Put a thousand monkeys at a thousand typewriters, and you’ll probably never get Shakespeare. Give 40,000 people 30 days to write a novel, however, and a surprising number will pull off a respectable book. That’s the lesson of National Novel Writing Month, a breakneck scribble-fest founded by former Lonely Planet travel writer Chris Baty. Now in its fifth year, NaNoWriMo has gone from homegrown curiosity (21 people signed on at kickoff) to global juggernaut. This November, Baty anticipates 40,000 participants from as far away as South Africa. After signing in at www.nanowrimo.org, entrants can post excerpts, request plot help, and chat in support groups with writerly headings like “I hate myself and want to die.” Each participant’s profile includes a progress bar that changes color when the novel passes the 50,000-word finish line, at which point a certificate of completion is awarded. “The message is: Don’t worry about getting published,” Baty says cheerfully. “We want to free people from the tyranny of the first draft.”

It sounds like a recipe for bad fiction, but Baty maintains that most of the novels are “surprisingly unhorrible.” Starting last year, two were even picked up for publication. That’s not counting Baty’s own book, No Plot? No Problem! A How-To Guide to High-Velocity Writing, which came out in October. (Among the guide’s motivational tips: Write a check to an organization you absolutely hate and give it to a friend. If you quit, it gets mailed in.) Baty, who will pen his fifth NaNo novel while on book tour, can sympathize with the urge to drop out. “Every year I think, ‘Maybe this time I’ll just skip it.’” But he always manages to plow through the 30 days somehow. “In the end,” he says, “it’s only a month.”