Nate Dickson and Michael Boyle discuss National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo, why we write, what we’re writing this year, and ways to keep going in the face of sleep deprivation delirium and bad plot induced despair. We try to tackle the big question (“Why are you doing this?”) but that is a question that, ultimately, everyone has to answer for themselves. Show NotesWe are on iTunes now!https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/five-a.m.-radio/id931236795NaNoWriMo is a lot of fun, and runs on donations from kindhearted people like you.http://nanowrimo.org/https://store.nanowrimo.org/donationsByword apphttp://bywordapp.comContourhttps://marinersoftware.com/products/contour/the “Michael Hauge” Story structure:http://ninaharrington.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/michael-hague-structure.png?w=605“There is nothing new under the sun” is from Ecclesiastes 1:9 in the Biblehttp://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/there_is_nothing_new_under_the_sunthe Belgariad. It’s not great literature, but it’s a great read.www.amazon.com/dp/0345456327/Jonathan Strange and Mr Norellhttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0765356155/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0765356155&linkCode=as2&tag=httpnatedicco-20&linkId=FPDNIU6SDGWQTG6MScrivener. I tend to talk about Scriv on every blog I’ve ever written. It’s just so good.http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.phpAnne Lamott’s Book “Bird by Bird” is where the first drafts stuff comes from. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385480016/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0385480016&linkCode=as2&tag=httpnatedicco-20&linkId=AKZJYLYL3OINUYWBAn all-too-quick introduction to P.G. Wodehouse’s “Jeeves and Wooster” characters. You should read these books. They are good for you.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeeves_and_WoosterNo Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty is an amazingly good book.http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0811845052/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0811845052&linkCode=as2&tag=httpnatedicco-20&linkId=QVZSZKU3TIODX4KWA couple of quotes from “No Plot? No Problem!” Exuberant imperfection is not a surefire path to bad writing so much as it is a necessary mental reshuffling, a psychological sleight-of-hand that takes the pressure off and helps you tolerate the drivel that greases the wheels of genius.Baty, Chris (2010-07-01). No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days (p. 34). Chronicle Books LLC. Kindle Edition.Deadlines bring focus, forcing us to make time for the achievements we would otherwise postpone, encouraging us to reach beyond our conservative estimates of what we think possible, helping us to wrench victory from the jaws of sleep. ibid