Are You Ready to Write a Novel in Three Days?

Whoa.

I say that because I can’t believe a year has passed since I failed to write a novel in three days. You might be thinking, “Dave, that’s hardly a failure.” Mostly, I say it because I remember just how exhausted I was when the clock finally ran out.

The Three-Day Novel Contest is an annual writing contest held on Labor Day weekend. It challenges writers of all sorts to finish a full-fledged novel during the three-day holiday weekend.

I didn’t complete or submit a full novel, but I treasure the experience, and the writing I began that weekend has turned into something I continue to tinker with today. During this harrowing experience, I drank a lot of coffee, thought about the strange characters I cooked up at warp speed and actually wrote more than I had in a long time.

So even though I failed in a sense, I had a blast, and took a lot away from the attempt. You may have heard of NaNoWriMo, where writers have the opportunity to pen a novel in a month. That’s fun and all, but you can think of the three-day contest as NaNoWriMo on steroids.

Resources for Success

I’m telling you that not to scare you, but to help prepare you. It’s more than a month away, so you have plenty of time to plan for success. Here’s some resources to help:

• Last year, one of our own writers, Laura Roberts, wrote about her attempt. Give it a read; it will help you.
• The contest has a nice survival guide set up for you.
• The contest cost $50.
• The winner gets published!
• You still have time to give some of the past winners a read for inspiration and guidance.

As for me, I still don’t know if I’ll enter this year. If I can clear out that weekend, I’ll give it a go because my past effort was one of the more rewarding writing experiences I’ve had.

If you have any more resources to add, please let us know in the comments.