Day 103: Capturing the Day

My favorite part of this challenge is how it allows me to capture the day. What I mean is that as a writer, sometimes the day would escape me and I didn't feel willing or able to write a single word toward my blog or books. Now that I'm forcing myself to write 2,500 words a day no matter what, I am capturing the day, every day. Sure, I don't always complete everything I set out to do each day beyond the challenge, but I always get at least 2,500 words done without fail. It gives me a sense of pride that used to be absent from my life. I now know I'm able to accomplish nearly any project as long as I push myself to new limits every single day.

Today, I worked on some prompts about farmers and dark/mysterious folk. I also wrote a blog post entitled how to deal with burnout.

Day 53: Chores

One thing I must admit about this challenge is that I've often put my energy into writing as opposed to doing chores around the house. I haven't given things like fully moving into our new apartment as much time as I should. While my girlfriend has also been a little slow to unpack due to her tough job, I shouldn't use that as an excuse. Today or tomorrow, in order to conk out the clutter a bit, I'll spend at least an hour getting my life in order. You can't put off living like an organized human being when doing these types of challenges, because eventually, such clutter will make it difficult to concentrate. My two cents for the day :).

Today, I added a few prompts to sections I hadn't started yet such as "dark and mysterious" and "salespeople." On the blog, I wrote a fiction writing prompt list.

Day 49: A Dream

What will happen if I can keep this challenge up for an entire year or even an entire lifetime? possibly nothing. There is certainly a chance that I could create some amazing stuff that nobody gives a second look. Then again, my dream is that these books I create spread like wildfire and can help and entertain many people. I'd like to increase my income through the roof to pay off all my debts and to better care for my girlfriend and my family. I want to increase my freedom to take on wild projects in film and television. If I can keep up this writing practice indefinitely, I think it could happen. I hope it does happen.

Today, I worked on some character writing prompts about emergency workers and washed-up people, along with a blog post on teaching creative writing.

Day 16: Helping Others

One of the most effective ways to motivate yourself is to motivate others. I have been friends with a wonderful freelance editor named Ashley Daoust for about a decade now. Despite the distance between us (she lives in Denver, me in Chicago), we have recently gotten close and have begun to be cheerleaders for each other in our freelance careers.

She's a few months away from having her first baby and as a result is a little frazzled. After a long chat with her yesterday, she is back on the horse and ready to rock again. We've both been in the same position and I'm grateful that she's helped me out of a rut on more than one occasion.

A challenge like this 365 day writing challenge can be difficult and lonely at times, but by helping others to work on their goals, it inspires me to try harder and to push past any negativity I develop over the long haul.

Today on the writing blog, I posted about this very challenge and how it might turn out. The happiness book is almost done!!

Day 3: Feeling It

It was a few years ago when I first came up with the idea for The Post-College Guide to Happiness, but I never actually sat down and wrote it. There are plenty of notes in various pads of paper somewhere in the apartment, and while notes are fantastic, they don't get you in the zone of what you're writing.

Today, I started feeling it. I remembered why I wanted to write this book and how it might be able to help lots of people. Very exciting stuff!

I also wrote a post about script writing tips on my blog. Day 3 of the challenge is feeling mighty fine right now. Mighty fine.