Creative Challenge: 52 in 2019!

If you’re a writer like me, you like to take on challenges and overcome them. Just look at #nanowrimo, am I right? (I fell on my face for two weeks after that one, but YMMV.) Well, here’s a creative challenge that doesn’t stuff it all into one month: let’s write one story per week in 2019.

I promise this is not as bad as it sounds.

Generally accepted writing advice tells us that being prolific is one of the keys to succeeding. The 80/20 or 90/10 rules illustrate what many of us have noticed: that most of what we write won’t be usable, but there’ll be gems hiding in the roughage. My proposal is to write a story once per week in an attempt to (eventually) produce usable, revisable, publishable material, and get all of that not-so-great stuff out of the way as quickly as possible. I did this for half the year in 2015, and walked away with several stories and ideas that had potential. I tried again in 2017, and though I failed to write all fifty two stories, I still walked away from the challenge with more to work with than I would’ve had otherwise.

This is not impossible, and participating for even a little while can be a benefit, so I’m going to try again.

If you’re interested in participating…

Rules

1. Start and complete a new piece of writing per week.

A story, a scene–both are fine, as long as you complete what you start. It doesn’t have to be a winner. (Most of mine aren’t.) Just try something new every week.

2. Yes, you can do make-ups for missed weeks.

I don’t recommend doing it often, as the work really piles up, but I totally get that some weeks are too busy for doing much besides keeping your head above water.

3. Artists, bloggers, and other creatives are welcome!

This isn’t just a writing exercise, but if you’re drawing instead, you’ll have to do some mental conversion. For instance, it may not be reasonable to expect a finished painting per week, but how about line drawings? Or a small comic? If you’re a blogger, how about putting together an ebook or two, and dedicating yourself to writing a chapter per week? It’s all up to you. What matters is that you set a doable goal and keep trying to create new work.

4. Keep us updated.

You don’t have to prove that you participated, but when you update your progress via our monthly check-in posts, your successes–or the problems you encounter–can be a great way to encourage others and get support from the community.


I’ve been writing this like I expect others to participate, and that would be awesome. Normally I do this alone. So, even if nobody else participates, I’ll give it my best shot, and hopefully walk away with more stories I can revise and try to send out later. But if other people do decide to participate, I’ll create a community for it so we can cheer each other on.

This is not a contest; there’s no way to “win.” All you have to do is create.

Are you in?

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