Write a book in a month? That’s the premise of a competition in which you have to write 50,000 words (175 pages) in 30 days. “Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that’s a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create.” The number of winners – writers who cross the 50,000-word finish line – has grown from six out of 20 in 1999 to more than 2,000 out of 14,000 in 2002, with 4,000 expected to qualify this year.