challenges

As October draws to a close I find myself standing at the start line of a race that I’ve run previously but yet is not quite as familiar as the running marathon I tackled earlier in the month.

For the fifth time I’m about to challenge myself by doing National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) the novel writing challenge where writers are tasked with penning the first draft of a new fifty thousand word novel in the thirty days of November.

Thousands tackle the challenge each year. Many succeed. Some even find success beyond simple completion and have published their work.

I have written four novels in my life.

And all four of those novels have been completed during previous NaNoWriMo challenges.

You could even call me a true believer in the value of public challenges, and you would be absolutely correct. As silly as it is to publicly declare your intention to do something like speed writing a novel in a single month, I’m going for number five this year …and that’s no joke.

(It might even be more than a coincidence that I completed my fifth marathon this year, too.)