How

How It All Began

IntShoWriMo is not the brainchild of a deliberate and complex design nor is it product of a fickle fancy. It did, however, thrive by default. It just so happened that in December, 2010 I announced in an article—the last one I posted that year—that through 2011, I was going to be waist deep in short stories. No regular blogposts, only 2,000-word shorts and about thirty in all. A quick glance at the 2011 archives will reveal a total of thirteen posts and most of these happen to be poetry. So what happened? I couldn’t do it, that’s what happened. I had a hard time making up my mind on what to post: drafts or revised drafts? And that’s how I spent an entire year eating the dirt of my own indecision.

Steven Barnes, in one of several newsletters I received from the great writer, hinted on writing the short story over the novel for young fiction writers. “You may write a 100,000 word novel or fifty 2,000 word stories in a year. You’ll learn faster writing the short stories.” —Steven Barnes (rephrased). I was trying to walk that path when I got stuck in 2011 even though, I got the second story I wrote published in an online magazine I knew I had to make good on that promise.

IntShoWriMo (called NaShoWriMo in 2012) was my way of delivering on that commitment I made way back 2010. It was purely an accidental thing that somehow stuck. And the interesting fact is you can become a part of it. And you should.

Keep your pens bleeding!

Akpan