Wow, I am exhausted after yesterday's ridiculous "Friday 4000" writing challenge I presented... in which you write 4000 words in one day. Surprisingly, NO ONE joined me in this venture! LOL! I know, it was probably one of my more insane ideas. Keep reading to find out how I did...

I started the idea yesterday after fellow YA author and Facebook pal JESSICA BURKHART announced on Facebook that she had a horrible 4000 word deadline. That inspired me to try an experiment to see if I could slam home 4000 words before midnight. (For more on this blog, go here: http://paulayoo.com/content/friday-4000-whos-me-fri-62609)

I then kept a Twitter feed of my hourly or so progress. Here's what I "tweeted" yesterday (http://twitter.com/PaulaYoo)

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10:26 AM:  Should be writing but am distracted by Vegas hotel emails offering great discounts cuz I go there every year. Mandalay Bay $69/night! OMG!

10:41 AM: Just impulsively decided to write 4000 words by midnight. That's 8 hours, 22 min. away. Approx. 500 words/hr. Wanna join me? I dare you! :)

10:48 AM: Oops, just realized, midnight is 11 hours, 14 min. away. I am obviously not a mathematician. :) Will post hourly updates on my word count!

10:59 AM: Just posted blog on my crazy idea: http://bit.ly/4xUtO "Friday 4000" - write 4000 words by midnight!

11: 39 AM: Just posted updated blog w/info on Fellow Friday 4000 pal Jessica Burkhart: http://bit.ly/4xUtO

12:12 PM: 11 AM-12 PM - 100 words written. (Had to shower, eat breakfast, clean the kitchen first. Hope to write more from noon-1.) 3900 words left.

Noon-5 PM: Post office, pizza w/friend, cleaned bathroom, found this cat video: http://bit.ly/O19nK Word Count: uh...

5:05 PM: Writerly self-loathing kicking in on Friday 4000. Even my cat Oreo has written more than me today: http://twitter.com/oreothecatyoo

5 to 6:30 PM Friday 4000 report: I cleaned my computer keyboard. Words written: Uh....

7 PM: Design cover finalists for Donna Tartt classic: cool! http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/minisites/penguindesignaward/2009winners.php

8:12 pm. Trying not to panic on Friday 4000. Think of Tortoise and the Hare. I am so the Tortoise right now...

9:28 pm, Friday 4000: 3,521 words written since this morning's 300. Total so far: 3,821!

9:35 PM "Friday 4000": "Cheated" & added final approx. 200 words from outline to draft. So technically, I have 4000 wds - Cps. 4 & 5 done!

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As you can tell, Friday consisted of a lot of procrastination, teeth gnashing, spending more time on Facebook and Twitter, than writing. I actually started out pretty well - I wrote about 1,500 really solid, good words. I re-read them today and I am not going to revise for now, I think it's a solid draft!

The remaining 2,500 words, however, are what author Anne Lamott refers to as her "s----- first draft" from her famous writing book, BIRD BY BIRD. I literally started writing stuff like, "INSERT FUNNY DIALOGUE HERE THAT REVEALS CHARACTER'S TRUE LOVE FOR OTHER CHARACTER" and even did some "cheating" by taking paragraphs from a rough chapter synopsis I had written and cutting and pasting them in the draft with the instructions, "PLEASE TWEAK AND REVISE LATER, TURN THIS "TELLING" PARAGRAPH INTO A REAL "SHOWING" SCENE" etc.

But as I glance through this hastily cobbled portion of my Friday 4000, I realize it's a decent first draft that actually organized a lot of the events in this chapter in a coherent manner. It was painful to literally write very rough draft sentences where everyone was either "turning around to face him" or "pausing" or "hesitating" etc. I had a lot of "he shrugged" and "he winced," too. LOL! 

But I think it's okay to put those "boilerplate" phrases in your novel if you're just trying to choreograph the action and figure out what is happening in the scene. 

So today is the Saturday Slump - I gotta comb through this mess and straighten everything up! So back to writing batcave I go...!

In the meantime, here's a really cool blog that my friend Hilary started. It's called WE HEART MAC AND CHEESE. The link is here: http://www.weheartmacandcheese.com/

I was thrilled and honored to be asked to post a guest blog. My name is Paula Parmesan.

Here is the link to my review:

http://www.weheartmacandcheese.com/2009/06/akasha-organic-macaroni-cheese.html#links

I ate at AKASHA restaurant in Culver City and tried their mac and cheese. Yummy! Here's a photo: 

In the meantime, I also will post more details on this, but for now, my cat Oreo was so inspired by Friday 4000 that he too started his own novel. He's writing it sentence by sentence. It's called "CATastrophe" and I'm very proud of him. His typing has improved immensely!

Here's his Twitter link: http://twitter.com/oreothecatyoo

His first sentence is here:

I am starting my own novel to compete with CatMommy, called CATastrophe. 1st sentence: "She is finally asleep. I sneak down the dark hall."

I'll continue to alert everyone on Oreo the Cat's progress with his own novel. Watch him sell his book before I sell my next one! LOL!

PS. I just did a word count. This blog is 876 words! If only I could write fiction this fast!