Vaguely NaNo-related writing thingies

One thing I've learned from NaNoWriMo is that I do well when working toward a definable goal. I like  that feeling of something looming over me telling me that I must write, no excuses. But then I've never been that good at motivating myself to just write for the sake of it. (Hence my trail of abandoned blogs.)

Now that NaNo has been over for more than a month, I've found a couple interesting NaNo-esque writing projects started by fellow NaNo'ers that I'd like to share. First, for the month of January, is Random Genre Month :

"Random Genre Month is a fun, challenging writing competition in which you right a 50,000 word novel from one of three randomly chosen genres. This gives you the chance to try new things and experience new styles of writing that you would have never tried before."

The given genres are Horror and Supernatural, Young Adult, or Erotic Fiction. While I'm tempted to try my hand at erotica, I am by trade not a genre writer, so I think I'll pass. The other writing project I'm really interested in is February Short Story Writing Month, which is basically NaNo, but with short stories, (It's easiest, I think, to tally what you'd write per day and use that total as your short story goal, which is usually defined as anywhere between one-and-nine-thousand words. ) I like the looseness of it, rather than adhering to some prescribed genre. Of course there is always editing your NaNo novel, which is a herculean task of its own.