Will you be ready to start a 30-Day writing challenge on April 1? (And no! This is no April Fools!)
You may sign up for the early morning (Harnessing the Unconscious) writing challenge. Or you may sign up for the Writing on Schedule challenge.
Or feel free to sign up for both!
Nuts and Bolts
This is going to be an easy sign-up process. If you want to join a challenge, just email me at kristi.holl at gmail.com and tell me which challenge you are joining. If you want to join BOTH challenges (which will run concurrently in April), be sure to make that clear. It would be nice to know a first name, but if you want to be incognito, that’s fine too.
You won’t hear back from me (other than a reply in the evening that says “got it!”) until Sunday evening. At that point, I will email your group to introduce you to each other. I will create as many small groups as needed. I will limit the group size to six or seven, which has been shown to be an optimal size. Deadline to sign up is Sunday, March 31.
Instructions for Checking In
Starting Monday, I will send an email to each small group with a short accountability message. For the early morning writing challenge, I may just say, “Did it this morning!” or “I wrote first thing” or something similar. You can say how long you wrote, if you like, but that isn’t necessary. You’ve successfully completed the challenge if you get to your pencil, pen, or keyboard soon upon awakening and write.
For the scheduled writing group, I will email the groups with a message that might say, “I wrote 15 minutes at noon” or “I wrote a character sketch at 9:45, my scheduled time.” These check-ins don’t take long. You’ve successfully completed the day’s challenge if you wrote at least 15 minutes at the time you had scheduled.
Be sure to hit “reply all” when you respond to your accountability group. If you want to share more (like an obstacle you overcame or more specifically what you worked on), that would be fine. Just be courteous to your fellow accountability people who may not have time to read long reports.
Looking forward to this! [NOTE: We started bright and early April 1. The deadline to sign up has passed for these 30-day challenges.]
I’m kind of doing something similar to this with a friend of mine right now. Ideally, we were supposed to send each other at least 15 minutes worth of work every day, good or bad. We just started, and so far I’m keeping up my end of it, but I haven’t heard from her for awhile, which might make it challenging to continue farther down the road 🙁
I’d like to have a reliable accountability partner, but I’m not entirely sure I can commit to 15 minutes at exactly the same time every day. I’m still a student, so schoolwork and extracurriculars can get in the way. I usually find time to write at night, though, around 10pm. And I certainly am willing to commit to writing AT LEAST 15 minutes a day. (That is what I’m doing now, after all :D)
Hi, Sarah. Yes, it’s hard to keep up with an accountability partner that isn’t as committed as you are. There’s still time to join this challenge, if you want to. The fifteen minutes is NOT at the same time every day. Each day you get to choose what time you’re going to be able to write, and then you try to stick to the time you set. It’s very flexible.
Oops! I forgot to check back into this blog until it was too late to sign up for the challenge 🙁
I have been keeping up with my writing on my own so far, though, although at times it has been a REAL challenge. Hope to catch the next challenge!
I’m sorry we missed connecting, Sarah. I’m glad you’re trying this on your own though. Maybe next round!
Kristi, I’m back online after the Lenten break and catching up on your blog. Good stuff, as always. I am making the most of this Easter holiday with my kiddos but starting next Monday, it’s time to get back to the novel. This time I’m shooting for the polish! I’ll have two months before school ends.
I’m so used to reading my Bible and several reflections before picking up my pen to write. I wonder what it’ll be like if I switch … Must try it out.
Good luck on the April challenges and to all who are participating with you. I’m cheering you on!
Vijaya, welcome back. And yes, it feels odd to me to write before devotions, which is probably why a good part of my early writing are prayers and “discussions” of things. Then after writing, I sit back in my office reading chair and do slower devotional times.
The April, 30-Day Challenge was a success for me. I still write something most every morning, and it feels good. On the few mornings I have missed, everything seemed off until I could sit down and write, or read about writing. At this date, I don’t think the desire to be involved with writing every day will change.
My thanks to Kristi for the challenge.
Hi, Sherry! The challenge in April did the same thing for me. If I don’t do the early writing, my day just doesn’t feel “right.” Hope we can do this again sometime!