I have always wanted to write my very own novel, but, like many aspiring authors, I never had the guts to do it -- until I discovered the National Novel Writing Month in an article in the Los Angeles Times under the liberating headline, "Releasing Their Inner Novelist."

Created by Chris Baty, an Oakland-based freelance writer, NaNoWriMo, as it's been nicknamed, started back in 1999 as a way to help writers overcome their inhibitions, blast through the densest writer's block with their keyboards and produce a novel of at least 50,000 words during the 30 days of November.

Writers posted their word counts to track their progress on Baty's Web site. In the first year of this challenge, only six sprinted to the finish line. By 2000, the number had jumped to 29. By midnight, Dec. 1, 2001, an estimated 700 of the 5,000-plus participants actually made it.

Exhausted, I proudly stood among them.

It was no easy task, even though I had a slight head start. I had compiled over the years a 10-page list of characters for a fantasy novel.

Still, it took me three days to get the first page written.

Frustration quickly set in, but I knew I had to get words down on the page -- even if they were awful.

The countdown was on.

I had to ignore the writer's block that paralyzed me and the relentless urge to delete words, lines and paragraphs.

There were incessant distractions. Up to now, my routine was simple: go to work, make dinner, eat, then watch TV until bedtime. On laidback weekends, it would be hours of TV or a movie with my boyfriend.

I realized I had to alter my habits to make time and force myself to write.

So I became a sleep-deprived hermit. Knowing I had to average 11 pages a day, I was soon finishing five to nine pages a day, depending on my mood.

If I was on a roll, everything flowed, and the pages and my imagination kept on churning.

The weekends were a welcome bonus, but when I realized guiltily that the long Thanksgiving holiday had passed, with only a few paltry pages to show for it, I cut back even more drastically on sleep as I closed in on the final, critical week.

Staying awake on sheer determination and discipline alone (plus a large latté), I saw that my story was finally beginning to make sense as I posted the word count each day on the NaNoWriMo Web site.

Toward the end, everything became a wordy blur. But I made it, duly earning my reward: a weekend in bed.

It's been a few months since my rookie writing marathon. Was it worth the trouble? Yes.

I learned how to be creative and disciplined in a short period of time.

The next step is to edit my manuscript and think about a new storyline because when November comes along, I am determined to try again.

Yee is research assistant in the Office of Development Research. A UCLA alumna, she obtained a Certificate in Creative Writing from UCLA Extension last year.