It is good to challenge yourself, and over at KiwiWriters, they have lots of challenges, catering for all types of writing.
I know this, because I have been participating in these challenges since I first became involved nearly three years ago.
The first challenge I took part in, I belatedly joined. SoCNoC (Southern Cross Novel Competition) is the southern hemisphere version of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I was already writing my trilogy when this competition was on, and it wasn’t until about half way through, I realised that I could participate. So I did. I totted up my word count from the beginning of June to the date, which if I recall was half w
ay through, and I had quite a healthy number, about 30k words. Not bad considering it was a 50k challenge. And I did finish it.
Last year, I wrote a rather soppy fantasy which is probably one that will be published posthumously – because I don’t think it is really worth publishing!
This year, I wrote Medusa’s Garden, about the mythical creature from Greece. This is a story I am particularly proud of, and I can’t wait to get feedback from my readers so that I can get back into editing it and out to publishers. This is the one that I feel is going to do it.
Other challenges have included the Zing Thing, where first lines, last lines, names or sayings are produced and you have to incorporate them into a story.
What I am most excited about, is the challenges which are coming up, like the Halloween Challenge – writing a story about halloween, it can be scary, funny, a horror, anything as long as its theme is Halloween.
Participating in these challenges, along with other people, really extend your skills, and I would recommend it to anyone who is thinking about writing. It can’t hurt, and you never know, you MIGHT actually have fun!
