I’ve gone through my shelves and selected twelve books that I have had for quite a while that, for various reasons, I want to have read by now, but just haven’t. Some are older releases, some are newer ones. Some I have never picked up and some I have read a chunk of. Throughout the year, I am going to finally finish them and I’ll use this column to report back.

Why now? Well, January seemed like a good time to mix things up with this column, just like it’s a good time to mix up anything.

The Reading Challenge Books:

1. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
2. Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
3. Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky
4. Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
5. Howl by Allen Ginsberg
6. Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
7. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
8. The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
9. The Affairs of the Falcons by Melissa Rivero
10. Swing Time by Zadie Smith
11. Yoga for a World Out of Balance by Michael Stone
12. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

A note about the order: These are listed alphabetically because in my opinion there is nothing more fair than the alphabet. I’ll read them in whatever order strikes my fancy.

Why These Books?

Each book in this reading challenge has its own personal reason for being on the list. I’ll run through a couple right now. Killers of the Flower Moon? They shot the film in the next town over from where I live and I want to read it before the movie comes out. Swing Time? I love Zadie Smith, but sometimes her writing makes me feel dumb, so it’s a good challenge for me. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings? I am ashamed that I didn’t read this book back in high school and I need to rectify that. Kitchen Confidential? I love food and cooking and started this one last year and it was pretty badass, so I want to finish.

As I finish these books, I’ll explain the personal reasons for reading them.

Make It Personal

That brings me to my next point about reading.

Reading is such a personal thing. We approach books for our own reasons, with our own thoughts, feelings, and histories. And we set books down the same way—individually. Hopefully the process of reading a particular book leaves us changed in some way, but still the experience of reaching The End is a unique proposition.

I’ll give an example. I read Catch-22 in high school. I loved it. I thought it was hilarious. I loved the logic or lack thereof. I know some people get frustrated with that one because it jumps around. Like with many books I love, I shoved it in my dad’s face and he read it. His verdict? Well, he couldn’t get past the profanity. (Cue major eye roll from 17 year old me.)

But that really illustrates my point. People bring their own stuff to each book they pick up, which makes it a unique and personal experience. No two experiences are alike. And I think that’s beautiful.

DIY Your Own Reading Challenge

I’m (gently) challenging you to look at your shelves and find 12 books that have been hanging around for a long time. You bought them at some point. Now is the time to remember why.

If you’re anything like me, there will be an additional challenge with this reading challenge. As soon as I “have” to read a book, I struggle to do it. I avoid it. But I’m hoping for a little social accountability here.

Tell us in the comments below: What books are part of your reading challenge for this year?

Lori Walker is the Operations Maven at DIY MFA. Though she’s fallen off the wagon as a writer, she’s hoping to return to writing essays (perhaps even a novel!) through her involvement with DIY MFA. She is also Launch Manager, Web Editor, and Podcast Producer for DIY MFA and a Book Coach. She resides in Smalltown, Oklahoma, with her husband and their cat, Joan Didion. You can follow her on Instagram at @LoriTheWriter.

The post Book Nook: The Reading Challenge appeared first on DIY MFA.

As with previous installments, this topic first came up in the DIY MFA newsletter. If you’re already an email subscriber, you can help me choose letters that get featured here by replying to the emails you loved most. If you’re not on the list, but want a sneak peek at this column before it hits the blog (and want to help crowd-source it too), go here to sign up.

Dear word nerd,

Most people think of math a logical, straightforward subject. There are right answers and wrong answers, and in between them there’s little wiggle room for any shades of grey. At least, that’s what I thought, at first. Everything changed in ninth grade geometry.

Picture this scene if you will. It’s 1992 just before the holidays, and my geometry class has finished the lessons in that particular unit. Our teacher Mr. W has two options (A) start new material even though we’ll be leaving for winter break in two days and will likely forget it all, or (B) find some way to keep a classroom of adolescent prep-school girls from devolving into utter chaos. Using the teacher equivalent of a Jedi mind-trick, Mr. W comes up with secret option C. He decides to teach us some non-Euclidean geometry. You know, just for kicks. I’m sure you can imagine the collective groan that ensued.

And yet there was something kind of cool about learning math where none of the expected rules applied. Maybe I’m just the biggest dork of all time but I learned more about education and life in those two days of non-Euclidean geometry than I did in most of high school, college, and beyond.

First: A Quick Math Lesson

Most geometry we learn at school takes place on a flat plane. In this Euclidean world, we can count on certain rules to apply. For instance, the angles in a triangle always add up to 180 degrees. This rule—along with all the other ones we learn in Euclidean geometry—is irrefutable and there are mathematical ways to prove it.

And yet…

When we put that same triangle on a different plane—an elliptical plane (i.e. a ball) or a hyperbolic plane (shaped like two trumpets kissing)—then all of a sudden the geometric rules change. Remember how the angles of the triangle added up to 180 degrees? That’s no longer true.

Because an elliptical plane is convex, the sum of the angles in a triangle are actually a little bit greater than 180 degrees. Conversely, because a hyperbolic plane is concave, the sum of the angles will be slightly smaller than 180 degrees.

This same logic doesn’t just hold true for triangles. Many of those rules that we take for granted in Euclidean geometry no longer apply when you explore them in either hyperbolic or elliptical space. For a picture of what I mean, take a look at the infographic on the right.

But you’re probably wondering what all this has to do with writing.

Guess What! There Are No Rules

Even in a subject like math, where we might expect rules to be absolute, it turns out that “rules” are relative and often based on context. As writers, we grapple this tension between rules and context all the time. Yet, as humans we often take rules at face value. We accept certain “rules” as facts, without stopping to consider how the context—the space where those rules operate—might shape or affect them.

As a ninth grade geometry student, I accepted that the sum of the angles in a triangle equaled 180 degrees. This was fact. It was GOSPEL. Then Mr. W starts spouting heresy, telling us that if we put that very same triangle in a different space, the rules would suddenly change.

This lesson taught me something much bigger than just the sum of the angles in a triangle. I learned that “rules” aren’t really rules, but they depend entirely on the context where they exist. In that moment, I realized that there is more than just one way to challenge rules and question authority.

Until then I had always thought that the only way to be a rebel—the only way to stand up to authority and question the status quo—was by breaking the rules. This iconoclastic approach never sat well with me because I don’t enjoy drama and I dislike hurting people.

Suddenly I saw a different way to be a rebel. If I didn’t like a particular rule, I didn’t have to break it in order to get the answer I wanted; I just had to change the context. If I could take a regular old triangle and make those angles add up however I wanted just by putting it on a different plane, I could do the same with any rule—mathematic or otherwise.

Change the Rules By Changing the Context

You could say that this was the moment when my inner-instigator was born and this change-the-context mindset is something I’ve carried with me ever since. DIY MFA is, after all, a perfect example of how you challenge rules simply by changing their context. My goal with this program has never been to fight against the traditional MFA. In fact, I’ve often talked about how I find the MFA-vs.-Not-MFA debate a bit ridiculous.

When I created DIY MFA, I wanted to offer writers an alternative context, a different “education sandbox” to play in, as it were. After all no two people are alike, so it’s silly to think that the same methods of learning and teaching would work for everyone. Some kids enjoy the swings and others prefer the slide. I myself was the weird loner, looking for volcanic rocks and digging for buried treasure. The beautiful thing about writing, though, is that we can all pursue it in our own way, and the literary playground is plenty big enough for everyone.

So go on out there, change the context, and challenge the rules.

Until next time, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Writer Fuel: How Non-Euclidean Geometry Turned Me Into a Rebel appeared first on DIY MFA.

Some #NaNoWriMo participants are feeling particularly confident right now. Maybe they spent the last few months plotting. Maybe they’re excited about pansting their next work. Regardless of the reason for this confidence, there’s always room for a little challenge.

Characters need to be developed, plots need to be ironed out, subplots need to be created, and timelines need to be tightened. Our scenes need to be so vivid in our minds that we can paint pictures, showing even the most minute of details. Writing programs, sticky notes, and worksheets are all among the tools available to us, but what happens when need to test our own knowledge of our worlds? How can we dig deeper, and try to push beyond the boundaries of our chained imaginations?

Of course, I’m sure you know, flash fiction is the answer.

Here are three flash fiction exercises to help you get #NaNoWriMo ready in a few hours:

Character Development

You may be pretty sure you know your main characters. You know which actors would play them in movies, you know their favorite songs, strengths, weaknesses, and secrets. Most of your focus has been on the roles they play in helping your plot to unfold, so you’re confident about that. What if you scrambled the roles? What if character A now has character C’s problem? What would she do? How would character B sold character A’s problem. Put your characters in the situations of other characters. This will not only help you to explore your characters more deeply, but ensures that your plot is not standing on its own, being unfolded by nameless, faceless characters. Every act is being carried out by a specific character, and those actions are particular to the actors, based on their backgrounds, personalities, and desires rather than your own wishes. Give each main character 750 words to fight their way out of other characters’ situations.

Setting Creation

Setting are important in novels. We often tend to focus on one sense – sight. Start to explore other sensory details of the primary settings in your novel. Even in appearance, we often overlook things that are not as obvious as furniture. To help you do this, invite a group of experts into your setting, and have them make observations. A housekeeper may notice cobwebs in areas less occupied. A crime scene investigator can pick up on clues your characters don’t know they left behind. What if a contract killer can spend a few minutes in a setting, and be able to plan the perfect, undetectable crime? Would an antique shop owner uncover family secrets? Choose three main settings and give your chosen experts fifteen minutes to make observations. Then, in 1000 words of dialogue only, write their roundtable discussion.

Scene Switching

Whether you have fully planned scenes or a loose idea of what they’ll look like, it can be helpful (and fun!) to make little changes, move them around, and explore the effects of deleting them. Identify the scene that makes your novel possible. It’s the one that changes things and forces your main character to take a particular action. Write three 500 word replacements for the next scene in the event that (in the pivotal scene):

1. The opposite happens
2. Someone intervenes and changes the course
3. The scene does not exist

No matter how ready we are to write, we can always prepare more. It can be fun to explore, challenge ourselves, and learn as we go. Even as creators, we have a lot to learn about the stories of our own making.

NaNoWriMo is a time to enjoy every minute of our writing. We can revel in the community feel of what is usually a solitary experience. It’s a lot easier to be in the moment and engage other participants when we’re prepared, well-equipped with intimate knowledge of our novels to-be. Have fun with the exercises, and feel free to tweak them to suit your needs. It’s all about making it work for you and your novel.

………………………………..

Alicia Audrey is a writer, editor, blogger and social and political commentator living and working in Nassau, Bahamas. She enjoys writing flash fiction, and is currently working on a women’s fiction novel entitled The Whispering Willow. She prides herself on keeping the local post office open by sending far too many penpal letters and packages to friends and strangers alike on a weekly basis. Her favourite things include journals, tea, cupcakes, sarcasm, challenges, and autumn. She tweets her musings to everyone, but no one in particular, as @_AliciaAudrey.

The post Flash Fiction Exercises for #NaNoWriMo Prep appeared first on DIY MFA.

1) A Push to Write (Or Finish) Your Book

This one is a bit obvious, but it’s worth repeating. It’s why NaNoWriMo has taken off the way it has. Because there’s never enough time and there’s often not enough motivation, but in November, writers set that aside, knuckle down, and write. Whether you’re starting something completely new, or needing the last push to finish the draft you’ve been working on all year, NaNoWriMo is a great kick in the pants to get words on the page.

2) An Excuse to Tackle a Difficult Goal

Is there an area of your writing life you avoid like the plague? Maybe it’s social media, or drafting, or finally fixing the world-building problems in your trunk novel. NaNoWriMo is the perfect time to slay the beast. It’s only one month–anyone can work on something for a month–and with all the built-in support from other writers, you won’t be tackling anything alone!

3) A Moment to Prepare for the New Year

Here at DIY MFA, we’re big fans of goal-setting. The New Year is always a great time to take stock of where you are in your writing, and where you want to be in a year. But reflecting only one day a year will probably not yield the best results. NaNoWriMo is a perfect time to look around, see where you were, and where you want to be, so you can start forming realistic, but ambitious goals for this year and beyond.

4) A Chance to Develop a New Habit

Habits are powerful, and can have a positive impact on our writing lives. Thirty days is the perfect amount of time to develop a new one. If you want to set a habit of writing every day, but 50,000 words is just unfeasible, set a goal that is. This will look different for different writers. Maybe you can commit to 1,000 words a day–so, 30,000 total. Or 500, for 15,000 words total. Maybe you want to journal every day, write a piece of flash fiction, or write with the internet turned off for an hour daily. Be creative! Think about the writer you want to be, and see what you can change to make that dream a reality today.

5) A Reminder that You’re Not Alone

Writing is a lonely endeavor, but it doesn’t have to be. The internet is always a great place to find writing buddies, but in November, with thousands of writers setting aside time for NaNoWriMo, the place is abuzz. Whether you find buddies for writing sprints on Twitter, or in the forums on NaNoWriMo’s official site, you can count on there being other writers in the same sleep-deprived, caffeine-buzzed state you are!

Bess Cozby writes epic stories in expansive worlds from her tiny apartment in New York City. By day, she’s an Editor at Tor Books, and Web Editor for DIY MFA. Her work is represented by Brooks Sherman of the Bent Agency. Tweet her at @besscozby, contact her at bess@diymfa.com, or visit her website at www.besscozby.com.

The post #5OnFri: Five Benefits of Aiming High During NaNoWriMo appeared first on DIY MFA.

-Huh?

-You know, NaNo?

-Who?

-You’re not a WriMo yet?!

-Did you just call me a ‘rhino’?

It’s not a secret code or a reference to rhinos or even atomic particles. It’s National Novel Writing Month, and the challenge to write 50,000 words in the month of November is about as crazy as the name itself. You have to be a little screwy to try to write that much in thirty days. I should know. It’s my second year doing this, and I just wrote 10k in five days. My friends think my brain is growing trees.

Writing so much so quickly becomes a process sometimes known as “word dumping”—or as I like to call it, spewing onto a blank page. And whether you’re a pantser (someone who doesn’t plan) or a meticulous plotter, it can be the ultimate cure for the curse of the “inner editor”. Don’t edit, just write.

It’s a special kind of thing—one that for many is a yearly tradition that prides itself in a “seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing”.

Why Do NaNoWriMo?

Because the NaNoWriMo network is a beast. Over 300,000 people participated last year from around the globe, and at peak hours, there can be as many as 100,000 users on the website. Which enables one of the greatest parts about NaNo:

1) The Forums

There’s everything from age group hangouts to genre lounges. Word war opponents abound at any time of the day. (A game to see who can write the most words in a set number of minutes.)  A niche exists for everyone, including a place for “rebels”, writers doing non-novel related projects like poetry, screen plays, non-fiction, etc. There’s forums for the distressed writer with funny names like “NaNoWriMo Ate My Soul”.

And of course there’s the golden nugget of the “Reference Desk”, a year round forum for posting research topics where other authors can contribute their real world areas of expertise. It’s a god-given resource.

Then there’s the phenomenon of:

2) The Writing Buddy

I say phenomenon because the difference between a writing buddy and a critique partner is subtle and yet monumental. In many ways, my writing buddies are more valuable than my critique partners.

By sorting through forums, looking at writer’s pages and novel descriptions, you can add people as a ‘writing buddy’. I exchange almost daily messages with mine, and we become cheerleaders for each others achievements and challenges.

Finding a critique partner can be an intimate process as complicated as any love affair, and the “writing buddy” is a great way to kick start that ‘get to know you’ period.

3) The Local Network

The benefits of ‘going local’ when seeking out other writers is something that requires its own post. As fantastic as the forums and writing buddies are, the in-person write-ins hosted during the month of November are priceless. Volunteers in over eight hundred regions plan things like ‘Kick off Parties’, ‘All Night Write-Ins’ and ‘Thank God It’s Over’ celebrations. They make the painstaking process of giving birth to a novel a heck of a lot more fun.

And it’s how I found my local writing group.

Life After NaNoWriMo        

Towards the end of the month, a forum appears on the site called “Life After NaNo”. There’s things for people who did or did not meet their 50k goal: a contractual promise to finish your novel, a contractual promise to edit your novel. There’s promotional coupons for writing software, free proof copies of your book, plus advice from a mirade of self-publishing companies.

Other organizations replay the team spirit of spewing a word count of any size with a group of people. You can find it for any month of the year. NaNoWriMo hosts ‘camps’ in April and July. I repeated it in January and February. I’m a special kind of crazy, but working towards a writing goal with others induces an osmosis-like effect that can be joyously addictive.

If only I could learn to edit 50k in 30 days.

Special thanks to Richenda Gould, my NaNoWriMo municipal liaison and critique partner extraordinaire.

The post The Pros and Pros of NaNoWriMo appeared first on DIY MFA.

Q: “I just found out about #CTC29 but you’re already on Day 5. Is it too late to join?”

A: It’s not too late and we’d love to have you be part of the fun. The more the merrier and you can join anytime in the month of August. But the sooner you sign up the better because it will give you more time to do all the prompts and connect with other writers in the challenge. Come September we’ll be closing the challenge headquarters and it won’t reopen until we run the challenge again later this year.

To join, just sign up and jump in on whatever prompt is live that day. Prompts go out via email at 5am each day, but we’re also posting links to all past prompts at our Super-Secret Headquarters webpage. You’ll find the link to that page in the welcome email you get when you sign up.

Q: “I didn’t get today’s prompt. What happened?”

A: First, check your spam filter and make sure to whitelist DIY MFA so you don’t miss emails. If it’s not in the spam filter, then the email probably got eaten by the gremlins of the interwebs. But don’t worry, you can still find all the prompts listed on the challenge headquarters page. That way if you miss a prompt or join part-way through the challenge, you can always catch up.

Q: Once I’ve written something, what am I supposed to do with it?

A: That’s totally up to you and what you feel comfortable with. You don’t have to share your work at all and if you want to just store your pieces away in a notebook on your desk, that’s totally fine. The last thing I want is for the pressure of sharing your writing to get in the way of your actual writing.

That said, some intrepid writers have been blogging their prompts and sharing their progress each day, then tweeting the links with the #CTC29 hash tag. Sharing your work is a great way to keep yourself accountable. An alternative to this is to “play catch” with another writer. All you have to do is email each other your daily piece. The other person doesn’t have to read or comment, just catch it and keep you accountable. When you know that someone is waiting for your piece, it be the difference between dragging yourself to the desk to write, or giving into the temptation to skip a day.

At the same time, I totally understand that many writers would rather not post their work publicly online. (In fact, if you do post your work, keep in mind that once you hit that “publish” button on a blog, the writing is considered “previously published” and you won’t be able to publish the piece in a magazine or market that only accepts unpublished work.) To resolve this, I’m working on the possibility of a more private online space just for writers in the challenge. I will definitely keep you posted if we’re able to go ahead with that.

Got other questions not covered here?

Just email me or a member of the DIY MFA team and we’ll help you out. In the meantime, get ready to do some serious writing.

The post #CTC29: Writing Challenge FAQ’s appeared first on DIY MFA.

You probably don’t know this, but back in 2010, DIY MFA began as a challenge. In this challenge, I dared myself to blog about nothing but DIY MFA every day for an entire month. This was back when DIY MFA was nothing more than a crazy idea I had mentioned on my tiny personal blog. To give you an idea of how tiny this blog was, I had a grand total of 12 followers, one of whom was my mother. Now in #CTC29 alone we have almost 350 participants, not to mention the greater DIY MFA community that stretches far and wide.

My point in sharing this story is that you never know what a writing challenge can turn into. You just have start, and then see where the writing leads.

It’s not too late to join the challenge!

If you haven’t joined #CTC29 yet, hop on over to our sign-up page. Just register with your email (it’s FREE) and you’ll get daily prompts throughout the month of August.

Don’t worry if you join part-way through the challenge. When you sign up you’ll get a link to our Super-Secret Headquarters where we’ll post all the prompts (plus other goodies) as they go live. So just jump into the challenge, and you can catch up on the prompts you missed later on.

We’ve also created a checklist of the prompts and I’m posting it here today so you can get a taste of what the challenge will be like.

Finally, follow @DIYMFA on Twitter and join the conversation by using the #CTC29 hash tag.

What are you waiting for? Join right now!

The post Conquer the Craft Starts Today! appeared first on DIY MFA.

Just in case we haven’t shouted it quite loud enough from the rooftops, we at DIY MFA are big fans of writing challenges. They are fun. And, most importantly, they get you writing.  We are beyond excited to announce that next month, DIY MFA will be hosting Conquer The Craft in 29 Days. This writing challenge is the perfect opportunity to meet other writers, hone your craft and get words on the page.

How it Works

Conquer the Craft in 29 Days (#CTC29) starts August 1. That’s just around the corner so hurry on over to the sign-up page and register with your email. From August 1-29 we’ll email you one prompt per day, then finish off the month with a 2-day virtual writing retreat so you can end the challenge with a bang!

But this isn’t just any prompt-a-day challenge. We’ve designed this series of writing exercises not just to inspire you and get your creativity going, but also to help improve your writing. Each prompt targets a specific technique or element of craft so that by the end of the month, not only will you be writing more, you’ll be writing better.

No matter if you are just starting out and looking to use these exercises as a way to get new ideas, or if you are working on a bigger project and want to use them to supplement your goals. Conquer the Craft in 29 Days is designed to help you go big, go deeper and delve into your art.

It’s free to join and don’t worry, we hate SPAM as much as you do so your email will be safe with us. Registering is the most important step because we’ll be sending the prompts via email. You’ll also get the link to our Super-Secret Headquarters page for the virtual retreat where you’ll get access to videos and other free goodies.

This challenge is a great chance to meet other writers, too. While working on your prompts, you can hop on social media and use the hashtag #ctc29 to find other writers doing the challenge. Swap stories. Swap critiques. And at the end of the month, do the two-day writing sprint. This weekend sprint is like a virtual writing retreat, and you can attend in your pajamas at home!

Click this link for more details or to sign up for Conquer the Craft in 29 Days.

Are You In?

At DIY MFA we’re all about conquering. Conquering self-doubt. Conquering fear of failure. Conquering your goals. Conquering all the voices that say, I can’t. I don’t have time. I don’t have the money. I’ll never finish.  There’s a way to conquer all these things: work hard, meet goals, work alongside other writers and follow your voice.

“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” — Stephen King

Let’s get to work!

The post Announcing: Conquer the Craft in 29 Days appeared first on DIY MFA.

You know what you need?

A good ol’ fashioned dunk in an icy lake!

Just kidding. But it’s 95 degrees here and I’m a little delirious with the heat.

Writing challenges are popular in the writing community. You know why? Because they work. Here are 29 reasons you should think about signing up for a writing challenge:

1. There’s a ton of them. National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is the most popular, along with its sister program I’m doing right now, Camp NaNoWriMo. There’s also Story a Day in May, the Clarion Write-A-Thon, and a ton of books to choose from. There’s a little something for everybody!
2. You’ve always wanted to try, but life has got in your way. It’s cool. Life gets in everyone’s way. A challenge will help you make your writing a priority.
3. Everyone’s doing it. Famous authors and new authors. People you like and people you hate. People who will challenge you to write more and people you can’t stand to let get ahead of you.
4. But it’s mostly nice people. The writing communities who participate in challenges are all about encouraging each other and keeping each other accountable to persist throughout the challenge.
5. It’s competitive. You can find yourself hammering on your keyboard to catch up with your buddy’s word count.
6. But it’s actually not that competitive. Nobody “wins” and nobody “loses.” The only person you compete against is yourself, and if you don’t reach your goals? It’s cool. You’ll still have some great material to work with at the end.
7. Pump up your word count. Focusing on your writing will make you churn out a fat stack of words.
8. Practice makes perfect. New science says that experienced writers use more of their brains than newbies. Just like dancers or musicians, the successful artists are the ones who practice.
9. Quantity begets quality. With all those words, you’re bound to write something of quality eventually.
10. But it’s not just about the word count. It’s about honing on your craft in the most efficient way possible.
11. Follow a prompt. Certain challenges (hint hint—stay tuned in the coming weeks) provide specific prompts that allow you to attack certain parts of your craft, such as more realistic description.
12. Write better characters. For some of us (cough cough—me), conveying emotion and drawing realistic, likeable characters can be a challenge in itself. Writing speedily can help you get out of your own head and into the characters.
13. Learn how to plot. Still, in order to be fueled to write every day, it can be helpful to have a game-plan. A writing challenge can help you make one.
14. Think outside the box. Writing challenges can allow you to explore new ways of writing and kick your muse into high gear.
15. Overcome perfectionism. Perfectionism can paralyze you from writing for fear it won’t be ‘perfect.’ Guess what? Nothing you write will be perfect the first time around. So you might as well write it anyway!
16. Freeze your inner editor. During a NaNoWriMo challenge one year, my region drew pictures of our inner editors, locked them in a box, and literally put them in a freezer for one month. Goodbye, red pen.
17. Get new ideas every day. The more you write, the more new ideas you’ll have to cultivate to fuel it!Plus, it will get you in the habit of coming up with new ideas on a regular basis.
18. Trump writer’s paralysis. The best way to beat self-doubt is to actually do the thing you’re afraid of doing. Prove yourself wrong. Problem solved.
19. But still finish something. Afraid to get to the end of that first draft? Creative challenges are designed to help you to finish something, whether it’s a novel or a flash fiction, and that’s something to be proud of.
20. Finding time to write is hard. But with a challenge, you’ll find yourself squeezing in spare time on your lunch break, on the bus, or in those precious minutes after the kids are asleep.
21. Go at your own pace. Most challenges have a small task or a target word count per day, but if you’re busy during the week, you can spend a few hours just on your writing during the weekend to reach your goals.
22. You can write whatever you want. Most writing challenges give you a a certain amount of time to write a certain number of short stories or a novel, but if novels-in-verse or memoirs are more you thing, go ahead. Bend the rules.
23. Build a habit. Not like when you were a kid and got scolded for chewing your nails. After the challenge is over, you’ll be more ready than ever to build writing into your life all year long.
24. Learn to deal with Writer’s Block. Writer’s block will happen, but you will face it head-on and learn techniques to combat it.
25. It’s a real stress-reliever. Coming home and letting go of everything but your novel can actually help you relieve stress and anxiety.
26. It’s fun. With new prompts and exercises every day, some challenges can get you in a playful writing mood. And while we’re on the subject . . .
27. You actually like to write. It should just be said at this point. This is something you enjoy spending time on. It’s not a job. It’s not a burden. It’s for fun.
28. It’s rewarding. You will feel like a brand-spanking-new person after you finish that first draft.
29. You have a story to tell. Only you can tell this story. A writing challenge can help you get it out into the world.

Conquer the Craft in 29 Days!

Speaking of  challenges, check out Conquer the Craft in 29 Days (#CTC29).

It’s a prompt-a-day challenge designed to help you write more, write better, write smarter.
There’s still time to join, but it’s happening now so hurry and sign up. Click the link for more info.

Got a question? Tweet me @beccaquibbles with the hashtag #askbecca, email me at becca [at] DIYMFA [dot] com, or just leave a comment below! You could see your question answered right here at Ask Becca!

Rebecca Ann Jordan is a speculative fiction author and artist in San Diego. She recently won Reader’s Choice Best of 2013 for her short story “Promised Land” at Fiction Vortex and has published poetry and fiction in Flapperhouse, Swamp Biscuits & Tea, Yemassee Journal and more. Becca is pursuing a master’s degree in Creative Writing from California Institute of the Arts. See more from her at rebeccaannjordan.com.

The post Ask Becca: 29 Reasons to Do a Writing Challenge appeared first on DIY MFA.

Now, here’s something to take on: Look beyond the anger, the embarrassment or the frustration. What is there for you? Consider that a rejection or a lack of response is a gift. It gets you in touch with what you fear, which helps you build the muscle of courage.

Facts and Interpretations

Let’s look at what rejection actually is.

One way to look at rejection is that your work wasn’t accepted. That’s a fact. The second is rejection meaning something about you. The monologue in your head may sound like, “I’m not good enough.” How likely are you to keep writing and querying if you come from a dis-empowering context? Here’s what to do when you start beating up on yourself:

1. Declare a breakdown. Write down the issue that’s bothering you.

2. Write down all the things that are upsetting you besides being rejected that day. Your dog pooped on the carpet, the mail arrived late and your shoe needs cobbling. Clear all that junk out of your head. Distinguish the judgments you have about yourself or others based on each of the things you list. Are those judgments facts or interpretations? If they’re interpretations (most things that upset us usually are our own judgments, not the actual events), cross them out and move on to the next step.

3. Now write down the facts of what you’re upset about. This step will clarify what happened versus how you feel.

4. Now, ask yourself what you’re committed to. Do you want to be the first-ever writer of dog-themed mysteries for tweens? Declare it! Your feelings change from second to second and really can’t be trusted. Your commitment, however, is something you’ll work toward no matter how you feel. You will write when you’re too tired or feeling lazy. Consider that your commitment has to be a large enough vision that it overcomes your feelings, which are temporary sensations.

5. What action steps will you take to make your declaration happen? Write down your goal. What do you want to create by when? Then work backwards, creating milestones and rewards for yourself, each step of the way. Your plan may change over time. No need to beat up on yourself over that. Just re-tool and keep it moving.

6. What are you responsible for in this experience? Write that down. Certainly, there are things out of your control. And then there are things you could control, like the quality of a draft, the amount of hours you put into it, and the way you took care of yourself in order to produce good work. This part of the exercise is hard because humans love to blame others. Once you take credit for how things went, you’ll gain elevation on the experience AND you’ll be able to see more (perhaps, better) options. Remember: When you blame someone else, you give up power.

7. What gold did this experience provide you? It may very well be that your draft wasn’t ready for the world. Or the rejection may be a lesson in resilience. Declare what the experience gave you. This is like an exercise in gratitude. When you see the gold in a situation, you may actually be thankful that you were rejected.

Facing Fear to Build Resilience

Now back to getting in touch with what you fear. A lot of what many of us do is act in ways that protect ourselves from experiencing our fears. Sometimes, what we’re avoiding is so scary, we bury it deep down. Would you consider that in doing so, we’re really avoiding ourselves? Yet, in not facing fear, we create a far more volatile relationship with it.

That’s why rejection usually hurts so much and why many people avoid taking risks.

So instead of avoiding the ickiness, practice being with fear in small, safer ways. When you begin flexing and building that muscle of courage, that next rejection letter won’t stick to you.

This is the second article in a series about dealing with rejection as a writer. Read the first article here .

Julie Varughese is a life coach and former journalist. She is at work on her first fictional series and on a documentary film on her grandmother. She takes it as a practice. Check out her website: www.julievarughese.com

The post How to Stay in Action When You Get Rejected appeared first on DIY MFA.