EAT, PRAY, KILL: WRITING IN NANOWRIMO

This is my first year attempting NaNoWriMo, an annual event in which thousands of people jam out a novel in 30 days. Mine's a "true life novel," memoirish sort of thing.

"Writing a novel in a month is both exhilarating and stupid, and we would all do well to invite a little more spontaneous stupidity into our lives."
—from the NaNoWriMo FAQ, 2009

"Draw, Antonio, draw!'
—Michelangelo's late-in-life advice to his assistant

"Spew, Tiffany, spew!"
—my advice to myself, to get the raw materials of this book out of me and onto the page, however nonlinear, unstructured, and unedited those raw materials might be...