A Story Every Fortnight: The Hassler Memorial Challenge

I want to just push myself to write, and I don't think I can sustain a Nanowrimo every month.

If I can do this the whole year, and do Nanowrimo, I'll have about 20 stories plus another novel by the time WisCon comes around again next year.

Inspiration #1:
Jon Hassler was the first author who really responded to me (literally with several letters and postcards) and inspired me.
He just died this spring at the age of 74.
On Hassler's website there's a Q and A. One of the questions is:

Q. When and why did you begin writing? When did you first consider yourself a writer?

A. I began to write on September 10, 1970, at the age of 37. I believe I had imagined myself a writer form the age of five, when my parents read to me, but I was a late starter. On that morning I awoke to a voice in my head saying, "Half your life is over, Hassler, you'd better get started."

Note that eerily, the way it turned out, his life really was half over, but he wrote right up to the end.
And then this article goes into more detail about how he started - he sat down that morning and started writing the first story, finished it 2 weeks later. After 28 weeks, he had 14 stories.
This was 1970, and so there were 8 years of getting the stories published and trying to sell his first novel until 1977 when it was published (Staggerford).
So, I'm 34. I don't really know how much time I have. My mom died at 42. Who really knows?

Inspiration 2:
L. Timmel Duchamp (see Aqueduct Press Blog - could not find a personal site for her yet)'s guest of honor speech at WisCon, and the entire experience of WisCon.
There is nothing keeping me from doing this but myself, really.
And just like I had the Nanowrimo party and the play afterward with PM, EK, MR to look forward to, here I can look forward to going to WisCon next year and being able to say that I've done this. IN addition to Nanowrimo, and maybe even if I feel ready, applying to something like Clarion.

Inspiration 3:
Pat's work (and she didn't start writing until her twenties, so I'm just 10 years behind her, and 3 years ahead of Hassler).

So here's the thing, and I don't even need a bake sale to get it kicked off (or even need to tell anyone if I don't want to).

Every two weeks, on the same schedule as our sprints for work, I will write a story. The first "sprint" ends next Monday, which is only about a week, but otherwise I will be off kilter from the work schedule.
No promises as to the length of the stories, but they should have beginning, middle and end and they should be written as if someone is going to read it (even if they don't).
Let's see how this will work.