A few hours ago I had an idea. What if I could write a book in just one week (7 days, 168 hours, 10,080 minutes, 604,800 seconds)? I decided to challenge myself to write a 20,000 word book (novella, if you're particular).

You have my permission to call me crazy.

Although I did this mainly for myself, anyone can join in. Here are the official rules:

1. Must be at least 20,000 words.
2. Must be written from July 10, 12:00 am to July 17, 11:59 pm.
3. Even the story itself must be thought of in that time period, so don't think of anything yet.

If anyone's wondering why I chose those dates, I'll be on vacation in a very remote area of western Pennsylvania without much to do. Not to mention the 12+ hours of sitting in the car. Obviously, I won't be around for that week, so if you have any questions ask 'em now.

This is a very interesting quest. I've heard of National Novel Writing Month and Script Frenzy month, but I haven't ever heard of a quest to write a book in a week.

While I probably can't join you because of some busy things going on in my life, I'm going to be rooting for you.

Are you going to be using notebook paper or a laptop?

I've written entire feature scripts in 7-10 days and finished a half-written novella in that or less.

So I'm tellin' ya, it's totally doable. And it's well worth the exercise to push yourself and just DO IT! Write like you're insane! ('Cause you are!)

All of that to say... great challenge! Go for it! If I'm not busy that week, I'll join you.

Not supposed to think of anything, eh? Usually I'd say "If I had the foggiest notion of what to write..." But as it is I suppose I'll wake up that morning and see if I have a brilliant idea lying about anywhere.

I did write a 30,000 word novel in two weeks once, so it is completely doable.

I'm bringing a notebook just in case, but I'm planning to use my iPod touch (iOS has some very good word processors).

Oh, I see. During National Novel Writing Month 2010, my family was on vacation for about 3 days. I took a journal and a notebook with me. Since I awoke early, I did some writing. I also did a lot of writing on the car rides. I found that I was actually ahead of my NaNoWriMo goal with all of that writing, so it made up for the time where I did some sight-seeing.

I am trying not to cheat. I wrote a short story yesterday with a premise that just BEGS to go in another direction, to be used for a longer story.

So I'm going to save it and try not to think any more about it, so I can use it for this challenge.

That's a good idea, Del. Are you doing this in July or August?

This challenge is set for July 10-17.

I did it with 2 hours to spare! Unfortunately, when I loaded it on my computer, the word count was different. I don't know if it's 20,009 words (PlainText, iPhone app), or 19,997 words (MS Word)…

I was beginning to trust Word more, but then I opened the book with OpenOffice and it said 20,009 words. So I guess the official word count for my book is 20,004 words (subtracted title and "the end").

I don't know if I will be posting it on HW. I'm a bit paranoid about creeps who aren't registered coming through and stealing my ideas. Plus it isn't fantasy or science fiction.

CONGRATS! *throws cupcakes*

I must admit I totally forgot about this... *sniffles at a lost opportunity* I'm not sure I would have been able to swing it, with the feature script project being on overdrive, but...

Anyway, really happy for your success, Apollo! You could start a thread looking for test readers and send the doc to them in private.

Man, too bad I missed this...It sounds like something insane that I would enjoy.

Congratulations, mate!
God bless,
Crushmaster.