My big problem with NaNo is time. I was talking to my mother about it today, and her reaction to the existance of NaNoWriMo was “In November? Don’t they know how much other stuff is going on in November?”

But so far blogging daily has been fun and exciting, and so far so good in terms of meeting my goal.

So maybe I just need to be looking for things with shorter turnaround times. Like flash fiction  contests or the 8-Hour Book Challenge!

I’ve been following Janet Reid’s blog for about two years now, and she frequently hosts flash fiction contests. Why haven’t I entered one yet? Why haven’t I entered all of them? Hmm. This week’s is The Extra Hour Writing Contest, although since I have a toddler I assume he’s going to sleep the same number of hours as usual, meaning he’ll be up reeeeeal early and it’s my turn to deal with it. Ah well. Perhaps while we play as quietly as possible I’ll see if I can come up with anything…

What I was really impressed to find out about was that one of the members of my writing group, the in inimitable  Laura VanArendonk Baugh, just tweeted a blast-from-the-past link to a project she completed in 2013, the Eight-Hour Book Challenge. It’s basically exactly what it sounds like — create an entire ebook in eight hours: write, revise, format, create a cover, and upload it.

I’m very seriously considering trying it as a capstone to NaNo this year. Maybe I’ll see if I can set aside a day in December – during winter break, after finals and the madness that is Christmas – and just do the damn thing. Write a whole book.

In the meantime, I might just have to read Laura’s 8-Hour Book, Smoke and Fears, to see what I’m up against…

But before that, I just bough another book by one of my writing group, Garrett Hutson’s In a Safe Town. So that’s next on my reading list!

UPDATE: I did it! (The flash-fiction contest, not the 8-Hour Book. But Stephanie has definitely convinced me to try the 8-Hour Book as soon as I can get eight hours in a row! (…it does have to be in a row, right?).) Anyway, you can see my entry at the very bottom of the comments column. There’s a TON of good stuff in there. Janet’s Reiders really bring it!