Writing Challenges

Goals, dares, and other crazy challenges.

NaNoWriMo: an overview

/ sarahelund / Leave a comment

Hello dear reader.

I’ve missed you, which means it’s about time I get back to this whole blogging thing. You’ll be happy to know that in the last two years, I have not been idle. I mean, of course I’ve been idle occasionally. But I have been writing.

Most recently, I had the very exciting, overwhelming, mind-boggling experience of participating in National Novel Writing Month.

From the website:

“National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing. On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 p.m. on November 30. Valuing enthusiasm, determination, and a deadline, NaNoWriMo is for anyone who has ever thought fleetingly about writing a novel. Here’s a little more about how it all works.”

I’m not certain how I managed to be unaware of NaNoWriMo for the last few years (it began in 1999 with 21 participants and in 2013 I was one of 365,519 who made the attempt), but in the last week of October it came across my path and I embraced it.

I decided to take part for a few reasons.

  1. I’ve had a story outlined for almost two years now, waiting for the time when I would commit it to (digital)paper
  2. I have a love/hate/romantic/skeptic relationship with fate, and the timing of learning about NaNoWriMo a week before it began seemed… fortuitous
  3. NaNoWriMo is specifically designed to help me overcome my greatest weaknesses in writing. Namely, over-editing, needing everything to be perfect the first time it’s written, stalling on a story early. It was as perfect of a writing exercise as I could imagine
  4. The over-achiever inside liked the idea of an ambitious but not impossible project

So I refined my outline, did some preliminary research, wrote and signed a contract with myself (e.g. Point #4. For every 30 minutes of writing, I will do 10 minutes of exercise), elicited the support of the stalwart JT, got acquainted with the forums, and off I went.

The result? I won. I did it. I started writing on November 1 at 6 a.m. – blurry-eyed, pyjama clad, grumpy but motivated – and stopped writing on November 29 around 5:30 p.m. with a total of 50,250 words.

I’ll go into more detail later, but the main point is this: My story isn’t great. Maybe a tenth of it will survive editing, and much more still needs to be written. But I wrote 50,000 words… in a MONTH, and that feels incredible. I worked through unlikeable characters, massive plot holes, inconsistent timelines, and a number of other issues by just continuing to pound the keyboard. Somehow, I also managed to have a few moments of beautiful writing, and found a community of crazy, creative word nerds just like me.

Yours,

S.E. Lund

Challenge yourself to write less.

/ sarahelund / 1 Comment

Can you write a story in 50 words or less? That’s the goal of fellow writers & bloggers at 50 Items or Less ,”a digital community that seeks to foster creativity and inspire each member to challenge themselves to think differently, deeply, and without limitation.” The only rule of the group is to keep their creative “mini-sagas” to exactly 50 words, or sometimes fewer if the integrity of the work would be challenged by pushing it to 50.

 

One example I like, by Kristina Skaggs on March 12, is as follows: “I will see her after we graduate college. She looks the same; her hair is the same, smiles and giggles the same. I’ll look in the crowd for someone else to talk to; she’ll be doing the same, because we have nine years in common and nothing to talk about.”

 

Here is my first attempt: “The big hill in my parent’s yard is dew-filled, cold, after dusk in September. I shiver, need a jacket, pretend I’m warm, climb to the top. Laughing, I lie down and start to roll again. The world is chilled giddy chaos, but rights itself when I wrap around his sneakers.”

 

Thoughts? Post your own attempt in the comments section, or email me at hourtenthousand@hotmail.com and I’ll add it to my next post!

 

Creatively yours,

 

S.E. Lund

Why you should be blogging right now!

/ sarahelund / Leave a comment

Hello readers,

Blogging is an incredible way to get into the habit of long-form writing. Authors like Anne Lamott – sidenote: Please read her honest and entertaining book about writing, Bird by Bird. If I know you, I’ll even lend it to you. – understand that half the battle is training yourself to sit down and write every day. Putting something down on (screen)paper is essential. Only if you write many many many things will you be able to dig out the gold among the detritus in the (digital) trash. Having a blog is a great way to get into this habit.

Why else should you be blogging right now? Because almost as much as you want to be an extraordinary creative writer, you want a job. According to the Society of Digital Agencies’ annual outlook survey, “blog writing, editing, and copywriting were named an increased 2012 priority by 61% of organizations, and an ongoing priority for 37%” (“Wanted: People who can actually write . . . and edit”). This makes being a good blogger the #1 digital talent an employer is looking for. Demonstrating strong long-form writing and editing skills, creating engaging content, and being able to attract readers are prized skills to hiring organizations.

Your blogging encourager and career advisor,

S.E. Lund

A journey to excellence

/ sarahelund / Leave a comment

Dearest reader,

You’ve stumbled upon a blog – or actually, a blogger – with an ambitious goal:

I will write (creatively) for 10,000 hours.

“But why would you do that?” you ask.
“To become an expert.”
You look at me, head tilted, one eyebrow raised, and shake your head slightly.
“That sounds boring,” you say. “Why not do something more entertaining for 10,000 hours? Like juggle. You could become the best juggler the world has ever seen. You could make juggling into more than a clown’s favorite activity. You could make it a sport to be revered.”

Now, I’ve got to admit that you have a point. To be the world’s foremost juggler, maybe the best juggler in history, would be super neat. It would certainly be more interesting to watch than writing. Plus, as I can already juggle (four balls on a good day), I have a solid base on which to build.

But my ambition is not the be the world’s foremost juggler. I just want to be a really, really fantastic writer. What’s more, I enjoy writing more than juggling. Love it.

So even if no one but my patient boyfriend, ultra-proud mum, and occasional writing group ever notices the difference between hour one and hour 2500, this is something I want to try.

WHY 10,000 HOURS?

If you’ve read Outliers by Malcolm Galdwell, you may be familiar with the 10,000 rule. Basically, Gladwell puts forth the idea that 10,000 hours of deliberate practice is the magic number for true expertise in an area. I’m sure we could all come up with examples of great achievement without this kind of time expenditure, but it is an interesting and inspiring idea that if a person has an average amount of innate talent in an area, the difference between being good and being great is simply a matter of dedication and willingness to work.

THE JOURNEY

I think the digital age allows for a host of opportunities for creative writers. There are sites for posting short stories and poetry, and there are sites dedicated to helping novice writers through writer’s block, with inspiration, with editing. There are online communities which allow you to write collaboratively with complete strangers, and there are blogs, which can function simply as publishable journals. The time we live in gives us dozens more opportunities for sharing, connecting, and writing publicly than ever before.

Part of what this blog aims to do is test out and share those opportunities with you, as I work my way from hour 1 to hour 10,000.

You might ask how long it will take to get there, and that is a reasonable question. Let’s do some math. If we break this down into reasonable chunks – let’s say one hour a day, every day, without exception – it will take me approximately 27.4 years. Two hours a day will take about 13.7 years, three will take 9.15, and four hours of creative writing per day will take 6.85 years.

Basically, sit down and strap in for the long haul, folks.

One down.

Sincerely,

S.E. Lund