Early Life of NaNo

An articles about the early life of NaNo.

It was a dark and stormy month...

From cyberspace, National Novel Writing Month looked like a real organization. From inside Chris Baty's apartment, it looked like a bunch of thin people in bad sweaters, bent over their laptops, cranked up on Frito-Lay products and Red Bull energy drink.

Two years ago, Chris Baty wanted to write a novel. As something of an in-joke, he dreamed up National Novel Writing Month -- or NaNoWriMo for short. Twenty-one of his friends signed on and six finished novels. Last November, 140 took the challenge and 29 finished. This year, using a cute Web site featuring two cartoon kids waving books beneath the slogan "No plot? No problem!" Baty invited the whole world to join him in dashing off 50,000 words in thirty days. Once mention of NaNoWriMo hit MetaFilter.com, an online clearinghouse for issues being discussed by "bloggers" -- people who keep online diaries known as Weblogs -- it spread like a literary Ebola.

The article is good, if lengthy.