Writing Challenge Update #0

Oct 16, 2024

By now, I'm sure that most people have heard about a certain annual writing challenge and the massive disappointment with it among writers. If not, then I suggest looking into what your favorite writing challenge thinks about AI because...yikes. That's all I'll say on that.

In light of this news, my friend and I have decided to create our very own writing challenge! It's personalized for the two of us. We track what we want to track and write the amount that feels comfortable for us. All without supporting AI (because real writers write).

Here's what we've decided on so far: a shared tracking sheet and cutting the word count goal basically in half. Our shared Google Sheet tracks our daily word count for both original works and fanfiction, a checkbox for if we did editing or outlining that day, and finally a notes section for what we worked on for the day. This will keep track of our progress as well as hold us each accountable with the other's eyes watching us push through the month. Our goal is the same this time (though that might change if we repeat this challenge), and it's an easy 20,000. Or at least I'm hoping it'll be easy!

My goal isn't to write daily, even though most of these challenges are supposed to be a daily thing. I have two jobs and a life and other hobbies, and it's just not reasonable for me personally (at this time in my life) to write substantially every day. I also don't plan on working on just one project, which I'm sure you could assume by the mention of fanfiction earlier. I will only count words on original works for this challenge, but I thought it'd be interesting to also track my fanfics in November. Other than my fan works, I have two major original works I'll be jumping between. I have a vampire novella along with a sci-fi romance novel in the works. I hope to reach my 20k goal by hopping between these two projects whenever my heart desires a change.

I plan to document my obstacles, successes, and everything in between here on this blog over the course of November. Like I said, we've thought about repeating this challenge if all goes well. Perhaps once a quarter? Not sure! But the idea of having a writing buddy for an entire month of focused work as well as a blog to share with is so exciting. Writing can be a very solitary hobby, so finding ways to create community around it is thrilling to say the least.

Hopefully some of you decide to follow along with my progress! I'm looking forward to sharing it here. :D