So, I did that this year.
The 3-day Novel Contest is a chance for writers across the world to hunker down over Labor Day weekend and birth a lovely little book...or novel...or novella...or rough draft...or to crumble in that familiar chaos and despair familiar to writers. It happens ever year and I've known this since high school when Jan Underwood came to my hometown as part of her book tour for her 3-Day Novel, Day Shift Werewolf.
I challenged myself to attempt this relatively huge feat for the very first time this year because my writing life was buckling under the pressure of working full-time in a job that is often emotionally exhausting. I enjoy my work and care deeply about my students, but sometimes each day is an emotional roller coaster, each week is a steep hill with loose gravel, and each quarter is a mountain with no water at the top.
I challenged myself to do it this year in particular because I was afraid that I didn't have it in me to sustain something for more than 20 single-spaced pages. Completing an BA in Creative Writing (plus other things) and an MFA in Fiction has taught me a lot of about the short form. I feel I have a good grasp on all the things that could make a short story sing, and some grasp on how to make my short stories sing, but the long form eludes me. Most of my attempts at longer works of fiction have been sitting saved on my computer at about 20 pages in. Some I actually forget about. Others nag at me often. None I've returned to. I really wanted to get over that worry.
I challenged myself in this particular way because I knew it might force me to talk about my project with friends and acquaintances. I usually shy away from talking about my current projects - or really any writing projects - with friends, coworkers, or relatives. And yet here I am blogging about it. This is the strangeness of the internet.
I'm proud to say I finished with 19,530 words. This comes out to about 77 double-spaced pages. More importantly, I talked about it with others. Are you wondering what it's about? Maybe I'll save that for another post.