Dear Challenges: A Novel Experience.

All writers have briefcases.  That is mine.

In two days I am going to start writing a book.  By the 30th of June I will have finished writing that book.  The first draft of an entire novel.  You probably have so many questions.  Why?  What?  How?  WHO CARES?  Well, I care.  And I'm attempting to actually start and finish this project, which is why I have to tell everyone I know about it.  Accountability is one of the most useful motivating factors there is.  The guy who came up with this idea suggests you use it to ensure you finish.

As many of you know, November is National Novel Writing Month.  For those 31 days people all over the world take on the challenge of writing a novel, approximately 100 pages, without sharing, without editing.  Without stopping.  Many people see this as an opportunity to try something new, to have fun, to share in an experience being had by thousands of other people.  Some people use it as a catalyst to create a project they will later go on to edit and carry (hopefully) to publication. Many people use it as a tool to begin creating again, and often, having had the fulfilling experience of completing an entire book, can go on to immerse themselves in a project they truly care about. It's just people, you know, accomplishing something.

My dear friend Julie is also a writer.  Since we were teenagers we have somewhat quietly toiled away at projects we share with no one.  In college (we went together) we each had writing in our majors--hers in fiction and mine in "dramatic writing"(stage/screen).  Since then we have both gone back to (mostly) quietly toiling away on projects we share (mostly) with no one.  The thing neither of us spends very much time sharing is that we are writers, and that it is a hugely important part of our lives.  I don't really tell anyone I do it.  I think I put it in my bio on the edge of this blog as an attempt to "put it out there", and casually mention it when referring to my education, but that's about it.  Julie has gone on to become a teacher, and is also a very gifted painter (and now a very loving mother) and so those things often take the forefront of conversations one might have with her about what she "does".  For myself, it is one of the last things I'll tell someone I do.  Mostly because I have little to show for it, but also because I fear it sounds pretentious, and am even more afraid of the questions one might have about it.  [What do you write?  Can I read it?  What magazines are you in? What awards have you won?  What's your favorite thing you've ever written? What books are you reading? Tell me an interesting story!] Regardless, we are both writers who don't write very much and talk to each other about it a lot.   Julie decided she wanted to take on the challenge of Novel Writing Month, and didn't feel like waiting for November.  So she asked a couple of our friends (two of the most intelligent, creative people I know) and myself to take part in our own challenge for the moth of June.  Obviously we are doing it.  How could we not do it?  How many novels am I writing on my own? Answer: ZERO.

The rules are simple.  You write every day, for an entire month.  You can never go back and change something.  No edits.  You can ask questions and share ideas with others doing the challenge, but you cannot share any of your actual material.  No passing notes.  If you don't write one day, you have to write more the next.  By the last day of the month you have to finish your novel and it must be at least 50,000 words, or, 100 pages in length.  About the size of "Of mice and Men".  After that, you can do whatever you want with it.  Read it, not read it, share it, eat it, use it as toilet paper, edit it, burn it, put it on a very large refrigerator, use it to sop up all your tears, whatever the fuck you want.  It doesn't matter.  Because you already did the hardest part.  You wrote an entire book.

Now, I've written things before.  I've written short things and longer things but I have never attempted to tell a story on such a large scale.  I've written feature length films, but that's an entirely different thing all together. I have no idea how this is going to go.  The one thing I might wind up taking away from this experience is that I should never ever try to write a novel.  But if all my boxes of notebooks and years of not being able to sleep have proven anything it's that I want to write, that I feel I have stories to tell.  Even if they are not going to change the world.  So I have to at least try.  So I am going to try.

A thinking face.

Marathon writing is about the only thing that works for me.  A project without a deadline is an unfinished project.  A project without a sense of urgency is pages of notes I take for years before I actually begin said project (Literally.  Years.). Despite the amount of time I am given I only use the time at the end to actually start doing anything good, so I think this challenge is pretty well suited for me.  Sweat and white knuckles the entire way.  I used to think that was called procrastinating, but as an increasingly responsible adult I'm learning to call it "my style".  Whatever that means.

So I have a loose idea.  But I can't share what it is.  I know what kind of story I am hoping to tell, the main characters, what happens first, how it might end, some small moments in the middle, and that's about it. I really have no idea what I am going to fill 100 pages with.  I know I'm good at rambling, so hopefully that helps me out.  I'm anticipating a lot of deadlocked moments where there is nothing left to say and I chug cold coffee shouting about how my education was a waste because I am the most useless writer there has ever been.  I'm anticipating it's going to be a really delightful experience.  But, like I said, hopefully at then end I'll have managed to write an entire book and that will have been the whole point.  Mission accomplished.  For once I will not be allowed to obsess over weather something is good or not, I will just have to keep going.  And I'm excited to see what that feels like.

So the four of us start this process on June first, which is Friday.  Which is tomorrow.  Hopefully amidst careers, work, family, home renovations, and vacations (3 of us are going on a trip right in the middle and I am out of town for work right before) we all manage to stick with it.  I will probably be glued to my phone, sending emails to them 50 times a day.  So please, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, when you see me, ask me how it is going.  Remind me that I have to finish it.  Lie to me and tell me you're so proud or whatever.  Text me.  Call me.  Send me pictures of your butts with "write, you Asshole" written on them.  Whatever you want to do.  Whatever you have to do.  Just do it.  I just know I need this accountability or I might wind up letting my quiet toiling taper off until I have another mediocre start to a project on a USB drive sitting in my boyfriend's sock drawer.  Help me not let this go to the sock drawer.

One of my biggest goals in life is to legitimize my father's proudest statement about me: My daughter's a writer.
This one's for you, dad.

My dad loves sweat shorts and telling everyone I'm a writer.