Three-Day Novel

Hullo hullo!

Summer break is over! I've got a few college classes I'm taking to supplement my high school studies, plus a long, long list of reading to do…so to kickstart the new school year, I wrote a novel in 72 hours.

It was so much fun!

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I'll start with where I got the idea. 

I was perusing around the internet when I found this amazing little gem from 3daynovel.com. It is a contest, held every year over Labor Day weekend, where a bunch of aspiring authors sit down and write an entire novel (or often novella) in three days and exactly 72 hours. When they finish, they pack it up and ship it in to be evaluated to see if it wins any prizes.

Doesn't that seem like an amazing idea?! My family didn't think so. I did. 

However, lacking the extra cash handy for the entrance fee, and having a packed schedule for the specified Monday (HERSHEYPARK!!!)––not to mention that I had entirely no confidence in my writing discipline––I decided to take the website's advice to youngsters to practice first. 

So last Wednesday, August 29, 2012, at approximately 7:13 am, I began my three day novel.

And on Friday, August 31, 2012, at precisely 11:59 pm, I finished.

It's not very good.

That shameful fact, however, is unimportant. The important thing is that I finished. It's 41,104 words long, and (obviously) the longest thing I've ever written at one time. It is probably the longest contribution I've ever made to my collection of stories.

What was it like? The first day I was almost disappointed at how easy it was…the second day I changed my mind, and the third day when my mother apologetically swooped me out of the house to do something we hadn't realized I'd have to do until that morning…I basically burst into terrified tears. 

By the end I was an emotional wreck. I would have thought that three days of pouring every ounce of my heart and soul into my writing would suck me dry of all emotion and thought…but, well, the day after I finished proved otherwise. I teared up when I couldn't find my class information online (I didn't know––it just isn't online), I cried angrily when I was roughly hustled out the door last minute to go work because I had been playing with my school portal, and I positively sobbed when my flimsy flip-flops broke (always grab sneakers when going to work outside no matter how rushed you are!!) and I realized I wouldn't even have their worn-thin protection from the rocks…you get the picture. I couldn't really funtion.

Was it worth it? Of course. Now I know I can write a novel. I have written a novel. No longer am I another girl that dallies with writing stories she daydreamed up out of her fluff-filled head. Now I am a girl that writes stories she daydreams up out of her fluff-filled head.

It's very satisfiying. I want to write another one.

Before I get to that, however, I have to edit. 

And I have no doubt that I shall devote every bit as many and every bit as emotionally and physically exhausting hours to the editing as I put into actually writing the novel. Why? I'm a first-time author. I have no idea how to properly edit something like this!

Therefore, you are going to suffer along with me.

I shall explore the desert wasteland of editing in the next few weeks, and shall post any epiphanies or other interesting tidbits I find, along with a few snippits of edited versus unedited sections and anything else I find worthy of sharing from my new novel. Hope you enjoy it more than I will. 

See you then!

P.S. I would just like to add that my family has been amazingly supportive throughout all this crazed writting drama, and I would like them to know how grateful I am :)