Every November I participate in the global creative challenge known as National Novel Writing Month. The challenge is simple: fifty thousand words on a new novel projects, written entirely between the first and thirtieth of November. One thousand six hundred and sixty seven words each day. Yes, including Thanksgiving. And my birthday, for that matter. Good, bad, or ugly, it’s a fucking frenzy. And without for a moment advocating that anyone else join that frenzy, I fucking love it. My first NaNoWriMo was November of 2008. My life in St. Louis had just failed. I had moved in with my grandfather in Kansas City. I was looking for work at…