Several years ago, Chris Baty and some of his insane friends created the National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. The idea is to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. Many people use the month to create what Anne Lamott calls “a shitty first draft,” and then use the following year to rewrite the draft into a passable novel.

This year I want to do something similar, but with non-fiction. I’m tempted to call it NaNoFiWriMo, or National Non-Fiction Writing Month, but I’m refraining for two reasons. First, at least two other people already thought of that. Second, I don’t care whether this goes national; I’m doing it for myself.

So I’m calling it Dale’s Non-Fiction Writing Month, or DaNoFiWriMo. I’ve chosen October for my first DaNoFiWriMo, because for the first time in years I have a whole month with no scheduled training or consulting.

Part of the NaNoWriMo process is making a public commitment. I hate that. But I hate it less now than I will three days from now, so here goes: I will write a 50,000 word draft of a non-fiction book in October, 2006. I’ll let you guess the topic.

Do we still switch to standard time in October? I could use the extra hour.

[Update October 27, 2006]
Daily DaNoFiWriMo Progress Report

Lessons Learned from Week One

Lessons Learned from Week Two

Lessons Learned from Week Three