Challenging Myself to Write More, Hopefully!

I’ve been having trouble writing fiction as of late. I have this original work that I have been mulling over for a while now and really like to get the first chapter out this year, but all I managed to write was some of the worldbuilding, CVs, and some notes.

One problem I have is focusing more on it. While writing is not hard in itself, brainstorming is, and just waiting for inspiration to strike me won’t cut it anymore. I want to make real progress, and one thing that writing these posts taught me is that just the action of getting the words on the screen can help get those creative juices flowing.

So hence the challenge! I’m going to try to get at least a solid half an hour of writing every day for the next week, starting this Sunday.

The goal here is to get all or most of the brainstorming done; any progress on the first chapter draft is just a bonus, and hopefully, this could be a good start to making it a habit.

Thirty minutes is not a daunting goal and isn’t insignificant either. I think it strikes a good balance for an intermediate writer like myself. I also like that it is a time goal and not a word count goal. From my experience, word count-based goals can be intimidating when starting and demotivating when you fail. It can also incentivize padding things out just to meet a threshold, and for this challenge, I want to mostly focus on ideas, so a word count is insufficient and ill-suited.

But yeah, with that said, I will be taking reflection notes after each session, and once the week is over, I will compile them into one and do a final review. This will give me a rough idea of what I can improve upon.

I will, of course, be posting the final review here when all is settled.

As always, thanks for reading! If you’re a fellow writer as well, I would love to know what tips and tricks you use to keep yourself motivated!