The 24hr Novel Challenge

Last year, I sat down to scroll through my phone and found an article about a man who had used a Dictaphone in an attempt to write an entire novel in a day. While I don’t remember much of the article itself, it sparked something deep within me — some competitive need to try and write an entire novel in a day as well, though unlike him I’d type the entire thing out.

I did the maths, considered just what writing an entire novel in a day might look like, and took to Twitter to joke about my spontaneous need to try it out. The idea might have died there if it weren’t for somebody else deciding for me that it was an impossible task to complete.

‘you can’t do it,’ he told me, breaking down the numbers like I hadn’t already done that in my own tweet, ‘it’s impossible.’

He was talking down to me and made assumptions about my work ethic. I felt the need to prove him incredibly wrong. Spite drove my entire body back to my keyboard and I fired back a tweet saying that I could in fact do it.

Thus, the 24hr novel was born.

I teamed up with @AprillaMaxon (on Twitter) who also wanted to give it a try, and set a date. June 21st 2021. I still had a bit of time before then and set to working on my outline with nothing but spite and determination to drag me forward through the task I’d set myself. I had no real idea of how hard it would be and relied solely on my spite to carry me through.

I decided on a project I’d previously scrapped because I hadn’t liked what I’d written. I loved the characters, but decided to change up the setting a little, and allowed myself more freedom as I re-planned my work in progress.

Vagabond & Rebels is a YA superhero novel that follows a group of disadvantaged teenagers trying their best not to be cast as the villains of their schoolyard when an out of town boy named Elliot begins to show up in their group therapy sessions mandated by the school. Callen, the protagonist, struggles with his feelings for the other boy while he tries to keep his head down and out of trouble so that he might make it through the year and be able to land an apprenticeship so that he can get he and his brother Mitchel out of home and somewhere safer and far happier.

Of course, when you’ve got superpowers and the other kids think you’re a villain, things aren’t going to run as smoothly as you’d like. Especially when the boy you’ve just made friends with is a pyrokinetic with little to lose.

It’s my pride and joy, and the 24hr challenge was the perfect time to get it out onto paper.

When I came out the other side, a fully finished draft in hand, I went straight to my partner despite the fact that it was almost five in the morning and told them I’d finished. They sleepily congratulated me and tucked me into bed, and I slept for four or so hours before I was back up, regretting pulling such a late night, but ecstatic that I’d completed the task I’d been told was impossible to complete.

‘I’ll do it again next year,’ I told my partner. They nodded, sure that I would, and I threw myself into another project to let the novel rest a little. I had learned so much about my own writing habits through the pandemic, and even more through the challenge itself. I also learnt how to let go of that nagging, persistent voice to make sure that everything was perfect. There is no time for perfection when you’ve only got 24hrs to complete your work. The irony is that Vagabond & Rebels, despite its first draft flaws, was easily one of the best pieces I had written in a long time. By letting go of expectations, I’d allowed myself the creative freedom to write something I could be proud of.

Now it’s 2022, and it’s time for that impossible task to be completed again.

When I posted about it on my Twitter, I never expected so many people to reach out and want to try to complete it alongside me. I expected one or two at most, but more than I could ever imagine have raised their hands to come and join in the madness that is trying to write an entire novel in 24hrs.

An entire novel in a day, at least 50k words, and completely from scratch. The maths doesn’t look too scary when you break it down, it’s only about 31wpm, but that’s constant, never-ending typing. That’s no breaks, no pauses, no lulls in motivation or energy. What the 24hr novel really comes down to is a test of endurance, time management, and a good support network, or at the very least, pre-planning your entire day around the idea that you’ll only ever get a few minutes away from your document at a time.

My plan last year was fifty to fifty-five-minute sprints (a long sprint, I know) followed by five minutes of mad dashing to the bathroom or fridge. I kept snacks by the bed where I wrote, and when my housemates came home, I relied on them for food. I averaged about 2,500 words per that fifty-minute window, with some of the blocks clocking in far more words, and some far less. As far as I could tell, I was well on track to finish the novel in time, provided something didn’t go horribly wrong. I was down to the letter, with only a few hours to spare when I finished, and those last few hours were some of the slowest writing for the entire day, but I had to keep on typing.

That’s all you can really do in a challenge like this. Keep on typing. There’s no time for an edit, no time to go back and fix something, just push on ahead and keep on typing.