The Challenge
That’s right! It’s challenge time and February is the perfect time to renew your enthusiasm toward your writing now that the New Year’s Resolutions are wearing thin. I don’t know about you, but January was a rocky month for me and I’ve gotten out of the habit of writing every day. So here is the next challenge:
Remember, we’re focusing on Progress, not Perfection, so if you miss a day or begin after February 1st, it’s not too late to successfully complete this challenge. We are developing the habit of sitting down and focusing for lengthening spurts of time.There is only one rule for this challenge. Once you decide how many words you want to type in a session, don’t stop until your words are written.
Week 1 Goals
Complete 2 sessions of 500 words. If this really scares you, you can break it up into four sessions of 250 words, but sitting down and getting started is the hardest part, so let’s make each session count!
Week 2 Goals
2 Sessions of 500 words. You can take a short break and practice them back-to-back or space them out for whatever works best for your schedule.
Week 3 and 4
Now that you’ve developed the habit of beginning a session and focusing for its length, let’s go for the gold. One session of 1,000 words every day. You can write anything you want: a novel, articles, musings, journal entries, even writing about not knowing what to write. The goal is to keep your fingers moving and complete 1,000 words before you get up from your chair. Seem like a lot? Yes. Is it doable? Totally. Are you crazy enough to commit to your literary pursuits and join me? You tell me! I’ll be here, working on my novel and articles, 1,000 words at a time.
Need Some Inspiration?
1. Sign up for my “Writing Challenge” email list so you don’t miss any of my weekly encouraging emails just for challengers.
Join the Facebook Group
2. Join the Stage to Page Facebook Group to meet other writers, share bits of your writing, and update us on your progress each day.
Write!
3. Write! Your 1,000 goal is to create the habit of completing your envisioned word count without stopping. You get to decide how many sessions each day you need to break it up into for your lifestyle. (I’ll bet by the end, most of you will have discovered you can hit 1,000 consistently.) This also means the goal starts over each day. So if you start after February 1st, it’s okay! If you need to take off weekends or only write on weekends or you miss a day, you haven’t failed. We’ll aim to write consistently each day but if you can’t commit to every day, this challenge is still for you.
Update!
4. Update your progress on Facebook. You can post your session goal and results and share snippets of your writing as you go. Update the page every day. You might find some surprises along the way!So what are you waiting for? Sign up for the February 1,000-Word Challenge and start your project today!