuals came up with and attempted to meet the competition's goals: to write a 50,000 word novel (Brave New World is roughly this long) in one month's time. When asked why they tried such a feat in the first place at a recent talk at MIT, Baty replied, "Well, we all loved books. That, and we were bored." When asked why the event continues to grow at such an impressive rate, year-to-year, he talked about the notion of creative free expression and the need to never leave writing "to the professionals," but that was not the underlying theme of his speech. He knew that the reason the first year went so well and subsequent years have seen such explosive growth is that NaNoWriMo has created a community unlike any other that gives aspiring authors the perfect mix of inspiration, companionship, and fun that they need to finish.

This community spans the entire world and has grown year by year. While the first year featured only 20 friends working together, the second year saw that number grow to 140, and by the third, 5000 people were ready to accept the challenge. This year, the event's seventh, 80,000 aspiring authors came together via Baty's website, NaNoWriMo.org. All of this has been possible with almost no advertising and what began as only minimal media coverage. Instead, the event has grown via word of mouth and has used the internet to create regional pockets of participation. Often, a single person in a group of friends will hear about the event, begin blogging their progress, and inspire their readers to join in. When asked how he first got started on NaNoWriMo, the Atlanta-born Travis said, "I always wanted to write a book. . . I read a reference

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