Happy Halloween! (Tomorrow is Nov. 1!)

First, Happy Halloween!!! May your day be filled with pumpkins, costumes and all the thrills and chills you can handle. I’m a fan of cute spooky, not scary spooky so I’m more Hello Kitty in a ghost costume than horror films. But I will be eating my weight in candy and drinking as much pumpkin spice beverages as I can stomach. I need to keep my strength up for the half a dozen trick-or-treaters who show up on our front step.

Historically, we take time at the end of October (Inktober!) to talk about the upcoming writing challenge, NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo is a writing challenge to write 50,000 words (approximately 200 pages of a first draft manuscript). The web site provides chat forums and support from other writers who are also tackling the challenge. You know how we love gamifying any project or task…

Last year, NaNoWriMo as we knew it imploded as a result of some unpopular decisions around the use of AI among so many other issues. If you want a deep dive into the rise and fall of NaNoWriMo, check out this episode of Girlfriend Explains.

This year, a new web site was launched called NaNoWriMo 2.0. This iteration will focus on community and helping folks get their words. More than anything, the people involved just want to keep the habit of writing through November continues. No prizes, no swag (yet). So if you are hoping to tackle that first book, maybe this new incarnation of NaNoWriMo might be the challenge for you.

If you are knitter or crocheter, consider NaKniSweMo – National Knit-A-Sweater in a Month. Laura is the organizer for this crafting challenge. I occasionally design logos for it and pop my head into the forum. Again, this is a challenge to get that sweater knit. There are no prizes except that completed sweater and you get cheered on by other participants in the forum.

Do you like to participate in challenges like these? I am inspired by anything that encourages me to finish the many projects I aspire to do. Go forth and write, knit, draw or ink!