In most writing challenges you have the opportunity to meet other Stroll in while you’re creating that perfect sentence, but otherwise, you areĪlone. It’s you, your computer, and a cup of your favorite beverage. Released devotional called Triumphing Through Your Trials: Devotions of
During that first challenge, I created my soon to be Was so tired, I typed with my eyes closed and then reviewed what I wrote. My laptop after my husband and son were fast asleep. Helps you carve out time to hone your craft. There are benefits of taking part in a challenge like this Utilize the challenge to write the first draft for my new book, The It was a last-minute decision to participate, and I chose to The premise is to write daily and produce a fifty-thousand-word novel This challenge is open to all writers and happens once a year in I participated in the National Novel Writing Month 2019 Know there are writing challenges for bloggers? Here’s how I made this Though sometimes gasping for air, or clutching cramped writing muscles, I have managed to cross the finish line for 9 of these last 10 years.Have you ever participated in a writer’s challenge? Did you And, as icing on the cake, you only needed 26 stories to match the 26 miles of a marathon, leaving 2 whole days in February to relax! (Unless it was leap year, like this year, then you had 3 whole days off!)īut the Picture Book Marathon had its own tests of endurance, in store for me, unique to writing for young children. Writing 500 to 800 words or less seemed like a cinchĪ piece of cake, I thought. Writing a picture book a day seemed like it would be a walk in the park, after the demanding quota of 1,667 words per day of the Nano novel challenge. That challenge was to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. I was looking for a new writing challenge since finishing my first NaNoWriMo novel in November 2009. In 2010 I stumbled upon a website that challenged picture book writers to create one picture book story, or at least the idea for one, for each of twenty-six days through February. Yay! February has arrived! Today I begin writing for my traditional Picture Book Marathon. So you see, the Picture Book Marathon for me was a month to stretch my creativity within a set deadline while underlining my belief, that all learning can and should be fun. So she substituted orange for four of the five colors, allowing only yellow to remain in the group. When it came to her five favorite colors, they started out all different, but let’s be honest, her favorite color is orange. It was filled with all her favorites, such as ten wild blueberries on her purple plate, which she couldn’t resist eating, and replacing, again and again. The impossible happens, the ridiculous runs to extremes, and by the end laughter has lifted child and adult reader beyond this ordinary world.Īnother favorite of mine, was a counting to ten book I imagined my 18 month old granddaughter might compose. Some of my favorite stories this month are those that are ridiculously fun. That’s one of the things I love about writing, I am continually learning and then try to pass that on to children in a fun and imaginative way. More than half of my books were fiction, three were versions of ABC books, four played with numbers or counting, three were nonfiction embedded in fiction, and the others played with repetitive phrasing or putting a new twist to an old nursery rhyme.Īre they all prize winners? Of course not! But there might be a seed for a successful rewrite.Ībsolutely not! Some days I spent hours researching animals that I wanted to incorporate into my story. Once again, creating 26 picture books in a month was a rewarding exercise. I found myself visiting familiar places with new twists.įebruary 2020 comes to a close, with an extra day to finish the Picture Book Marathon. (One day, for instance, my main character sat down and sobbed her heart out! I was so surprised!) The story flew from my fingers through the last two weeks of November.Ĭharacters asserted themselves on the page.
Then something clicked and things started to pick up momentum. Thinking like this keeps me hopeful and excited about the story.Įven so, there were times I had to keep slogging along. Nothing has to be permanent in the first draft. I’d remind myself that writing Nano is more exploring, than settling down.Īt the end of the month, if I like the story, I can work to make it the best. I’d say to myself, “You’re the one writing this thing! If you don’t like what’s happening, change it!” I chose to work on the prequel to Grandma’s Sock Drawer.Īs expected, the writing journey had its moments when ideas seemed stale, action stalled out, characters became boring. What an exciting month of writing November held for me.
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