I’ve been keeping a private personal writing journal this year. Back in school, did you ever read the children’s novel Dear Mr. Henshaw? In the story a second grader who’s trying to cope with life has a pen pal called Mr. Henshaw. If I recall correctly, his letters end up being more akin to psychiatric sessions than anything else.

The problem is, he’s not really being 100% honest in his letters. Mr. Henshaw picks up on this fact and decides the boy should start writing to ‘Pretend Mr. Henshaw’ instead. The nature of the boy’s letters transform at this point and he starts to see the changes he really needs to make in his life to truly grow.

Maybe I was in denial about how far I’d gotten in my novel revision. But writing to my version of ‘Pretend Mr. Henshaw’ before each writing session has allowed me to make more real progress in one month than I’ve made in the past year. I hope I’ll be able to look back at these journal entries one day with nostalgia. And then maybe I’ll be ready to share them with the world.

Today, I feel stronger.

While I’m hammering out a story, everything’s good. I feel excited about life and the prospects it might bring and it’s impossible to be depressed. That’s what the craft gives back to me.

I don’t need to be accepted anywhere, by any peers. At the keyboard, I accept myself. I enjoy reading what I write, I like discovering what I didn’t know I had in me. My fingers fly, I relax, and everything’s okay. And it gives me the form of respect that should be most important to anyone in the world: Self-respect.

This is me saying no more obsessing over collectible card games. No more playing countless video game sequels for weeks at a time without ever touching my novel. This is me saying I’m going to choose the right path more often.

I keep telling myself that I’m still young, but I can’t say that forever. It’s time to commit more deeply to the craft of writing.

Boy! It’s been a busy month. (Don’t worry, I sent the Duke home.)  I’ve been writing, keeping track of the NPI tallies, training at work, reading books, doing the ‘Couch-to-5k’ program, and … I’ve been being a dad. I feel so productive!

But the trick is keeping it up. Can we continue to write each and every day? I know I fall off the writing wagon sometimes, but NPI always gets me hopping back on to try again.

I’d like to thank everyone who participated, with an extra-big congratulations to everyone who finished.

Together we cranked out an average of 5,341 words per day. This was in no small part thanks to Ryan and Brian, who both went above and beyond what the Novel Push Initiative requires each day.

In all, four people ended up passing which gives us a 50/50 pass ratio.

I’ve broken down everyone’s stats below. After the breakdown, there will be an awards section.

1. Ryan G. Sanders
https://twitter.com/RG_Sanders
http://www.ryangsanders.com/

Pledged to write 250 words per day.
Number of strikes left: 0
Highest Word Count in a Day: 7,577
Lowest: 250
Average: 1,611
And the Grand Total: 48,330

2. Brian Niemeier Read the rest of this entry »

THE DUKE:
Hm. Only one more mega-pack of chewin’ gum left. Too bad the flavor in each of these only lasts about 0.7 seconds. Oh well, while I’m chewin’, let’s see who signed up for boot camp.

1. Ryan G. Sanders
250 words per day
https://twitter.com/RG_Sanders
http://www.ryangsanders.com/

2. KLC the Book Worm
250 words per day
http://disciplineunderfire.blogspot.com/

3. Brian Niemeier
1300 words per day
http://www.facebook.com/people/Brian-Niemeier/100002462676719
http://soulsagabooks.blogspot.com/

4. Robin Ford
Two pages (Assuming these pages consist of Times New Roman font, 12pt, single-spaced, setting your goal at 1,000 words per day)
http://twitter.com/#!/rakford
http://www.onemadwomansonemillionwords.blogspot.com/

5. kakapo
250 words per day
http://twitter.com/#!/kakapo1

6. Julie
250 words per day
http://twitter.com/#!/jflamingo2
http://jflamingoreflections.blogspot.com/

7. Ranee Dillon
700 words per day
http://twitter.com/#!/raneedillon
http://raneedillon.blogspot.com/

8. Nick Enlowe
250 words per day
http://twitter.com/#!/NickEnlowe

NICK ENLOWE:

Ah, memories. The original Novel-Push Initiative (It was hyphenated back then) was announced way back on February 5th, 2009. Now that may not sound like such a long time ago to you, but back then I wasn’t finished drafting my first novel, I was out of a job, I’d only written two short stories, and my son wasn’t even born yet.

The rules were pretty crude back then, but I was feeling pretty good about the idea of writing 250 words per day (pretty nervous, too). Towards the end of February, I was pretty sure I’d be going it alone, but then miraculously Packsister decided to join in, then Ryan G. Sanders did. It was us three versus the month of March, 2009. And ever since then, I’ve never felt alone as a writer again.

It’s been a long journey. This is actually the seventh NPI.

March 2009:
The Novel-Push Initiative (The original!)

May 2009:
Novel-Push Initiative Redux

September 2009:
Merrilee’s NPI

December 2009:
‘Laid-back Edition’ (Insurance mascots and first time there were days of reprieve)

March 2010:
The first one where you could actually earn more days of reprieve.

Oct 2010:
‘Custom NPI’

September 2011:
THE DUKE

Get out those pre-NPI jitters and get ready to write! The duke’ll be checking in on you, starting tomorrow ^_^.

Good luck, everyone!

So, you think you’ve got what it takes to tackle an NPI, do you?
Well then, welcome to the first day of the rest of your Next Month.

What I wanna see:

I wanna see you writin’.
I don’t care if you’re producing puke-on-a-page or the next Pride and Prejudice. Just write.

What you’re gonna do:

You’re gonna write words. 250 of ‘em. Per day. For a month. And you’re gonna support the other participants. You know, cheer ‘em on and what-not.

What I’m gonna do:

I’m gonna be checkin’ in to make sure you write those words. And I want you to post your results each day. Post ‘em somewhere public. I’ll be keepin’ track here. Oh, and three strikes and you’re out. NO EXCUSES!

Um, actually … *whisper*

What? Oh yeah. Well, three excuses, actually. BUT NO MORE!

Um, *whisper-whisper*

Sigh… My lawyer wants to tell you something.

Um… yes. *mic feedback* Ahem. I would simply like to state that you can pledge to write less than OR more than 250 words per day if you so desire. But, please, make it no less than 100. Oh, and you can edit, too. The number of words you’ve edited can count towards your goal. Um… *flips pages*Ah yes. If you can’t easily count the number of words you’re writing, you can always use the average words per page to come up with your totals.

Furthermore, if you will be posting your results via Twitter, please use the hashtag #NovelPI. It makes the action so much easier to follow for us lawyers and for the other participants, too. I suppose a typical ‘tweet’ might look something like this:

Day 10: 289 words. #novelpi

If you are unable to get your wordcount posted by midnight, you do indeed get a strike. I’m afraid we are quite serious about this–Three strikes and you truly are out of the race. Where we may have been lenient in the past, well, just ask the big guy. But that doesn’t mean strikes have to be negative. I mean, you can use them as the equivalent of ‘days off’, after all.

And let me assure you, we are interested if you are writing the next Pride and Prejudice–And I apologize for his rude-

Gimme that. Boy, I hate lawyers, always complicatin’ things. I don’t know about you, but I almost fell asleep. Look, this ain’t rocket science. 250 words per day. Capice?

Now that all that legal-ese is out of the way …

It’s time to write words and chew bubble gum, AND I’M ALL OUT OF GUM.

(Or at least I will be, on SEPTEMBER 1st!)

I haven’t done a Novel Push Initiative yet this year. Where does the time go?

Well, time to put an end to that. I want to do one during the month of September.

(BTW–My attempts to automate NPI have failed. Anybody know someone who’s good with php?)

Maybe it would be better if I kept it at words per day? I must admit it got pretty confusing keeping track of everyone’s progress last time with some people doing words, others doing pages, etc.

What do you guys think?

I’ve got a computer, but it’s in my basement. If I want to be cold, alone, and worry about my monitor losing signal, and going blank (which forces a reboot), it’s a good place to write.

I’ve also got a laptop (Actually, it’s my wife’s–Mine died about four years ago.). The battery is going bad. The display is on the fritz just like the monitor in the basement. To prevent the screen from going blank, I had to strip off the front cover, tape down the wiring, and leave the screen portion open and exposed at all times. I’m afraid any attempts to move it or take it places could cause it to go blank permanently.

And then there’s my work computer. It’s pretty nice, actually. All up to date and there’s two monitors and both of them work. But work’s been keeping me pretty busy these days. I can’t really expect to write much during breaks, either, because if I’m sitting at my desk, my coworkers think I’m on the clock and ask me for help. And I’m the kind of guy who helps out even if I’m on break.

Supposing I could write uninterrupted for 15 minutes twice a day, it’s difficult for me to get into a writing mode in such a short period of time. On the same token when I do somehow manage, it’s too easy to lose track of time.

Obviously I need a new computer. But for now I’m using Swype. Yes, I’m Swyping my right into my Android Phone.

This post? Swyped comfortably from my bed.

Fiction? Yup. I’m halfway through writing one of those short stories that I’ve been meaning to write this year. And I owe it all to the portability of Swyping. I can pop out my phone and start writing or editing whenever I have free time. Those spare minutes throughout the day really do add up. While it’s still difficult to get into ‘writing mode’, at least it’s progress.

I’m seriously considering Swyping my novel revision. I mean, if it’s working, then why not?