Every month seems to be a new writing challenge of some sort, and for May it’s Story-A-Day. Simply write a story – any length, any prompt – each day for thirty-one days.
I participated last year (both in May and again in September), and I’m able to say I did better this time than I have in the past.
And like the previous two times, the reasons I didn’t make it come down to just a few things:
- Not enough time to write. I work full-time and am searching for a different job. I’m in grad school, which requires a lot of reading. I have a kid who appreciates my attention. I have a bit of a social life. Ideally I would just write write write, but I have a lot of people and things needing my time.
- Procrastination. Quite often when I sit down to write, I find myself distracted by the internet: blogs, forums, Facebook and Twitter, and whatever rabbit’s hole I go down whenever I watch a video on YouTube. There were several days this month where I went to my favorite writing spot and accomplished quite a bit, just because there’s no internet there (although I can easily find distractions with my phone).
- A night-owl muse. I’m most creative between 10 pm and 2 am, which kinda sucks. Most nights I’ll get started writing about midnight, but after awhile I’m so tired from the four hours of sleep I got because of staying up late writing the night before, that I have to stop and go to bed.
Nonetheless, I’m relatively proud of this year’s Story-A-Day. It’s not great but it’s not bad, and sometimes that’s good enough.
Good for you! A story a day is a tough challenge.
Yeah, I know I’m too early for WWW, but I had to comment on this. I have my favorite quite spots too. I confiscated our camper for now until we use it for camping this summer. It’s in the yard so I’m close. If I want no people distractions either I go to the lake that is 5 minutes from my house. That only works in nice weather and now is the season!
See you Sunday for your snippet.
Wow, you wrote ten stories in a month? You should be proud. I think my max number of stories for one month is like two.
Congrats!