Rather than aiming for, say, 50,000 words during National Novel Writing Month, change your target to a goal you can reasonably achieve, such as 10,000 total words or 15 minutes of daily writing. If you’re using a challenge to build your writing practice, avoid burnout by starting small. Be mindful of this fact when deciding whether to participate in a particular challenge. Working with this level of focus and commitment can lead to burnout if you don’t already have an established writing practice in place. Most writing challenges require deep work, often over a long period of time. ![]() Tip #5: Have a Strong writing practice in place I want to write one short story a week to hone my storytelling skills and build creative momentum. I want to confront my perfectionism by participating in timed writing sprints. I want to overcome my fear of criticism by sharing my work with other challenge participants. I want to leverage the accountability built into this challenge to develop my writing practice. Drafting a book in a month is a valid goal, but what happens when the draft is complete? How do you want that month of hard work to impact your writing life? The following are examples of solid reasons to participate in a writing challenge: When considering your why, move beyond output. Knowing why you’d like to participate and how the challenge will benefit your writing life can help you remain focused and motivated as you work. Or, you can avoid sharing your progress online if doing so prompts you to compare yourself to other writers.īy nature, writing challenges are difficult to complete. You can also tweak the terms of a challenge to better align with your needs.įor example, you can alter the target output you pursue during a challenge to better align with your busy schedule. Saying no to a writing challenge because of its terms or potential emotional impact isn’t your only option. If a writing challenge you’re interested in would trigger these internal struggles, you might want to reconsider participating. Do you often wrestle with perfectionism or the comparison trap? With the fears of failure, criticism, or rejection? Or with the belief that you aren’t “good enough” to write the stories you want to tell? Knowing this, consider the internal struggles you commonly face in your writing life. The last thing you want a writing challenge to do is to trigger negative self-talk or creative fear. If the terms of a challenge don’t seem conducive to a positive experience for you, then it might be best that you don’t participate. Remember that a good writing challenge should motivate you to create without causing overwhelm. How would this challenge help me achieve my personal definition of writing success? Ask yourself:ĭoes my schedule allow me to devote adequate time and energy to this challenge?ĭo the terms of this challenge align with my unique writing process? Or, would this challenge pressure me to use writing techniques that I don’t enjoy? Before deciding to take part, consider the terms of the challenge and whether they mesh well with your schedule, writing process, and creative aims. There’s little point in participating in a challenge that won’t benefit your writing life. Tip #1: Assess The Challenge before committing Good news, writer! Below, I’m sharing my top eight tips for making the most of a writing challenge. But how do you gain these positive benefits without encountering unhealthy pressure and its consequences? In addition to the benefits I shared above, completing a challenge can provide a sense of creative accomplishment and motivation. Still, these potential consequences don’t mean you should avoid participating in writing challenges. These results don’t benefit your writing practice or long-term creative success in any way. ![]() ![]() This pressure can then lead to creative burnout, a broken writing habit, and feelings inadequacy and shame. The drive to produce a specific creative output, especially within a limited time, can introduce an unhealthy pressure to succeed. But writing challenges have a dark side that isn’t often discussed. Whatever the intended output, writing challenges can present great opportunities to improve your writing skills and commitment to the craft. Or it can be a community-based event that encourages you to write daily or weekly short fiction, a 50,000-word novel in a month, or another goal entirely. It can be a simple self-imposed goal or deadline. With National Novel Writing Month just six weeks away, it's time we had a chat about writing challenges.Ī writing challenge can take many forms.
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