Just Write
Everyone can come up with a reason not to write: family obligations, the day job, writers block, the Internet, or life in general. Porfessional writers can add another hundred or so excuses revolving around the biz, promo, production work, wrangling contracts, etc. Writing is easy to put off, too. We make bargains with the work: Next month I'll have more time or I need to take this class/go to this conference/study this how-to so I can be a better writer or the ever-popular, one-size-fits-all Let me deal with this more important thing and then I'll get back to you.
Those bargains work because the writing can't talk back, or send us a text, or encourage us to give it another go, or even remind us of the empty promise we made. Writing simply waits in silence wherever we abandoned it, stuffed in a file, stowed on a hard drive or tucked in a notebook. It always waits, even when we completely forget about it.
I thought I'd toss out a challenge on the blog to see if any of you want to join in. Starting today I'm going to devote my Thursdays to writing something new -- flash, poetry, a scene, a short story, or whatever appeals to me -- and then post the results online before midnight. In other words, just write something new once a week and put it out there for the readers. The length will be whatever I can write in 24 hours.
Why do this? I have a couple of reasons, but the primary idea came to me when I read Anne Frasier's Blood Moon, a short fiction piece that she posted on her blog. I thought it was exceedingly cool, and it reminded me of how as a rookie I used to post a new short story on my old web site every month. Some of those stories turned into novels and novel series, but that wasn't the point -- having fun and trying something new was.
No matter how lame, silly, unprofessional or otherwise flawed it is, I will post whatever I write today online in my Google Docs account, and add a link to it to this post, before midnight EST tonight. I invite you to do the same, and if you do take up my Just Write challenge and want to share your results when you're ready please post a link to your Thursday fiction in comments.
Image credit: Ivalin Radkov/Bigstock.com
Those bargains work because the writing can't talk back, or send us a text, or encourage us to give it another go, or even remind us of the empty promise we made. Writing simply waits in silence wherever we abandoned it, stuffed in a file, stowed on a hard drive or tucked in a notebook. It always waits, even when we completely forget about it.
I thought I'd toss out a challenge on the blog to see if any of you want to join in. Starting today I'm going to devote my Thursdays to writing something new -- flash, poetry, a scene, a short story, or whatever appeals to me -- and then post the results online before midnight. In other words, just write something new once a week and put it out there for the readers. The length will be whatever I can write in 24 hours.
Why do this? I have a couple of reasons, but the primary idea came to me when I read Anne Frasier's Blood Moon, a short fiction piece that she posted on her blog. I thought it was exceedingly cool, and it reminded me of how as a rookie I used to post a new short story on my old web site every month. Some of those stories turned into novels and novel series, but that wasn't the point -- having fun and trying something new was.
No matter how lame, silly, unprofessional or otherwise flawed it is, I will post whatever I write today online in my Google Docs account, and add a link to it to this post, before midnight EST tonight. I invite you to do the same, and if you do take up my Just Write challenge and want to share your results when you're ready please post a link to your Thursday fiction in comments.
Image credit: Ivalin Radkov/Bigstock.com
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