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SUGGESTIONS TO ENGAGE IN A YEAR-LONG CHALLENGE

• write every day. even a few words a day can help to keep your project moving forward.
• write first thing every morning. Many writers do their best work in the morning, especially before the rest of the family wakes up.
• take the writing journal challenge and fill in a writing journal worksheet every week.
• take the ray bradbury challenge and write a short story every week. this is a really fun challenge because you:
  • finish a project every week.
  • get to work on something fresh and exciting every week.
  • can experiment with lots of different forms and genres.
    • “write a new short story every week. it’s not possible to write 52 bad short stories in a row.” – ray bradbury
• write a novel. it’s a common but admirable, challenging but achievable ambition. will this be the year you finally write your novel? if you’re not sure where to begin, i would recommend a plot formula
• pitch a novel. if you have a completed manuscript and you’re looking to publish it traditionally, you might want to focus your efforts on finding an agent.
• publish a novel. if you would rather go down the self-publising route, you might want to focus on getting your manuscript ready for uploading, and on preparing marketing materials.

PICK A YEAR-LONG FOCUS

• one simple strategy is to choose a specific word that summarises your goal for the year, and serves as a reminder. you can even set a regular alarm on your phone to refocus you during the day. for example:
  • prolific
  • inspiring
  • elegant
  • succinct
  • powerful
  • fun
• if you’re having trouble deciding, consider drawing a tarot card to focus on for the year. study its meaning and symbolism, and if it’s a major arcana card, its place in the fool's journey.
• you might also choose to focus on a specific area that you feel you need to improve in. for example:
  • writing dialogue
  • describing settings
  • editing and revising
  • plotting
  • vocabulary

INTERSPERSE A FEW 7-DAY WRITING CHALLENGES

• a week-long writing challenge is just the thing if you’ve been feeling stuck or unproductive in your writing life. here are a few suggestions if you feel inclined to try a challenge a month.
• write a piece of flash fiction every day.
• write a love letter every day.
• write without using any words you used on the previous day
• fill a page every day.
• create a zine or chapbook in a week.
• outline a novel or series in a week.
• fill up a notebook in a week.
• discover and retell a new story every day.
• write, edit, and share a piece in a week.
• write a paragraph around the same theme every day.
• journal as a character every day.
• revive and revise an abandoned piece.

TRY A LONGER, 30-DAY WRITING CHALLENGE

• a 30-day writing challenge hits the perfect balance for minimum stamina and maximum productivity.
• participate in national novel writing month (nanowrimo) – the challenge is to write a 50,000-word novel (or novella) in the month of november.
• here is a list of prompts for a 30-day flash fiction challenge – if you’re feeling ambitious, you can go for the whole 100 days!

SURPRISE YOURSELF WITH A SPONTANEOUS CHALLENGE

• try write 10k for a day/weekend
• word war – a word war is when you sit down with another writer and try to write more words than them in a given time limit. if you don’t have a writing buddy, you can also word war with yourself (try to beat your last attempt), or join a virtual word war at wordwar.io (when it comes back)
• complete a word crawl in a day or week – you can use this word crawl worksheet to design your own word crawl with sticky notes, or take a look at the archive at wikiwrimo
• and for an even greater surprise, you can always design your own challenge.

KEEP UP A JOURNAL WRITING CHALLENGE

• keep an advent journal – journal every day leading up to an event. this might be a holiday, an exciting change such as starting a new job, or moving into a new house, or an anniversary. this is an interesting exercise to explore feelings of anticipation and excitement, or more difficult emotions like anxiety, dread, or disappointment.
• journal on a particular day every year – you can take this challenge in a few different directions.
• you can choose a random day that has no particular significance and use it to document your daily life.
• you can choose a significant day such as a birthday, anniversary, or red-letter day, and document your celebrations or family traditions.
• or, you can make up your own writing holiday. for example:
  • alphabet appreciation day – on which you delight in letters, familiar or foreign.
  • perfect day day – on which you write your annual vision of the best day ever.
  • contrafibularities day – on which you write with invented words.
• keep a project journal – as a writer, a writing journal is a useful tool for practicing and learning. in particular, a short entry each day that you work (or don’t work!) on a story can help you learn more about your writing process, and figure out how to approach your next project.

HOW TO PLAN YOUR WRITING YEAR

• write out a list of writing challenges that you would like to try.
• list the writing events that take place on a specific date.
• make a list of major non-writing commitments that take up your time.
• note down when you’re travelling, or have time off.
• set aside study time, on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, depending on your aims.
• consider how the seasons affect your life, and your writing. for example, do you feel drawn to a particular project at a certain time of the year?
• consider planning a writing retreat.
• for large projects, write in your deadlines and work backwards, pencilling in important checkpoints or milestones.

SOME SUGGESTIONS

• know when a challenge is no longer serving you. the point of a challenge is to grow and improve, not to add more unnecessary stress and competition to your life.
• track and review your progress at least once a month. this will help you with the previous point.
• at the end of the year, perform a more thorough self-assessment, especially if you’re considering writing as a career. this will also help you plan for the following year.