I know this is slightly off KM topic, but one of the things that I do is write textbooks.

And I find it *hard*.

I’m not the kind of person who can dash something off.

It has to be practical, informative and good (I won’t say perfect, because nothing ever is, but it does have to be good enough). Now that means that I get nice reviews, but it also means that there is real intensive time and sweat in each book in order to give the reader valuable knowledge.

Which is why I have real respect for those who take part in NaNoWriMo each year.

NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month and it is a month-long period when writers, fuelled with left-over Halloween sweets and coffee, commit to getting 50,000 words written and support each other in their attempts to do it.

If you have ever wanted to write a book (not just a novel, any kind of book that is more than 50,000 words long), November is the time. I won’t pretend that it will be easy. Writing something useful/good is hard, but there is a tonne of encouragement, enthusiasm and support around and a *deadline*, so it is a little easier now than at other times of year.

If you are interested, have a look at the NaNo website here, and follow #NaNoWriMo on twitter. And perhaps let me know how you are getting on in the comments below.