I was reading a poker blog the other day and found a link to NaNoWriMo.org. If you have never heard of it (I hadn’t) it’s a site dedicated to National Novel Writing Month. The point of the site is to get you motivated to write a novel in one month. They say you don’t need a plot, characters or anything like that… all you really need is a deadline. So, they ask you to write 50,000 words starting November 1st and finishing by Midnight November 30th. I love a good challenge, so I have signed up. I then showed the link to some friends who have also signed up.
They have a couple cool tools available so I figured I’d showcase them here… Here are “Word Wars” showing how many words we have all written and who’s “winning.” BTW, I should mention, there is no prize for actually writing 50,000 words other than the satisfaction of actually finishing what you set out to do… Don’t expect a trophy.
| Me | Jason |
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| Sarah | Jake |
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| Jessi | David |
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If other friends join in, I’ll add them to the challenge board.
No trophy, but you get a handy certificate to put on your office wall and a web seal you can display on your site.
WHOO HOO! 1 Word and I'm in the lead!!
Ah crap, the others just updated. nevermind. jerks.
after day 1 I'm not in LAST place! I consider this as good as a win.
"I'm not writing tonight," said Sarah, with a heavy sigh. She paused, and imagined for a brief second that the boys at work would taunt her the next day for not accomplishing anything on Day 2 of Nanowrimo's novel writing contest.
"Oh, well. It will just be like any other day at Cubsis…they'll pick on me and turn my comments into sexually implicit suggestions, followed by the usual 'Hey Oh!'…so what the hell am I worried about?" Sarah shrugged her shoulders as she switched off her laptop and got ready for bed.
So I started this challenge today and ironically created a text file with enough words to put me in 4th place among who you have listed. Although if my file were ever to be graded on grammar and spelling I'd be kicked out of the English speaking society.
I would have made some progress if I wrote 'til 3am too (Jason) but the lush in me decided to go out partying. Fear not, my determined fellow-novelists…I will catch up!
Oh it was much more than 3 AM. I've been up since Friday writing this stuff. No sleep for the weary!!
Strangely, this is not the first time I've experienced abject failure.