THE ENTHUSIASTS

Author Doug Diaczuk Wins Again

For most people, writing a novel would be akin to running a marathon, a handy metaphor to toss down when describing a long, difficult ordeal. Those comparisons fail for local author Doug Diaczuk. He’s celebrating the recent publication and release of his second novel, Just Like a Real Person, by Anvil Press. The feat becomes even more impressive when you consider that Just Like a Real Person won the 2019 International 3-Day Novel Contest—and that it was Diaczuk’s second time winning.

So how do you pull off what many would consider to be the impossible? Diaczuk, just like any athlete, emphasizes practice and more practice. After six years as a lead reporter for TBNewsWatch. com and strong literary background anchored by Lakehead University’s English Master’s program, Diaczuk felt ready to tackle the 3-Day Novel Contest for the first time in 2015. “I had been writing a lot, not just for work, but doing reporting really taught me how to get words on the page quickly without hesitating,” he says, “I set word count goals each day, and even though I fell short, the story still came together.” Chalk, Diaczuk’s debut, would go on to win a 2016 Northern Lit Award and earn Diaczuk his first publication. Amazed at his success, Diaczuk couldn’t help but eye the calendar for the next opportunity to enter the contest.

By 2019, Diaczuk again felt ready. Far from masochistic, he describes how he goes about the contest: “It’s a misconception, you know, where you expect [during the contest] you would just drink all the coffee and eat candy and stay awake for three days, but I tried to take it easy. I set word goals for each day, ate well, slept as much as I could… I even went out on the second night, just to sit with a friend and get my head straight.”

Diaczuk is fairly calm when discussing the experience, but Just Like a Real Person goes to some weird places, although that might just be a consequence of writing up to 10,000 words in a day. Whereas Chalk was experimental in its approach, using the second voice, Just Like a Real Person follows a more traditional—albeit unreliable—third-person stream-of-consciousness style. This allowed Diaczuk to get words down faster and chase the story, leaving traditional author worries by the wayside.

Having won the contest twice now, Diaczuk is looking to take a bit more time on his next novel, though he can’t deny the attractiveness of a firm deadline. He’s confident that a method that balances both the intensity of the contest and with his already considerable skill will let him follow his next story idea, as well as the one after that.

Find Doug Diaczuk’s books at Entershine Bookshop or anvilpress.com.