It stands for National Novel Writing Month, which is exactly what it sounds like (except, you know, being international
). It's in November each year, and basically you have to write a 50,000 + word novel in that month. It's always challenging, but really fun, and so worth it. The emphasis is on quantity, not quality, so you can basically go nuts.
Hm, I've never heard of that book. I generally don't look at 'how to' books for writing, and when I do I disregard their suggestions anyway.
But it does sound good. Writing exercises can be quite fun.
I'm glad you posted in
SE! It took me a while to work up to posting in there. I thought people were going to tear my work apart.
But people here are really nice. I've posted a few threads in
SE. If you want, I can give you the links, or you can have fun trying to find them.