And lucky for you, we’ve compiled a list of some writing challenges you can participate in! If you’re looking to try something new, power through a difficult draft, or just crank out words, writing challenges might be worth checking out. The momentum might not last forever, but you don’t need it to! The goal is to have fun and make something. You get to stay in the comfort of your own home, but you’re meeting people online, you’re working on a new project, and the whole enterprise has that fun, novel feeling you get at summer camp. What more could you need?įor me, personally, writing challenges often feel a little bit like writing camp. You can flex your writing muscles, maybe try something new, and have some fellow participants to commiserate with. Of course, you don’t need to write every single day to be a “real” writer, but just like athletes do marathons, writers can get a lot out of a good challenge. Writing challenges also encourage writers to practice, often every day. This sense of community helps writers amp each other up-it’s a team dynamic we don’t often get to experience as writers, and it can make the world of difference powering through a first draft or a difficult round of revisions. First and foremost, they connect a participant to a community of writers participating in the same challenge. Writing challenges do a few excellent things for their participants. If there isn’t a prize, why should you bother? Why Should I Try a Writing Challenge? They’re challenges created for writers with the intent of getting writers to, well, write! These aren’t writing contests-there often isn’t a cash prize or publication prize for people who participate in writing challenges. Writing challenges are exactly what they sound like. It can feel a little like getting stranded, and it’s no wonder some writers jump ship on their projects.īut it doesn’t need to be so lonely, nor does it need to be boring! Participating in a writing challenge might be your ticket out of that sticky spot. Sometimes we fall into a formula when we write books, or we can’t get ourselves past the first few chapters of an idea, or we’re stuck in the dreaded middle section of our novel for what feels like forever. Make the list.Writing can get kind of lonely sometimes. You may not have owned so many cars – or be that interested, so what about shoes, houses, coats, pets, houseplants, mugs, … you name it. Goldberg suggests: ‘Keep these topics in your back pocket and exercise them often.’Ī ’38 Buick convertible with a rumbleseat and a fireball eightĪ ’32 Packard Victoria with cut-glass bud vases and a 7-foot hoodĪ ’38 Packard sedan whose clutch my girlfriend blew outĪ ’40 Plymouth 2-door with the shift right up there on the wheelĪ ’42 Nash coupe, black and utterly uninterestingĪ ’47 Cadillac convertible, long and sexy as a serious kissĪ ’35 Dodge thronging with old ladies’ ghostsĪ ’56 MG we souped up so hot it would barely run on gasolineĪ ’62 Volvo 544, eye-shadow blue and indomitableĪ ’62 Rambler sedan nobody had ever made love inĪ ’48 Buick convertible that honest-to-God liked meĪ ’65 Ford Galaxy in which I destroyed a Kharman Ghia, a privet hedge, and finally my relative innocenceĪ ’66 Ford Country Squire with the heart of a ClydesdaleĪ ’68 Ford Country Squire clean enough to take to bedĪ ’70 Chevy wagon as drab as a submarine’s insidesĪ 72 Audi so corrupt I still can’t bear talking about itĪn ’82 Rabbit that helped me discover where my sciatic nerve is. You can have more than one go at an idea. You have to start somewhere and you will build up stamina and skill and fluency and confidence. These bursts of writing can be thought of as training to run a distance. In the opening chapter the advice is to just keep going. These first prompts are from a wonderful book about writing memoir by Natalie Goldberg called Old Friend from Far Away. Send us photos of your writing nook, with or without you writing there. We will aim to post a ten-minute writing prompt daily. Even the youngest can draw along with you.ĭon’t be hard on yourself. Equally, this might be something you do with other family members. You may choose to write alone, a blessed moment of quietness. Find the spot, inside or out, if you can, and let the words arrive. Choose your preferred form of writing equipment – screen, paper, notebook, pen, pencil. If you have a timer, set it, so that you don’t have to think about the time. You will know where, when and how this will work best for you. During times like these you might find, more than ever, that writing could work its magic. We suggest that you aim to carve yourself a ten-minute slot each day for your own writing. Of course, you can write for longer, but ten minutes feels possible as a starting point. Spring and summer of 2020 brought a time of enforced isolation and high demands on resilience, patience and calm.
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