Circumstances of writers who entered the 29th Annual International 3-Day Novel Contest, compiled from responses to a random survey of entrants. The contest is a literary marathon that requires writers to produce a full-length work of fiction over the Labour Day long weekend. In 2006, 516 writers entered and almost 400 submitted manuscripts.

Locations

tree house on island
hippie café in Santa Monica
back seat of van in waterslide parking lot
cabins in woods (8)
motel rooms (6)
white plastic deck chair in unfurnished apartment
parents’ house, grandmother’s house, outdoors on
campus during a “welcome freshmen” party,
wedding reception
back room of emergency call centre

a search for an escaped three-legged cat
Batman movie marathon on TV
serious injury from soup-can lid
motel room with satellite TV
pregnancy scare
encroaching forest fire, home invasion
keyboard with sticky
key
keyboard with missing
key
25-minute sneezing fit, roof cave-in
computer breakdowns (19)
fire alarm and building evacuation
emotional breakdowns (10)
relationship failures (3), eviction notice (1)
solar panel falling from roof, causing power outage

pregnant, two days from term, mononucleosis
Los Angeles heat wave, no air conditioning
Hurricane Ernesto (4)
writing at work (15)
determination to type one-handed
physical infirmity that makes sitting impossible
destruction of reference books by wood rats
writing with raven-feather quill and iPAQ handwriting-recognition software