Writing Challenges Will Make You a Better Writer

Last November, I participated in the most notorious writing challenge in the world: NaNoWriMo. Also known as National Novel Writing Month. The actually international challenge where writers take it upon themselves to write 50,000 words of a manuscript.

It was one of the best months of my life because what I gained was not only a first draft of probably one of my favourite stories of all time, but a library of lessons that changed me to my core as a writer.

Lesson One: Intrusive Thoughts Cease with Perseverance

A lot of writers advise that you should write the most in your first week because of the challenge because that is when you have the most steam. It’s also when you’re setting up Act One, introducing characters and inciting incidents, which is arguably one of the most fun sections to write because nothing needs to connect yet. However, this week was the hardest to get through.

Not because I didn’t know what I was going to write; I had outlined all my scenes in October, even began on the world building and character profiles, but it was me. I made it difficult, and that’s what restricted me from writing more than the required word-count goal of the day.

It was interesting to discover that during this time, I was bombarded with critical inner dialogue telling me that I wasn’t good enough to write this story. That what I’d written so far was terrible and no one would want to read it. I thought the story I’d spent so much time on discovering was ordinary. My biggest fear. Definitely not something an editor would write. How could I call myself an editor if my writing was terrible?

But I was hitting my word-count goals for the day, so I pushed through. I told myself before starting the challenge that if I ever allowed myself to succumb to any obstacles that stopped me from writing and finishing the challenge, I would never write again.

Harsh, I understand. But at this point, it had been years since I’d finished a draft manuscript, and I was so extremely fed up with not progressing further in my writing career. So, I gave myself a stern talking to.

“If you don’t write today, that means you don’t want to be a published author. And if that’s wrong, prove me wrong.”

Those lines are what got me through the first week. Every day I faced my internal fears all bubbling to the surface of my mind, and every day I repeated that, and I kept writing. No matter how terrible those thoughts were, I didn’t listen to them.

Magically, after the first seven days, the thoughts stopped, and I started to thoroughly enjoy the process. It was as if, in that first week, I was experiencing withdrawals, and the only way around them was to work through them.

Lesson Two: Writing is Fun When You Let Go

After those intrusive thoughts had ceased, I was able to focus on enjoying what I was writing. Here, I caught myself in every daydream thinking about scenes I could include in the story, ways characters could react, and new mythologies I could create.

No new ideas were off-limits because I would find a way to include each scene or plot point I wanted. During this time, I also realised that in order to include certain ideas, I had to take out others in order for the story to make sense. This was a little hard to begin with. After all, some of the ideas I had were staples from my original outline that I’d grown attached to and couldn’t wait to write. But, some didn’t make sense with the direction the story was going. And that was okay. It was okay to drop some story ideas and not hold onto them as if they were the most sentimental things to me. If I really liked an idea, I could include it in another story.

Realising I needed to let go of some of my ideas in order for the story to make sense, it liberated me from invisible shackles. I physically felt the chains unclasp from my wrists, enabling me to fly in any direction I wanted with the story.

What surprised me the most about this lesson, was when I let go of a certain idea and explored others, some of my ideas came back to me as the perfect answer to what should happen next in the story. Meaning, I wasn’t ready for the idea when I had it at first, but as I trusted my creativity, it came back to me in perfect timing.

Lesson Three: Writing Regularly is Key

Never had I made myself do a writing challenge that lasted this long, meaning I’d never written this consecutively. But now that I have, I don’t think I could ever go back.

I don’t think writing every day is necessary, but perhaps every second day, or third day every now and again. This month established a writing habit for me, to the point where not writing for long felt . . . wrong. The momentum and the practice actually felt invigorating, as if my entire body was screaming finally!

There were a lot of benefits I gained from this simple act: it not only helped keep me immersed in my story, but I found it also kept me excited for it. It was easier to come up with new creative ideas and even write better, too, which was exactly what I’d hoped to gain from this experience.

Now that the challenge is over, I take a day or two break from writing to avoid burn out (because after this month, I really needed it). But when I am away from my story for too long, it’s harder for me to gain that momentum again.

So my closing thoughts are: challenge yourself to write daily for a month and see what it does for you. Writing 1,667 words a day can be a lot, and I’m not saying to challenge yourself with NaNoWriMo (maybe next November). But write a little above an achievable word count for yourself every day and see what happens to your writing, your mindset and your motivation.