August Challenge: Write A Novel In One Month

I've tried NaNoWriMo more than once and failed to complete a 50,000-word book in one month's time. That has been gnawing at me lately--that and not writing must for the last couple of months has only added to that. I like the idea of a challenge to complete a full-length book in 30 or so days. It's the kind of thing I know I can do.

I don't have an idea in mind. Not even a clue. That has been a paralyzing point for me lately as I've tried again and again to get back on the fiction-writing horse. Having no idea what I write before I start shouldn't be a problem. I've done it before many times. That's typically the way I work. I don't outline. I just get started.

That's what I'll have to do on August 1st. You see that 's the plan. I've decided, rather last minute, to write a novel in August, knowing full well that I will be welcoming a new baby boy into the world at or near the end of it. I'm crazy, I know. But right now, crazy sounds pretty good. I'm tired of being on the sidelines.

Since I'm announcing it as a challenge my intention is to chronicle this process by posting every day for the whole month. Each post will detail the day's progress and daily word count.

Update: I'm going to post every week and include the progress from each day during that week in a digest.

So, that's it: a novel in August with a word count of at least 50K. 

Updates About Free Fiction Friday And Other Stuff

For those of you who do read the free stories I put up here for one week, I wanted to let you know that Free Fiction Friday would be on hiatus for a while or until I get more short stories written. Additionally, I've just started on a new novel so I'm focusing my time there. I'll keep all of you updated on Free Fiction Friday and other writing updates. Thank you.

In other news, I am also trying to get previous free stories up in electronic versions. This includes a novel that I finished back at the beginning of May. Other commitments have seriously put me behind but I do hope to make headway in the coming weeks.

In about 8 weeks, I will be welcoming another son in to the world so that has certainly played a role the status of my work. It's always fun trying to balance family commitments with writing ones. I've not always been successful but I keep trying.

For those interested, I will hopefully be putting up another Dear Writer article in the near future as well. I like writing those articles and would like to make them a regular feature like Free Fiction Friday.