NaNoWriMo, short for National Novel Writing Month, is a well-known creative writing challenge that many people have participated in since its launch in 1999. The goal is simply to write a 50,000-word manuscript during the month of November. While some NaNoWriMo participants may go on to publish their work created during that month, the true value of the experience is the way in which it gets ideas flowing and words moving. The introduction of an arbitrary but extrinsically oriented constraint can, no doubt, be a helpful antidote for procrastination.
Several spin-off and related events exist (some listed below), and NaNoGenMo can trace its origin to a tweet from Darius Kazemi calling for participation and providing nearly all of the parameters required for giving structure to the event.
https://twitter.com/tinysubversions/status/396305662000775168
And in that year, 2013, 18 individuals successfully completed projects that resulted in 39 books of 50K words or more. Some notable entries from that year include Kazemi's Teens Wander Around a House, Nick Montfort's World Clock, and Leonard Richardson's *Through the Prejudice Glass.*
Github is a platform meant for sharing software projects, especially those with open source code. In the terminology of Github, a common use is to "fork" an existing project, improve it in some way, and then submit a "pull" request to the original project's owners. If they approve, that new code is added to the project.
Each project's code repository also includes "issues," where users may submit bug reports, request new features, or ask for help. The repository Kazemi created for the first NaNoGenMo — and everyone since — has used issues differently. More like threads in messageboard or individual development diaries for whomever choose to participate. Most NaNoGenMo participants also use Github to share a repository for their projects, but this is not required.
All that is required is a sample novel and some source code, and those participants whose issues meet those requirements in the month of November will receive a "completed" tag from either @dariusk or @hugovk.
Conventionally, all issues remain "open" to make them easier to find from each year's main page.
By my count, around 328 participants have successfully completed novels, and many of those authors have created more than one. According to my records, that's a total of 679 books for an average of about 2 books per participant. That average is a bit misleading, however, since most participants (265) complete one book. Currently, @hugovk (Hugo van Kemenade) is the most prolific with 45 completed projects, and @enkiv2 (John Ohno) is in second place with 34.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQAqMC2ympeNNNdDRc54GimJF1sxSOhMKWpwpdY3ppX3oJh6t6_vs-Va6gLPWiP2VKQthugFBel291K/pubchart?oid=1299512211&format=interactive
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQAqMC2ympeNNNdDRc54GimJF1sxSOhMKWpwpdY3ppX3oJh6t6_vs-Va6gLPWiP2VKQthugFBel291K/pubchart?oid=559194744&format=interactive
Python is far and away the most popular language used in NaNoGenMo projects as the following, ridiculous, pie chart demonstrates.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQAqMC2ympeNNNdDRc54GimJF1sxSOhMKWpwpdY3ppX3oJh6t6_vs-Va6gLPWiP2VKQthugFBel291K/pubchart?oid=796884909&format=interactive
Pedagogically speaking, NaNoGenMo is a low-stakes, low-entry venue for programmers of all levels, so it provides an excellent on ramp to further explorations of computational literature.