I just signed up for an account at NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Snippet from the What is NaNoWriMo page:
National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.
Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.
Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.
I signed up for a few reasons. One, it just sounds like fun. Two, I’ve always been one of those people who wanted to “write a novel”, but never got around to it. One of the main reasons I never got around to it is that I’m a perfectionist - I have to tinker with stuff constantly. I’m the guy that starts a drawing / story / whatever 400 times, and never completes the drawing / story / whatever even once. So, NaNoWriMo is a Good Thing (TM) for me. It’ll force me to ignore my perfectionist side and just write. The novel will be total crap, I’m sure, but at least it’ll be finished.
The writing begins November 1st, so I’ve got a couple of days to come up with some semblance of a plot. What genre will it be? Probably sci-fi or fantasy. Maybe a bit of both, with some historical fiction thrown in for good measure. Hmmm… Hobbit Vikings in Space? 
Tags: NaNoWriMo
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October 30, 2006 at 2:55 pm
Joshua J. Slone
As it turns out, Sauron was not the only of his kind. There are others, who have enslaved cultures of Hobbit Vikings across the galaxy. Only a team of hobbits exploring by way of The One Star Ring can hope to keep Middle Earth safe.
Totally original idea, that is.
October 30, 2006 at 3:56 pm
Josh
lol.
October 30, 2006 at 7:27 pm
LearningNerd
I’m planning to participate for the first time, too!
And I don’t know what I’m going to write about yet, but that doesn’t matter, since NaNoWriMo isn’t about quality. I have a feeling that after I cut out all the rambling from my novel, I’ll end up with a 500-word flash fiction story. But that’s better than nothing, right?
Anyway, good luck to you with those hobbit vikings from space!
October 30, 2006 at 8:38 pm
Josh
LearningNerd: Best of luck to you! I don’t think I’ll be doing hobbit Vikings from space, if for no other reason than hobbits are probably a trademark / copyrighted item.
Whatever I decide to write on, thanks for the luck!
October 31, 2006 at 8:04 pm
Mrs Lifecruiser
I’m sure that you have a lot of interesting ideas for that novel!
I wish I had the time and energy to participate too, but no chance.
Good luck x millions
October 31, 2006 at 10:13 pm
Josh
Thanks for the vote of confidence! We’ll see how it goes.
November 1, 2006 at 6:39 pm
Kristin K. W.
“In a galaxy far away there was a hole in the ground..”
I just have to say good luck, I’m just as perfectionist as you and having three novels lying about on my computer.
November 1, 2006 at 7:51 pm
Josh
Thanks for the luck, Kristin.
Also, I love the opening line.