30-Day Writing Challenge
Here comes November, the month when writers around the world sharpen their pencils or fire up their computers and get ready to write – a lot. So it’s time for my annual 30-day Writing with Pleasure Challenge.
You can sign up for National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo, and pledge to write 50,ooo words in 30 days. Or perhaps you'd rather hook up with one of NaNoWriMo's younger siblings, such as NaPoWriMo ("30 poems in 30 days") or AcWritMo (hashtag #acwrimo), an informal network of academic writers who adhere to these 6 rules:
You have to decide on a goal where you count either words, hours or projects.
You declare your goal by signing up on the ‘Accountability Spreadsheet’.
You then draft your approach to the month, making sure you have done enough preparation to write a lot.
You discuss your progress on social media like Twitter and Facebook.
You have to work really hard and not get distracted.
And at the end you must publicly declare your results on the spreadsheet or on social media.
If all this sounds appealing to you, then by all means go for it! Write your entire novel or draft your PhD dissertation during a disciplined month of working "really hard" – and please don't forget to post about it on social media so that the rest of us can be reminded what lazy sluggards we are in comparison.
But if you'd prefer to take a more joyful and less punitive approach to daily writing, my free 30-day Writing with Pleasure Challenge offers a very different kind of writing challenge, prompting you to write with pleasure for at least 25 minutes a day every day for 30 days.
If you make it through the full series of 30 daily prompts, you'll have a lot of fun along the way -- but if you miss a few days here and there, that's okay too. This exercise is all about finding pleasure in writing, which sometimes means taking a day off from writing.
Please forward the registration link widely and encourage other writers to join the fun!
I look forward (with pleasure!) to seeing you there.
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