This was my first year doing it too. I finished with 50,016 on Nov. 28. It was great fun.

And Brendan, just because you're slogging out words every day with a set number in mind doesn't reduce the artistic pursuit of it. In fact, I found the daily deadline, so to speak, quite liberating. I couldn't have written my first novel without that outside pressure, I don't think.

Of course, the first draft of anything is complete shit no matter how you do it. The beauty comes out mostly in the rewriting, I'm told.