Last November I participated, (and won) in something called NaNoWriMo.
A simple explanation of NaNoWriMo is that participants write a 50,000 word Novel in one month. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and it is a little stressful but a lot of fun. I honestly did not think I would be able to complete my 'novel', but I did, and I won! You don't 'win' anything, just bragging rights. I was so proud of myself, I took it one day at a time, 1,666 words a day.
Make sure to visit the forums, you can do 'word wars' with other participants, you set a time limit and see who can write the most in that time. You can also find different tools to help you, name generators, ideas, etc. and even ways to over come your writers block! There are also 'write-ins' all over the world where you can go and meet up with other people.
There are very few rules, you and you alone can write your novel, ANY genre is a-okay, you can't start writing your novel before November but you can start your outline and plot notes early! During the month of November, don't edit! Just write! You need to get to 50,000 words, you can edit when the month is over.
What do you think? Does this sound like fun? I can't wait to start, I'm going to need to start my outline soon!
You can click here to visit the site and find out more.