"Something very meaningful and definitely not the Fall Out Boy lyrics I wanted to put here." - Fancy Header
j.r. dawson
  • Home
  • About
    • Press Kit
    • Editing and Contact Information
    • Recent News
    • Services
  • THE FIRST BRIGHT THING
  • STORIES

Day One: Starting

5/28/2015

1 Comment

 
Picture
The Year of Writing Challenge is exactly what it sounds like:
1. Every day, you have to write.
2. Every day, you have to blog about what you wrote and your struggles of the day.
3. You have to do this for 365 days consecutively.
So let's get this going.

For those of you who have been to this site before, you know it is originally called Ramblings of a Madwoman. It was just a weekly blog I tried to keep up with writing advice and my own struggles as a writer and a student. I got a little bored with it. Work threw me curve ball after curve ball. And so then when I knew I was going to quit my job so I could focus on my school and my writing, I started hatching a plan.

Before I get into the challenge and what it is, let's cover what brought me to a year of being able to write. We're not rich, which is something a lot of my ex-coworkers thought to themselves. I worked hard for five years and kept a sizable amount of my paycheck into a nest egg while Alex went to his own school. We've been planning this for years. And I'll be doing odd jobs throughout the year in order to help pay rent. This includes teaching and even trying my hand at a travel agent part-time. So before you start getting these grandiose images of me sitting on a velvet chez lounge eating chocolates from a heart-shaped box and Alex in a fancy suit taking his town car downtown, please understand we're two partially starving twentysomethings who are just really stubborn and possibly really stupid.

The other reason why I tell you this is because I know how it feels to be stuck. I know how it feels to think there's no way to make it work. There is a way. You just have to sacrifice and plan for years to make it work. Even if the only way you can make this challenge work is to work twelve hours and then come home and write for twenty minutes, that's still making it work. I've been there. Believe me. I know it's hard, but if you're serious about writing, you'll figure it out.

Okay. The challenge.

The Year of Writing Challenge is exactly what it sounds like:

1. Every day, you have to write.
2. Every day, you have to blog about what you wrote and your struggles of the day.
3. You have to do this for 365 days consecutively.

That's honestly it. It is a lot harder than it sounds, but easier than you're thinking. I know it's going to take a while to build this, get everything looking pretty, etc. But that's the thing about writing. Not all of it is going to be easy or pretty or perfect or popular. Some of it is just going to be a really awkward, really disjointed first blog.

So here are my goals for just today:

I need to read Ender's Game for my packet due on Monday.

I need to go to my writing group with my writing buddy, Kate.


I'm hoping through this challenge, I'll meet people, I'll keep myself on track, and hopefully help you out as well. I have a good feeling about this year.

What are your goals today? What are you hoping to get out of this lovely Thursday? Comment below with your own blog link or just a check-in as to what you're doing today.

Join us on facebook:

www.facebook.com/groups/yearofwritingchallenge


#yearofwritingchallenge

1 Comment
Nora
5/28/2015 01:25:55 am

This is an awesome challenge! I think I'm gonna try it. I don't blog as much as I should...
Today, I'll be writing my second annotation and editing my 25 fiction pages.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    What is this?

    Dawson is a writer. This is her blog. In it, you shall read about reading. And writing. And cheeseburgers. Sometimes there are tangents. Huzzah.

    Categories

    All
    Advice
    Angela Patten
    Animal Farm
    Animorphs
    Applegate
    Applying
    Art
    Bad Writing
    Bats
    Bella
    Best Writing Places
    Blue Line
    Bradbury
    Caffeine Dreams
    Chicago
    Colorado
    Community
    Complicated Characters
    Concert
    Dad
    Day Job
    Dead Poets Society
    Death
    Depression
    Draft
    Dundee
    Elements Of Fiction
    Exposition
    Famous
    Father's Day
    Favorite Books
    Fox Hollow
    Frankenstein
    Frozen
    Gaiman
    Game Of Thrones
    Grant
    Grateful
    Harry Potter
    Hermione
    Heroines
    Home
    Hunger Games
    Introduction
    Iowa
    Ireland
    Katniss
    Kevin Barry
    Killing Characters
    Life Of Pi
    Lindsey Stirling
    Mardra Sikora
    Marketing
    Martin McDonagh
    Memoir
    MFA
    Motivation
    Music
    Ocean At The End Of The Lane
    Old Market
    Omaha
    Opera
    Panera
    Paradise Bakery
    Pen Names
    Personal Life
    Pikes Peak Writers Conference
    PitchWars
    Procrastination
    Radical Face
    Reading
    Residency
    Revision
    Robin Williams
    Scooter's
    Self-love
    Set Piece
    Setting
    Shelf Life
    Short Story
    Sick
    Starbucks
    Stonecoast
    The Lion King
    The MFA Years
    Thesis
    Twilight
    UNO Library
    Urban Abbey
    Village Inn
    Wedding
    Women
    Wordsworth
    World
    Writing
    Yann Martel
    #YesAllWomen
    Zen

    Archives

    May 2019
    July 2018
    November 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from smoorenburg, Erik Daniel Drost, prasad.om, Feral78, spbpda, Môsieur J. [version 9.1], markus spiske