Writing Challenge – Making the most out of social isolation!
By: Ginger on March 20, 2020
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few weeks, you’re probably under either self-isolation or outright quarantine because of the COVID-19 virus (and if you have been living under a rock, you should probably stay there for a while, it may be safer!) But for writers, there’s a grim silver lining to this crisis – as self-isolation is one of the most advantageous situations to find yourself in if you’re committed to putting pen to paper. So for those of us that can’t do much else anyway, let’s make the most out of it with a writing challenge!
Hidden Gems is proposing a fun writing challenge to help you to get your next book written!
Please do remember that real lives are at stake during this crisis – so we’re not trying to make light of this scary situation. However, I think the next few weeks or months will be very illuminating to many of us, as we’re forced to reexamine our daily routines, and it might also be a great time for self-published authors to truly embrace their passion – as people all over the world are finding themselves stuck at home, and your books offer them an escape!
So, if you’d ever wanted a boot up the arse to get your next (or current) writing project finished, now is the time to do it.
If you’re working from home, that hour you used to spend commuting can now be spent writing! Or, if you’re like me – and have three kids to home school – you can see if you can weave a few minutes at the keyboard during ‘recess’ or another period of quiet time. It’s not easy – but, then again, nothing meaningful ever is. However, this could be the period in which you manage to find a way to seamlessly integrate daily writing into your lifestyle in a way you hadn’t been forced to before – and, with any luck, it’ll continue long after the current crisis is over.
We’ve written a lot about how important it is to write every day, so now, as you’re stuck at home, you have fewer excuses than ever not to be doing this! Remember what we’ve said countless times before – your identity as a writer is a verb, not a noun. You’re not a writer unless you’re writing; so fire up that laptop!
The first and most important step to embrace this new opportunity to write is to actually do it. You have to make a commitment to sit in front of your laptop and actually put words into it. Often, this is the most difficult step, as even though writing is what you want to do most, there’s also a mental block about actually being able to do it. It’s a lot of pressure!
But I’ve found the moment you sit down in front of a blank screen and start typing for five minutes… the magic happens. As long as you can keep going at it, you generally find yourself in the groove; and then all you need to do is just keep writing.
No self-editing. No going back to read what you’ve written. No thinking that before you begin this story, you need to write three prequel novellas and a reader magnet first. Just write!
And that’s what we’re going to challenge you to do today – just write.
Today, we’re going to kick off a writing challenge to authors and would-be authors. Commit to finding a few minutes today to just write, and see if you can log 1,000 words by the end of the day. (And if you want some help keeping track, don’t forget about this.)
Leave a comment below with your commitment – or any advice or encouragement for other authors – and let us know if you succeeded or not!
Staying in social isolation is incredibly important right now – but that doesn’t mean you can’t use this time productively. I think it’s fair to say that the world will never be the same again after this experience, so set yourself up to embrace the best of it; and become the writer you’d always imagined you would be one day. If nothing else, let’s see if we can end these weeks or months with something written at the end of it.
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