I’ve done this for 4 years so far and plan on doing it for a long, long time. It makes my Novembers more enjoyable and, somehow, less stressful. I think its because I focus and have fun. My cousin passed away November 1st one year, and with everything that went along with his funeral and my grieving, I thought NaNo would fail that year. In all actuality, it ended up helping me through the hard time because of the great community and goal that stayed important to me.