Besides being All Saints Day (a bigger deal in Roman Catholic-dominant countries than here, which is not), today begins Movember.

Movember is a month in which men who don’t already have facial hair should grow a mustache to indicate support of men’s health issues, including prostate and testicular cancer.

For those in the spirit, I herein repeat a guide to facial hair:

I’m not participating because I’m not clean-shaven any day of the year. This past October has been so cold that I already have my winter beard in place. But male readers should participate.

Meanwhile, today also begins National Novel Writing Month:

Who: You — whether you’re a seasoned novelist, novice writer, wannabe author, or a blogger up for a challenge.

What: A project in which you work toward a goal of writing a 50,000-word novel.

Where: On your laptop. At your desk. In your favorite café. Wherever inspiration strikes.

When: Kicking off this Friday, November 1, and ending at 11:59 pm on November 30.

Why: You’re creative and passionate about words. You’ve got a story to tell. You want to participate in a fun, rewarding project and push others to stretch their imaginations, too.

How: Sign up at NaNoWriMo.org, where you can plan your novel, track your progress, and join a community that offers support, encouragement, and advice —

I signed up once. I started a novel, Deadline, about the nefarious doings a small-town newspaper reporter finds. I didn’t and haven’t finished. The problem is not writing approximately 1,700 words every day — readers know writing quantity is hardly my problem — for a month, it’s writing 1,700 words every day for a month in addition to everything else (including, yes, more writing) I have to do. (“Sorry, kids, no supper tonight; I have to write my 1,700 words” would not be a popular sentence in this house.)

The bigger issue remains my inability to create an A-through-Z plot for a novel. Journalistic writing is based on what we call the “inverted pyramid” — general facts first, then more specific details as the story progresses. Fiction writing is supposed to have a beginning and, if not logical or realistic, then plausible progressions. I get hung up around plot point F, and I think it’s lazy to merely rip off a famous crime, such as the Black Dahlia murders. (Of course, that’s what the “Law & Order” franchise has done for decades, and it works for them.)

I’d like to write crime fiction, because of my interest in the subject, but I probably lack enough background to write authoritatively. Those who say “write what you know” would suggest I write fiction in a journalism setting, but fiction in a journalism setting is either uninteresting, because the journalistic process is uninteresting to watch, or becomes so exaggerated (newspaper editor solves crime and shoots criminal!) that it’s unbelievable. Journalism produces no compelling heroes — you sit at meetings, you take notes, you write — and the bad guys, however you define that, usually avoid justice. Journalists are observers, and there’s nothing interesting about watching, or even depicting, somebody observing.

Meanwhile, since Daylight Saving Time ends Sunday at 2 a.m. (is that 2 CDT or CST?), I am obligated to link my Daylight Saving Time post.