NANOWRIMO is always a cleansing, discovering, and re-discovering time for me. My time is always sooo limited. I tend to put too may things on my plate. When you at life's crappy twists and turns and nanowrimo, then it seems like I don't have any time at all. That's when the gold comes through. (At least it feels like gold.) If I really don't have time, that's when my mind decides that it's going to pop out ideas.
I find that lately I'm drawn to surrealism. I've got both of Lynda Barry's books and they seem to help with that.