Would anyone be interested in 30-Day Challenges? 

I know there is the Nano in the fall, and we have poetry and short story challenges.  I'm thinking we could expand on those and have some challenges to keep us engaged with our craft and the forum.  The goal of the challenges would be much less drastic than nano, where some people rearrange their whole lives to participate.  They would have to be achievable, but something that stretches. Not necessarily every month consecutively.

Ideas I have include:

Write250 - A 30-day Challenge that you will write 250 words a day, everyday. You could post your daily 250 for feedback or just post a message that you did it (honor system). Your work could be all on one piece or a new, different snippet every day like a blog post or short article.  It doesn't matter whether you write fiction or non-fiction.  It only matters that you write (or attempt to write) 250 words everyday to keep the pen moving.  Freestyle, words on the page. No editing. That would come later.

Edit250 -  A 30-day Challenge to edit those Write250 pieces.  So next you work on editing/cleaning up those 250 words from the first challenge. Maybe you work with a goal to tighten it up, whittle it down to only 150 words. Practice the art of speaking volumes with as few words as possible. Get those little snippets into shape as either idea prompts for later development.

Par4 - A 30-day Challenge to research and identify four new markets/agents/publications etc. to pitch your work to. Create a file that has the market, submission guidelines, contact information, samples, and a list of ideas that you can develop. The goal here would be to really dig deep into the potential publication and have a thorough file with everything you need. As opposed to have a list of 100 potential markets with just bits of information or ideas all over the place.

QueriesRock - A 30-day Challenge to craft one amazing query letter for your article, novel, or book proposal. Spend time focusing on that one-page letter that can move you to the land of published author. At the end of 30-days, you have a polished query letter that is directed to one specific person and introduces your one specific work.

All these are just ideas. I would personally like to have a little challenge to do at least something everyday, but I can't afford to make it a challenge that overwhelms my life. Then I wouldn't do anything at all, and I've been doing that for years already. These would be like little footsteps and little successes that keep you going forward.

Any thoughts? 



 

Sounds good to me.

I was given a challenge to take a poem, use it as source material and turn it into a piece of prose. I posted that on the Review My Work-Getting Started board this morning. Didn't know where else to put it. Take a look.
That's another thing we could try.

Don -

Great ideas. I wish I had thought of them.

Where is a good place to post the first 30 day challenge. I would hope it would be simply writing to being. 30 days of writing daily would get us into a habit of putting words into electrons and bothering the electrical system.

So, January 1 would probably be the best time to start. Where is the best place to meet and encourage and support each other?

If you want to start this, I will get it stickied for you. Where is the best board do you all think?

You could just set up a new board for 30-day challenges. 

I'll run that by the boss Mr B

Or maybe a board Challenges, to include all challenges and not only the 30-day ones.

How Exciting!  Let's do this!  I'll write up a post introducing the first Challenge.  FF can move and sticky it wherever they decide is best.

Quote from: WordBird on January 01, 2018, 12:03:41 PM
How Exciting!  Let's do this!  I'll write up a post introducing the first Challenge.  FF can move and sticky it wherever they decide is best.

Ha! You can't!
The first Challenge is already up and running. (Though it's not a 30-day challenge.)
https://bestwritingforum.com/index.php/topic,81.0.html

No worries, Dansinger.... There is always room for one more challenge. :-)

That's what I thought.

The 30-Day Challenge is now open. Start the new year with a habit for writing every day.  :) :-*

Nice. I approve.