Start Creating Again: Why Writing Challenges Are Great
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We’re about halfway through October, and as November starts to become visible on the far edge of the horizon, writers out there (perhaps you, yourself) are pulling together ideas, rough drafts, outlines, notebooks, favorite pens, lucky charms, mascots, tea/coffee/beverages of choice, and other necessities to rise to the challenge of writing a novel in a month. Jumping into NaNoWriMo is a complicated choice for many writers this year (for several reasons, including some of their recent statements about the use of AI, which you can read more about here), but that doesn’t mean you can’t go for it on your own. And, even better, you’re not limited to a specific goal. You can customize it to your schedule and your aims. There are lots of ways you can set up your own challenge to breathe new life into an old project, start a fresh story, develop or reclaim a writing habit, or simply play.
In short, setting a writing challenge could be just the thing you need to get back to creating.
Why participate in a writing challenge?
We’ve written from time to time on this blog about setting goals for yourself as a writer, and others have also spilled a lot of ink on the subject. Writing challenges are one form of setting goals. It can be intimidating to consider taking on a writing challenge, wondering how we’ll find the time to write, if we’ll be able to hold ourselves to the standard we decided on, if we’ll be able to write anything at all. But a challenge—complete with a set window of time—is a way for you to make discernable progress on a concrete goal. This is a rare thing indeed for writers and very valuable. It can be very hard to know when we’re moving forward with a story or to know when we’ve finished.
The end result of a writing challenge often gets the most attention. After all, a lot of the reason we sign up for such a thing is for the very reason that we do, in fact, want to have written a draft of a novel or created a short story or crafted several poems. This is an enormous benefit—at the end, you will have words on the page, no matter what.
But there’s another benefit that’s often overlooked, and that is by sticking to the writing goal that you have set, you have been disciplining yourself to sit down and write. You have been building a habit. You have been committing to carve out space for creativity. All of these are wonderful things, and to that list, you can add one more: you aren’t relying on inspiration. Inspiration isn’t sustainable as a power source for writers; it comes and goes. Sometimes it’s helpful, and sometimes it draws our attention away with the promise of a newer, more interesting story over there. By keeping to a writing challenge, you train yourself to push forward with or without inspiration. Try it—you’ll be surprised at far you can go.
Types of writing challenges
Word count challenges
The most well-known writing challenge is National Novel Writing Month, which encourages writers to write a novel in the month of November (well, 50,000 words, which, really, we know isn’t always the same thing as a novel!). At its heart, this is a word count challenge. By writing 1,667 words a day, you will inevitably reach the total goal by the end of the month. Word count goals are very easy to track, and they’re especially useful if you’re needing to simply get words out of your head and onto the page. Having to amass words also keeps you from editing what you’ve written so far or endlessly tweaking sentences.
For these challenges, you can set any number of words and set your own pace. You can aim for a daily, weekly, or monthly word count.
Time challenges
For a different kind of challenge, you can set yourself time goals rather than word goals. If your time is limited or you’re feeling daunted by the blank page, try writing sprints of five minutes. If your schedule allows, give yourself a bigger wedge of time that’s dedicated only to writing, such as a half hour or an hour. For the time that you set aside, staunchly resist all temptations to check social media, look at your phone, clean the house, do laundry, etc. If necessary, take steps to protect your designated writing time. Simply signing out of social media or putting your phone in another room can be enough of a deterrent to keep you from getting distracted. If you’re struggling to stay focused, start with smaller increments of time and work your way up. It’ll get easier, I promise!
Some writers find that they benefit from giving themselves some “rules” for timed challenges, and you may find this to be true as well. These rules can be things like not allowing yourself to stop typing or writing for the full time or not allowing backspacing/erasing. I often encourage writers who want to use time challenges to give themselves some rules like this to avoid using up the time on endlessly rewording sentences, rereading older sections of your work in progress, or other habits that keep you from moving forward. (I speak from personal experience!)
Submissions challenges
Deadlines are not only great motivators but also naturally limited challenges. Magazines, journals, anthologies, and blogs often put out open calls for submissions. As these calls already have built-in word count limits, deadlines, and formats (essays, short stories, poems, etc.), you can use them as writing challenges for yourself. Short-form writing has a lot of benefits—even if you’re a novelist through and through—such as practicing story craft elements on a smaller scale, exploring new characters, or trying out a story craft element that couldn’t be sustained over many pages but that’s just perfect for a one-shot. Calls with specific prompts or themes are great for inspiring ideas you may not have considered writing about before (the short story I’m proudest of was one I wrote for an anthology about bards and scribes). There are many, many calls out there, so take a look and see what catches your fancy. You can find them shared in online writing groups as well as through basic searches. I always recommend writers check out Erica Verillo’s incredibly detailed and up-to-date website, Publishing and Other Forms of Insanity, where you can find a compilation of magazines, anthologies, and other opportunities that are open for the current month.
Looking for a challenge?
Your two editors here at Ground Crew Editorial are hosting a challenge of our own for the month of November, where we’ll be sending a daily email designed to encourage and inspire you to commit to writing for a least five minutes each day. For those who need a starting place, we’ll include a writing prompt in the email. For those who have works in progress, we’ll be happy to cheer you on. If you’re in need of an accountability partner, we’re also happy to give you weekly accountability (but only if you ask us to check in!).
Stay tuned for details on our Facebook page next week (October 21, 2024).
Interested in working with us?
We’re editors who can help you take your book to the next level, whether you’re needing big-picture feedback or a final line-level polish.
The photo in this post is thanks to Sear Greyson on Unsplash!
