This writing challenge is more of a tool to add to your writer’s toolbox. It follows the age-old advice of improving your writing. To write better, you must write every day or keep writing. Don’t stop. Don’t let yourself be sidetracked by reading or commenting (or blogging!) that you forget the very basic kind of writing there is.
A piece of paper.
A pen (no pencils!)
A snippet of time
These three elements, when combined, yield rather interesting results. There is always a different creative process at work when pen is put to paper. Pen, because it cannot be erased like pencil and paper, because it is more personal than clacking away on a keyboard.
Challenges from creative folks like Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages are excellent ideas, with a definite place for those who can use them and spare the time for them. I have found that time is something I rarely have when I want it the most. It is for this reason, I decided to shift things around a bit and instead of trying to pen a thousand pages per day, I’m settling for a page a day in any given month. (Skip February, write thirty pages anyway…)
I don’t particularly care how you count your pages, so as long as you do write one full sheet and at the end of the month, have thirty pages to show for it. This is a personal challenge however, so if you cheat–you’re cheating yourself.
If you don’t know what to write, try emptying your head. Stream of consciousness writing can work wonders for a brain in need of creative release. Do yourself a favor though and don’t re-read it until significant time has passed. It doesn’t matter how the pages sound, because you’re writing them for you.
So go ahead, Write! I dare you…
