Hey all, Sam here.
I have been out of the writing habit again, and I haven’t done much writing since Gen Con and the Writer’s Symposium. I need to make writing a little more of a focus in my life, and I do have a few different stories I’d like to work on more and/or finish. So it makes sense to try and do another writing challenge in the hopes that I can make a bit more progress on some of my writing projects.
So, since the Write Brave Challenge is starting in a couple days, it seems like the timing is a bit perfect. (If I’m going to be completely honest, I just made this decision a couple days ago and I’m still trying to figure out my goals.)
What is the Write Brave Challenge?
The Write Brave Challenge is a 30-day writing challenge where a writer sets a daily goal in order to achieve an intention at the end of the 30 days.
For example, if your chosen intention is to complete a 60,000-word first draft of a novel, you would need a daily goal of 2,000 words. Every day while the challenge runs, you’ll be invited to report on your progress within the community for all your fellow participants to see. This will hold you accountable, and seeing other writers report on their progress will inspire you to match their energy!
Important to note: this challenge is in no way limited to novelists—it’s completely flexible while still allowing for the structure needed to focus on getting the writing done.
When is the Write Brave Challenge?
The Write Brave Challenge takes place twice per year:
April 15th – May 15th (Spring)
September 15th – October 15th (Fall)
If you’re finding this after the event’s begun and before it ends—jump right in! Better late than never!
If you’ve found this after the event’s ended, sign up anyway. We plan to host the challenges twice per year.
Who Can Participate in the Write Brave Challenge, and How Much Does it Cost?
We invite writers of all skill levels to join in on the fun, whether this will be your first attempt at a 30-day writing challenge or your tenth!
Because we want this event to be as inclusive as possible, this challenge is absolutely free to participate in from start to finish.
How to Participate in the Write Brave Challenge
1
Join the club within our free online community. There, you’ll be in a group of like-minded writers all working on their own daily goals and intentions.
2
Download your free participant kit. Inside the kit, you’ll find free resources, social media graphics, and a worksheet for brainstorming what you’ll challenge yourself to write during the challenge.
3
Commit to your intention and daily goal. After you’ve chosen your intention for the challenge, you’ll commit to your intention and daily goal using the Google Form available inside the community. You’ll also have the chance to share it, and once the challenge begins, you’ll be encouraged to share your daily progress!
4
Mark your calendar. Once you’re signed up, you’re all set! Tell your loved ones you’ll be taking on a project from September 15 through October 15, and keep your daily goal in mind as you make plans.
5
Spread the word! We believe writing bravely means owning the fact that you’re a writer. Mention the challenge in your other writing communities and group chats, and use the graphics in your participant kit to post about it on social media. When it comes to events like the Write Brave Challenge, the more, the merrier!
What Are the Write Brave Challenge Guidelines?
Be supportive. Encourage and support your fellow participants. No one here is looking for your criticism, cynicism, advice, or judgement. (We can get those things on the rest of the Internet).
Share generously. Your stories and experiences may be exactly what another writer needs to hear today to solve a problem or seize an opportunity.
Be constructive. We’re here to push each other forward and lift each other up. Find ways to help each other think bigger, reframe challenges, and stay curious.
Don’t spam, promote, or troll. The Write Brave Challenge exists to help you learn. It’s not a place to spam or bully anyone else. We also ask that you keep any self-promotion to the designated post. This will help prevent our feed from getting cluttered!
Okay, so this is the part where I state my writing intentions so I can figure out the daily goal that will get me to achieve that.
I have two main projects that I’ve been working on off and on over the past few years. One is inspired by and based on one of my long-term D&D characters. Currently it is a short novel and then a handful of short stories that could be incorporated into the main novel as past life memory flashbacks. The second is a story that was using the working title ‘Roll for Romance’ (I’ve changed the title, but am not revealing it just yet), and it is a contemporary romance with chapters of the in-game D&D campaign played in the book as well. That project is inspired by the real life story of David and I meeting and falling in love.
So I could work on either one of those, and I really do want to get both of these stories completed. I just don’t even know which one to really focus on at this point.
So I guess my intention is just to get writing again, to get my writing space reorganized and set up in a way that will help me write more regularly, and to make some semblance of progress on either or both of my stories.
But I need a quantifiable daily goal. I think that 500 words a day would be nice, but I should also say that if I’m not writing words then an hour of work on setting up my writing space. I think that is a reasonable enough goal.
And hopefully I can manage to give y’all a nice update at the end of this challenge.
That’s all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.
Free State of Geek 