Novel challenge

So, for those of you who don't know what National Novel Writing Month is, go here, do a little quick reading and then pop back. We'll wait…

Are we done? Good.

I've been trying to tackle this son of a bitch for several years now. My good friend, and eerie psychic, Anne (she predicted myself and Cathy would get married about a month after we started dating) has been pestering me on this for years. It got to the point that she attempted to withhold a Christmas gift until I gave her the first chapter of my book. Others have also bugged me, most recently OM, who took a delicate little shot at me during that Book Tag meme by writing that the novel not yet written she'd most like to read would be mine.

The thing is, writing a novel is goddamn hard. I have lamented this before and will do so again, just for the record. It involves moving and using mental muscles that have never been used before. It's not enough to just have an idea, although count yourself fortunate if you have a good one. It involves developing a plot, story and character arcs and dialogue. Not to mention grand ideas such as theme if you want to get really fancy.

I've tried National Novel Writing Month before and failed. I normally get a couple of thousand words in and then the story dies a slow, miserable death of neglect. Yet, I am once again going to try it this year. Because I am that big of a masochist.

But this time, there are a few catches.

First, I'm going to be posting my writing online. No, not on this blog as it will clutter things up. I'm creating a separate blog, either on Blogger or Wordpress, where I will post my writing. I will try every day, but the goal is to hit 50,000 by the end of November. It will, just for the record, be unbelievable crap. So those of you with smoking jackets and pipes, who like looking for the themes in Sylvia Plath books and are eagerly awaiting the chance to make snide comments should wander elsewhere. It's a big Internet; feel free to get lost there.

Next, if I'm going to be miserable, who wants to join me? That's right, kids. It's a challenge. Not only do I want to see people do the National Novel Writing Month challenge, I want them to post their writing right alongside mine. I'll make the blog one of those where people you become a member and can also post. I'll work on the details. I still have two weeks.

The point being, those who take me up on this challenge get to post their writing up there with mine. And hopefully the quality and frequency will inspire us to get better.

This is the plan. Oh, and just in case this gets out of hand, as plans of mine sometimes tend to, we'll limit it to 12 people.

So...any takers?