I'm preparing to begin NaNoWriMo. Yes, despite having a bouncy one-year-old, despite not having really worked out where to buy groceries in my new locale, and despite having an imagination that currently relies solely on people I know for character ideas, I am going to write 50,000 words of a novel between November 1 and November 30.
I make no claims for the quality of the prose I will produce. However, I absolutely will turn in 50,000 words. The penalties for shortfall will be as follows:
If I only write 10,000 words Chris gets all the lie-ins for a year.
If I only write 20,000 words Chris gets all the lie-ins for six months.
If I only write 30,000 words Chris gets all the lie-ins for two months including the whole of Christmas.
If I only write 40,000 words or less - this applies in addition to all the other penalties - we donate £60, the cost of a UK parking fine, to Manchester United football club.
(ps. I've moved to Berlin to try to live differently. I want to learn to create without the brutal work ethic. I wonder what creativity would feel like if I relaxed enough to savour it. Without altering my caffeine habits, frankly, I'm not sure that it's possible. I'm relying on zenhabits.net and a yoga course to show me the way. But I'm drinking a second cup as I write this.)