Photo by Travis Pratt National Novel Writing Month participant Jean Thomey works at her laptop on a recent Tuesday evening at Beans in the Belfry in Brunswick.

Just write.

And don't stop until you reach 50,000 words.

"I started looking forward to this in August," Whitney McKim said. After participating in National Novel Writing Month -- otherwise known as NaNoWriMo or NaNo -- in her bedroom in 2007, she wanted to not only do it again this year, but organize a meeting place for fellow writers. She thought Beans in the Belfry, an old church converted into a laid-back coffeehouse enviroment in Brunswick , would be an ideal setting.

NaNo began 10 years ago and has spread worldwide, basically giving writers a reason to sit down and write that book. Several NaNo participants, rather than pounding out a novel alone at home, meet in groups for weekly write-ins, McKim explained. Sometimes the NaNo website (www.nanowrimo.org), with all its words of encouragement, is not enough to propel writers through the average wordcount goal of 2,000 per day.

Hanna Politis, co-owner and events coordinator at Beans, said the budding novelists, a group of about six, can compare notes, get a moral boost and drink some free coffee.

McKim, of Lovettsville, Va., convinced her mother, Jean Thomey, to join the NaNo fun and said they also go to Green Berries Coffee & Tea Co. in Arlington, Va., every Friday for another NaNo meetup. The NaNo website offers message boards and a listing of meeting sites for regions throughout the world.

"We're kind of chatty here," McKim said, seated on an old couch at Beans. "Some groups are quiet."

"I'm a little behind," Thomey admitted during the third week. "I had no plot."

"Everyone wants to quit in week two," McKim said. "I won't lie. Week two is bad. It's really bad ... I had serious character mutiny in the first week last year."

"She's right," Thomey said. "All of a sudden, your characters will take over."

Thomey explained that her novel tells the story of a middle-aged woman looking back on her life after receiving a phone call from an old friend who went to Woodstock without her.

McKim rolled her eyes as she checked her voicemail. "Men don't understand that NaNoWriMo takes precedence over everything," she said, adding that she'd warned her husband, "Be nice to me in the month of November, or you might end up in my novel."

For NaNo 2007, McKim began an American crime series about a bumbling bank robber who couldn't do anything right. He ended up throwing the money away because he was so embarrassed, she explained. This year, she revisited her crime series and is already considering doing a novel on counterfeiting in 2009.

"I'm actually one of the most law-abiding citizens you'll ever meet," she added. "I don't even speed."

When novelists are having trouble knowing what realistic move they can make within their plot, they can type questions on the NaNo message boards, under the category "plot realisms:"

Question: So my character is dropped off a roof. How many stories can he fall without dying? I don't mind if he is severely injured, so long as he can still crawl.

Question: I just realized that I'm not very good with accents. Could someone please give me some tips on how Mexicans and Turks would speak?

Question: What color does red hair go when you get old? I'm thinking gray, but I've never actually seen someone with red hair and gray roots.

Question: Do Scots have barbecues?

"The problem with writing ... in a NaNo setting is that genre fiction requires a lot of work building the setting," said Oz Whiston, of Purcellville, Va. "We have to think about all kinds of things like politics, environment, rules for how magic works, how the science works. And you can't stop to do that in NaNo. There's no time for it. So you have to make quick notes that you'll research something later."

Whiston joined the Beans group but approached NaNo a little differently than most. Primarily a short-story writer, he decided to attempt 50,000 words of multiple science fiction pieces, rather than the first draft of a novel.

"Sometimes you have to just let the words fly in NaNo," he said. "Sometimes you have to write 'I have no idea what I'm doing and I'm stuck, stuck, stuck.' Or at least I do. And then something will break through."

Janice Elder of Hagerstown joined the group at Beans to write a Christian romance novel, "Soul Deep," her first attempt at a book.

The co-owner of Beans, Jim Politis, said, "I have written some short articles before and had vague intentions of doing something substantial but never did -- until this thing kicked off at Beans."

While helping to organize the group, he thought, what the heck -- I'll join in, too. He's writing a novel for kids.

"I'm a little behind ... but I think I'll make it," he said. "I now understand what writers mean when they say you just need to sit down and write. I just sit down and write, every day."

All the writers in the group agreed that they can always edit later, after knocking it out.

In its 10th year, NaNo is a massive collective novel writing endeavor.

According to the website, those who complete the 50,000-word mark by midnight Nov. 30 can upload their work and be added to the Winner's Page.

"The whole point is to get people who always say they're gonna write a novel to actually write it," McKim said. "But it consumes your whole life, all these characters," McKim said. "When November ended last year, I was just so distraught."

"It's nice to set aside time at the end of the day," her mother added, "just to write. ... You don't feel guilty about not doing things, because you have a deadline."

McKim agreed. "If I don't pick up a vacuum in 30 days, I can pick it back up in December."