I’m setting myself a Molly’s Gift challenge. 500 words a day for 5 days a week – 2500 words a week – until the end of October. Or until the book ends. Or until I give up on the challenge. Because let’s face it, that’s entirely possible. Any writing on short stories does not count, this is just about The Book. I’m also not going to be totally strict on word count. The real point is to write consistently until the first draft is done. I have seen other writers refer to this as a deathmarch, but since it’s not a huge wordcount requirement, this is more like a gentle death stroll.
Project Gentle Death Stroll commenced yesterday. I produced exactly 0 new words. Good start. Auspicious omens and all that.
Ohmygod Kate whyyyy are you doing this, I hear you ask*
a) I want to finish a first draft of Molly’s Gift this year and I am running out of year.
b) I want to participate in NaNoWriMo again this year and would like to do so with a new idea, knowing that Molly’s Gift is safely first drafted and set aside.
In case you don’t know / live under rocks etc etc, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is basically Project Deathmarch to the nth degree. You gotta write 50,000 words in the month of November – let me do the maths for you, since I know it so well – that’s 1667 words a day. Tens of thousands of people from across the world wilfully participate every year and for no reward other than pride. That’s right. You don’t win at NaNoWriMo, you “win”.
I completed it for the first time in 2008. In 2009 I ran & hid, still traumatised from the previous experience. This year, it’s time to try again.
I think.
Ask me again at the end of October.
* May not have actually heard this
