5 Benefits of Participating in a Writing Challenge

There are writing challenges designed to help writers stay motivated and practice their craft. I find that writers usually feel more comfortable within certain categories: fiction vs. non-fiction, short vs. long-form. There are plenty of possibilities in a writing challenge, from short stories to novels and blog articles to business books, just to name a few.

2 Creative Types of Writing Challenges

To grow as a writer, it is fun to explore genres we are not initially drawn to and that’s where writing challenges can help. I have participated in two: Blogtober and Blogmas. 

Blogtober: The word is a combination of “blog” + “October”. This challenge is meant to have you writing every day during this month.

Blogmas: The name comes from “blog” + “Christmas”. In this writing challenge, you can write during the entire month of December or during 12 days of the month.

You can search for these online and you will find guidelines for participating and ideas to write about. The challenge is to be consistent and write every day whether it’s on your blog or your book. Start by asking yourself which topic or genre is outside your comfort zone, but interests you, and use the challenge to give it a try.

Blog entries can be in the form of text, pictures, videos, or audio you have created. Switching between those is another way to challenge yourself, plus it keeps things varied and interesting for you, as the blogger, as well as your reader. 

If you are writing a book, decide its genre, theme, and length (pages or words). Prepare an outline to plan its content and break down its length into a daily writing goal. This makes the task more manageable.

5 Benefits of Participating in a Writing Challenge

Participating in a writing challenge allows you to:

1. Practice your writing.
2. Create more content for your blog or book within a specific amount of time.
3. Support other writers and receive support by using hashtags to share each other’s posts.
4. Stay motivated because you are not alone; there are other writers working simultaneously.
5. Explore new possibilities for your writing.

Create your Own Writing Challenge 

You can also create your own initiatives. To do so, think of a theme, select a week or month, and a hashtag. Prepare instructions regarding how to participate in your challenge, post them on your blog, and share the post on social media using the hashtag to invite other writers to participate. 

Another idea is to challenge yourself to write something every month. For example, a list of writing goals for the year in January, a love story in February, an article about spring cleaning in March, and so on. As the year comes to a close, it’s a good time to start planning if you would like to do this next year. To do so, create a list of types of content that you would like to write (list of favorites, story, article) and decide the month in which you would like to write each one.

As a final thought, not all writing is meant to be shared. Sometimes, we just write for the sake of writing, to explore a thought or feeling. Therefore, don’t feel pressured to share everything you write. Write for the fun of it and see where it takes you.

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