Tomorrow begins the first day of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), a time of year when unpublished writers attempt to hammer out a classic within 30 days. The Independent has an interesting article on some famous novelists throughout history who’ve managed to create a classic in under a month.
Included on that list, naturally, is Jack Kerouac. Kerouac famously wrote On the Road in one sitting, although that’s only true if you ignore the years of note taking prior to writing, and the years of editing that followed. Ginsberg is not included (perhaps as he was never a novelist) but he liked to take Kerouac’s approach and use Benzedrine to focus himself for up to 24 hrs of furious writing, and passages from ‘Howl’ and ‘Kaddish’ were thusly composed.
