answer:Think of it instead as the literary equivalent of a sack race. There’s no way to keep your dignity, so you might as well get into the spirit of it and have fun, even if you fall on your face a few times. The same thing is happening to everybody else. Go ahead, laugh—and keep hopping. For me and I think for many. the biggest challenge is just staying with it—grinding out your 1667 words per day whether they’re any good or not. I am a compulsive polisher, so turning off my inner editor and just going on without looking back is antithetical to my normal approach. It turns out to be good for me in the same liberated head-clearing way that Zen is good for my overly cerebral approach to life. There’s no way to avoid having your story reflect yourself any more than you can keep your dreams from reflecting yourself. But I don’t write about my own life, which is very ordinary and dull (I like it, but no one will ever make a movie about it). My story last year was totally outlandish and weird, but it came from me all the same—from some part of me that surfaced only when all the usual rules were suspended. Surprise! That’s part of what makes it both revelatory and fun. If you are drawn to the idea at all, why not give it a shot? It’s a chance to try something different. As a writer, surely you want to expand your horizons. Besides, it doesn’t cost anything, and there’s no penalty if you don’t finish. No matter what, as long as you grind out some words, you’ll have something you wouldn’t have had otherwise, and that’s a writing experience like no other. You know what? I bet you’ll learn something new about yourself in the process.