Last year I tried to complete [NaNoWriMo](http://www.nanowrimo.org), the National Novel Writing Month. I did better than the year before, but still fell well short of the goal of 50,000 words written in the month.
It’s hard to commit to something for as long as a month – life tends to intervene, and once it does it’s easy to find that you’ve lost the energy to finish it.
What people need is an easier on ramp, a task that lets them feel like they’ve achieved some good writing, and hopefully serves as a stepping stone to bigger things.
And so I give you:
**The 2008 inaugural International Short Story Writing Weekend, February 15-17**
Hereafter to be known as IntShoStoWriWe.
The basic concept is simple – between Friday evening and Sunday evening, write a complete story at least 2,500 words long. It has to be complete, not just the opening section to some bigger novel. It should be a story, with beginning, middle and end. Any genre, any setting. And must be shorter than 10,000 words.
Total participation for year one is expected to be low – that is, just me. Unless someone reading this decides to join in, in which case – email me! And if you need a bit of help with your plot, [try the random plot generator](http://nielsenhayden.com/overlord/).
I’ve queued up posts for this weekend, but I’ll be writing. And unless I’m too ashamed of the result I’ll try and post it Sunday evening.