When my friend, Bryce, convinced me to join him on an individual quest to write 50,000 words (about 250 pages) in 30 days, I thought he was nuts. This challenge is through the National Novel Writing Month (NaNo WriMo), an organization designed to promote writing.

I soon decided writing my novel, “Anatomy of A Deer”—an idea I came up with six years ago—was long past due, and I needed to do something about it, or give the idea up entirely. So on November 1st, I conquered my fears and sat down for the crunch that laid ahead. It was a powerful experience I reveled in, and most definitely a challenge to say the least. Many times I came to a place where I thought I would give up. But strength and perseverance won out, and I completed with 50,251 words at 10:30 pm on the 30th of November, an hour and a half before the deadline. It was amazing how I was able to get so many words written in that short of a period.

If you have always wanted to write a novel, I highly recommend throwing yourself into a brave new world you will find yourself at the end of this ride.

Here is the certificate I received for completing/winning the NaNo WriMo challenge of 2011.