A NOVEL IDEA FOR WRITERS.

Byline: Susan Palmer The Register-Guard

In this corner, in the white trunks, we have your Inner Novelist, just waiting for the right moment to produce a masterwork, that Great American Novel that will stand the test of time (and, if you're lucky, get you some decent dates).

In the other corner, in the black trunks, your Inner Editor is waiting to deck every exploratory sentence, lame or otherwise, the Inner Novelist tries out.

Is it any wonder you've never written your way out of a paper sack?

Chris Baty's got your number, but he also has a plan - a writing blitzkrieg that will net you 50,000 words in 30 days.

In the six years the California free-lancer has been organizing National Novel Writing Month, he's helped thousands of writers rack up a serious page count.

The gig starts at midnight Sunday and runs until the end of the month. It's free and anybody can do it, said Tracy van Cort, a local cook and academic tutor, who is organizing the Eugene chapter of participants and preparing to write her third novel-in-30-days.

How does it work? Baty describes the process in his new book "No Plot? No Problem!" where he makes this promise:

`I'll take that heavy, anxious Inner Editor off your hands for four weeks. No charge. And in exchange, you promise to write your novel in a high-velocity, take-no prisoners, anything-goes style that would absolutely horrify it. All you need to do is touch the `Take My Inner Editor' button below and a small, invisible team of human, editor-removal specialists will be dispatched from the spine of this book to collect the thing for the kennel.'

Baty came up with the idea in 1999, when he talked a group of friends into a manic 30-day writing extravaganza. Back then he reasoned that an almost impossible goal and a deadline would force him to produce. And he was right. Not all of his 20 friends who started out were able to go the distance. But six of them did.

They christened their effort National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo for short. And in 2000, they did it again, this time with a Web site, 140 participants and 29 who finished. In 2001, NaNoWriMo exploded with 5,000 writers beginning novels and 700 finishing. Last year 25,000 writers came to the party and 5,000 finished a manuscript.

"No Plot? No Problem!" describes the method behind Baty's madness and is a lively read for anyone eager to write but intimidated by the process. But you don't need Baty's book to start writing your own.

Van Cort learned about NaNo- WriMo from a friend two years ago and decided to give it a try. That first year, it was pretty easy because she was unemployed and had nothing better to do at the time, she said.

Her second year, she was overcommitted working as a cook at the Glenwood restaurant and as an academic tutor for high school and college students but still managed to grind out the pages.

Her first novel "Witch World" was a fantasy that she began at midnight on Halloween in 2002.

Her second year she wrote more of an outline for a book that's going to be a monster reinterpretation of Norse mythology, she said.

This headlong rush to put words on paper seems foolhardy at first blush. After all, don't great novelists take years to create their masterpieces?

That's the whole point of the exercise, van Cort said. Writers don't have time to fret about whether they're creating deathless prose.

"With this much time, it takes the pressure off to make it perfect," she said. "Part of the point is, you are writing trash. Once it's on the page, you can refine it."

And part of the fun is sharing the adventure with like-minded writers, she said. About 20 writers in the Eugene area will get together once a week to write and talk. Another 75 or so area writers will participate at the Web site's message boards.

"It's a lot more fun to do this in a group," van Cort said. "You have the encouragement and support of other people doing this same crazy thing," she said.

Quantity over quality may be a useful device for getting started, but if the goal is actual publication, be forewarned.

Of the thousands of participants, only a handful have finessed their manuscripts enough to find publishers.

Baty's book includes suggestions for those who want to refine their 50,000 pages, and he wisely moves to the other end of the time spectrum.

No hell-bent-for-leather speed here.

Bring the Inner Editor home, he writes, slow down and take a painstaking look at your work.

Some novels will turn out to be fatally flawed, he acknowledges. That's no reason to fret.

"There's always the next one. And the one after that. So go for it. Swing hard; take risks; aim for the bleachers."

SPEED WRITERS

Join up: Go to: www.nanowrimo.org.

Meet local writers: Contact Tracy van Cort in Eugene at [e-mail], or Kalar'i Kupua in Springfield at [e-mail].

Kickoff party: Sunday, 3:30 p.m., Cafe Paradiso, 115 W. Broadway St. Eugene.

CAPTION(S):

Writer Tracy van Cort says November is the perfect time to write a book. "The weather is turning bad, and it gets dark earlier. While you are cooped up inside, you might as well do something creative," she says. She and other writers around the world will take part in National Novel Writing Month. F i c t i o n