SEARSMONT — Author Danielle Bannister, of Searsmont, has a new book she’s pushing herself to write this month. For the entire month of November, she is supposed to write 1,667 words a day, according to the National Novel Writing Month challenge, which more than 300,000 people across the globe participated in last year.

She said, “I’ve not done that much so far. I’m behind.” The best she’s done so far is about 800 words a day. “And after I hit that number I say to myself, ‘You know what? I’ve written enough today.’”

She’s already a self-published author of a romance series called Pulled, Pulled Back and Pulled Back Again, “Because I’m really clever with my titles,” she said.

She and her co-author, Amy Miles, wrote another novel after this series called Netherword that they’re pitching to producers and publishers. But for this month, her NaNoWriMo challenge is another romance called The A,B, C's of Dee.

“This book is about a 40-year-old single woman who has really done nothing substantial with her life,” she said. “She foolishly decides to take a bet from a rich friend to date 26 men in a year in alphabetical order. So, it’s really about 26 disastrous dates.”

Following is an excerpt:

Adam

“It's ten minutes to five and my underwear has already climbed up my ass more times than people have climbed Mt. Rushmore. I'd love to blame Victoria's Secret for selling me faulty '3 for $25.00′ panties, but let's be honest, I'm the one trying to cram my 40 year old fanny into underwear meant for people who don't eat food. They just looked so good on the stark, white half-mannequin butt, that I thought they would totally cover the square footage of my backside. I was grossly mistaken.”

As a participant of the NaNoWriMo challenge for the past four years, she said she’s only been able to complete the 50,000 word challenge once. And, she admits she’s nowhere near that number as the end of November approaches.

Like most emerging writers in Maine, Bannister supports herself through several part-time jobs. She is the director of the Religious Exploration program at the Unitarian Universality Church in Belfast as well as a PR consultant for Red Coat PR, which helps independent authors get exposure.

She said, “So, I help pump up other authors as well as my own stuff.”

Bannister said the way she gets into the groove when she’s sitting down to write is to type a post on Facebook that she’s starting to write.

“That way if people continue to see me still posting on Facebook, they’ll start to yell at me to get back to work,” she said. “I do that intentionally so people will direct me, because writing sometimes is so ADHD. Oh look! Something sparkly! and I’m distracted.”

Bannister has a profile on the NaNoWriMo website, along with thousands of other writers. “They provide you with daily charts, just to let you know how bad you’re sucking,” she said. “They’re really nice to do that for you.”

She said is currently at 36,335 words toward her 60,000-word goal. She has about 10 local friends who are participating and many more on Facebook across the country.

“NaNoWriMo just forces you to keep going,” she said. “You can’t go back and fix what you’ve done. Their philosophy is ‘write it and move on.’”

To see more of Bannister’s chapter excerpts, follow her blog: The Ramblings of a Struggling Writer.

To find out more about the challenge visit: National Novel Writing Month

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com