Way back in 2002, I decided to enter the 3-Day Novel Writing Contest, which was then hosted by Anvil Press. The rules were simple: write an entire novel in just three days, over the Labour Day long weekend. Sleep is for the weak.
I took up the challenge and churned out a short novella that I thought was pretty good (though I haven’t touched it since). I entered again the following year and produced a shorter novella, which I wasn’t pleased with. The third year, I gave up on the first day. After that, I was conveniently too busy with Labour Day long weekend activities to even think about entering again.
Anyway, I can’t remember when I first heard about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for those in the know, “November” to everyone else). It was probably around the time I was competing in the 3-Day Novel Writing Contest for the first time, because I remember scoffing at taking a whole month to do what I was setting aside a single weekend for.
Almost a decade later, I am older and wiser, and this month I’ll be trying my hand at NaNoWriMo. The goal is 50,000 words (works out to 1,666 words/day), but I’d be happy with 30,000 or so. I got off to a slow start with under 800 words yesterday, but today’s a new day!
Feel free to follow my progress on the NaNoWriMo website. (Unless you’re just doing it to laugh at how few words I’ve written. That would be mean.)
