Folks, it’s the 3-DAY NOVEL CONTEST, complete with survival guide (all of which is interesting reading, even if you don’t intend on committing yourself to writing 30,000 words a day for three days):
1. Attitude: Correct and Self-defeating
2. Where to Do It: Splendour or Spartan?
3. Preliminary Warnings to Friends and Family of Impending Three Days and What is to Be Expected From Them All
4. The Honour System: Does It Work and Why?
5. An Outline: Importance Of??
6. Eating: Whether or Not
7. Day 1, 2 and 3: Where You Should Be
8. 3rd Day Attack of Doubts (Feelings of Pitiable Failure)
Highlights of the 3-FREAKIN’-DAY NOVEL CONTEST Guide (at least, the bits that I found funny):
Plot or Character Development: The dilemma of where to place the emphasis is best summed up by Jeff Doran, 1983 winner with This Guest of Summer: “I found when writing a 3-Day Novel that, of plot and character development�well�you gotta throw one or the other out the window.”
HA! Good one.
About food: Keep it simple, and fast. Wieners (straight from the package�protein taken care of). Bananas and other fruit (vitamin C, potassium, etc.). Keep cooking to a minimum. Pizzas, Chinese�food to go. Forget balance, this is not a “spa”, there are no “healing days”. This is a competition; a crucible; a hill of sand. Climb! Climb!
Speaking of which, I had a dream about pizza last night. The new Pizza Hut Sicilian Lasagna pizza, to be exact. Although I find that when I’m on a writing marathon, the more I eat, the more sleepy I get. Therefore, their suggestions? Totally would not work for me. Fruit smoothies, on the other hand, along with nuts, grapes, Larabars, and so on—absolutely a go.
The Third Day (or in Marjorie’s world, deadline-hellbent-for-leather-yo-mama day!): Take three deep breaths. Don�t punish yourself. Get back to work. Take phone off hook. Pull drapes. If you feel lonely�an outcast�you are. It�s OK, you�re trying. That manuscript is now your only friend, the only thing that matters. Come to think of it, the only thing that has ever mattered. Finish it. Let it, at least, have a life.
Because the author most certainly does not have a life? Um, well, yes. That’s probably correct. At least around deadlines.
All of which makes me feel a whole lot better about my schedule.