Bill Henderson Joins the Dickens Challenge

The Dickens Challenge continues to spark interest and we have yet another writer on board. Chapters 1 and 2 are and up and posted and I'm excited about this new novel. Please welcome Bill Henderson as our newest Dickens Challenger!

Bill Henderson is a professional novelist, screenwriter, documentarian, and all-around media maven who worked with the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He’s written and had published a memoir and two novels, one of which, “I Killed Hemingway,” was a NYT Notable Book of the Year in 1993. He now teaches writing in North Carolina and runs a writing website at http://billhendersononline.com. His DICKENS CHALLENGE novel, Regenerating Jeff, began life as an obsession (sound familiar, anyone?) and can be read at http://regeneratingjeff.blogspot.com

New Challengers Welcome

When Timothy Hallinan first proposed the Dickens Challenge, a number of you were tempted – come on, you know you were – but you held back. The timing was bad for some people and it was a scary proposition. We’re close to six chapters in, all of the writers have reported that it’s been a great experience, so for those of you who had initial reservations or prior commitments, now might be a good time to jump into the pool.

Several people have asked me questions about the rules of the Dickens Challenge and there really aren’t any. One of the most frequent questions is, “when does it end”? It ends when you’re finished or you decide you’ve had enough. Not everybody manages to post every week and we still love them and encourage them. There’s no winner and there’s no competition, just the kind of support and motivation that I’ve learned to love so much in our online writing community.

Bill Henderson, novelist, teacher and writing coach is thinking about joining us and posted about it today at his blog, TrueVoice.

In Bill’s post he talks about the Dickens Challenge as being a great way to follow up NaNoWriMo. I’ve never participated in NaNoWriMo, but every writer I know who has, said it was a great experience. They also said that post-NaNoWriMo, it was difficult to maintain that regular writing routine.

So if you’ve been following my progress on this interesting exercise and you’ve wondered whether it might give your writing a shot in the arm – give it a try. As Tim wisely told those of us who were especially neurotic about diving in, you’re not going to be banned from the internet if you start and decide not to go on.

Any takers?