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Saturday 2 July 2011

A Writing Challenge To Give You A Kick Up The ****




If you are like me the beautiful sunny days, offers of barbecue`s and days out is making it hard to find the motivation to sit at a desk and write.
Writing challenges can give you the push and discipline you need to keep writing.
The first writing challenge I took part in was NaNoWriMo last November. If You are not familiar with it you can find out more information here http://www.nanowrimo.org/
I found my first NaNoWriMo experience to be both positive and negative.  The positive aspects were that I made new writing friends, had support when I felt like giving up, learnt a great deal about writing, and it inspired me to start a blog.But most of all it gave me the kick I desperately needed to commit to my writing. After years of  making excuses why it was not a good time to write I WAS AND STILL AM WRITING.
Negative aspects? Well, last November seemed to be the month that everyone in my house took turns to be ill. Its hard to think straight after being up all night with crying children.
I started the month writing well and keeping up with the daily word count target but after two weeks I was falling rapidly behind. Writing like a lunatic to catch up I found I was just writing rubbish. I did not feel I had the time to put great thought into my writing.
In the end I finished the month at 42,000 words. But after reading through what I had written and deleting the rubbish the word count stood at approx 12,000 words. Sounds like abit of a pointless month. But what I did not achieve in pages of excellent work I gained in knowledge, experience and determination. I do not regret taking part it just did not suit my life style. That is where A Round Of Words In 80 Days   
is different. It is an 80 day (NaNoWriMo is only 30 days) writing challenge where you set your own goals. Be it a new piece of work, a work in progress, or just editing. You set your daily targets. You set your goal for the finishing line. This is a writing challenge that can be adapted to suit your own needs and life style. I am going to use this challenge to finish my novel AWAKEN. It starts 4th July. Why don`t you join in too.

3 comments:

  1. Sounds like it might be good motivation, I will definitely look into it. I wish it started on the 5th instead of the 4th tho, I have a bbq to go to =P

    (Blogger is being a pain and won't let me sign in to comment ugh)

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  2. you will have to use the 4th to think about what you are going to write ;)

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  3. Good idea! Maybe I can brainstorm with fellow bbq-goers! :)

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