Dawn Colclasure's Blog

Author and poet Dawn Colclasure

Saturday, September 10, 2022

Try a Writing Challenge

 

Are you dealing with writer’s block?

 

Struggling with a creativity block?

 

At a loss of what to write?

 

Then try a writing challenge!

 

There are so many different kinds of writing challenges out there for all kinds of writers. There are daily, weekly, monthly and yearly challenges that can get writers writing! Just search for “writing challenge” with your favorite search engine and you’ll see a lot of them turn up.

 

You can also use writing prompts to help you get writing. These can also be a part of your writing challenge.

 

I love doing writing challenges. I have been doing them for years and they are lots of fun. For the most part, they are not really “challenges” per se, because they usually give me something to write, which is what I enjoy doing. This blog post series is part of my writing challenge for September (to post about writing every day). And some of the books I have written were the products of writing challenges. I am also currently doing a year-long challenge: writing and publishing an ebook for every month of the year.

 

I love doing writing challenges so much that I even self-pubbed an ebook called The Big Book of Writing Challenges.

 

A writing challenge may not always help a writer get out of a creativity block, but they can certainly help to get the writer thinking about putting words onto the paper. Plus, it gives writers something to write every day, if writing every day is a goal they are trying to achieve.

In addition to a writing challenge, you can also throw in a challenge on top of a challenge! In addition to writing something you were challenged to write, make it an even better challenge by aiming for a particular word count. I often keep track of how many words I write for certain things, and if I’m not satisfied with that number of words, then I challenge myself to write more! I say to myself something like “I wonder if I can turn those 325 words into 500 words” and when I try to do just that, I often manage to go even higher than the word count goal I set for myself.

 

You don’t need to do this as well for your own writing challenges, but it is one way to make your writing challenge a little more interesting. Plus, you just might be surprised when discovering what else you manage to write when you push yourself to reach a certain word count, or even go beyond it.

 

The next time you are presented with a writing challenge, stick out your chest, hold your head high and say, “Challenge accepted!” No matter how intimidating, impossible or crazy a writing challenge may seem, give it a try and see where your creativity takes you.

 

The next time you struggle with trying to write, consider trying a writing challenge. You can focus your search on the type of writing challenge you want to take on or the kind that you need which can help you out with whatever you are stuck on in your work.

 

A writing challenge can be a fun diversion for writers and it just might inspire a writer to come up with a new idea for something else to write.

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2 Comments:

  • At 9:55 AM , Blogger Malcom said...

    Great post! Inspire Writers Center just completed our annual #90DayWritingChallenge June 1 - August 31. Several completed more works/words than usual, including 3 screenplays, a novella, 2 published short stories and a published full novel.

     
  • At 7:23 AM , Blogger Dawn Wilson said...

    That's awesome! It's amazing what a writing challenge can do. :) Thank you for supporting writers. I will check out your site. And thank you for taking the time to read and comment on my blog.

     

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