My Personal 2019 Writing Challenge

[anarchycox]

 

Start: January 2019

End: December 2019

Goal: 52 one shots

Guidelines:

Each one shot is not to exceed 5,000 words

       

There is a wiggle allowance of 1% on word count

       

They are not connected to any previously created universe

      

One story a month can be added to a list to possibly be expanded later

      

One story every two months can receive one companion/sequel prompt

   

There is no set post date. Just in the period of Monday-Sunday once a week a story must appear

     

Prompts are from a list I have. A random number generator will pick the prompt

                   

Each week I can reroll the number twice if what comes up doesn’t work for me

       

If I successfully complete 11 of 12 months following the rules come January 2020 I can do whatever I want with anything written

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so I created this challenge for myself because I am notorious for saying something is going to be a brief one shot and then it turns into a giant fic. I don't want to always write 40-60k fics with five different stories. I want to hone my skills at creating small and complete worlds and this is pretty low stakes. It says a max of 5k which means it could be as few as 500 words. I am hoping that this will create really interesting and different takes than my writing often does.

Comments

[elrhiarhodan]

GO YOU!!!!!!!!

I think I may do a modified version of this. My own writing has become very convoluted and (I feel) leaden and boring. Everything I write seems to be 5-10K and it doesn't have to be like that.

Thank you for showing me a possible way to fix this.

[anarchycox]

woooo for challenge buddies. We already talked a bit but I think it has to be said again, that the opportunity to really play and experiment that this challenge allows will be a wonderful thing. Epistolary, dialogue only, descriptive only, lots of room to play here I think.

[elrhiarhodan]

Oooh, yes. And maybe sometimes our prompts can sync up and we can write in concert. Not always, but as a special treat.

[anarchycox]

ohhhh that would be fun. maybe set a couple over the course of the year. fun to see the different ideas that come out of one idea.

[potentiality_26]

This is such a cool challenge to set for yourself. Good luck with it!

Also: I'd be curious about the prompts list you mentioned, I love collecting prompts.

[anarchycox]

The prompt list I used was from the Writer's Book of Days but that was 365 prompts and I wanted to slim that down, but not to just 52 because I worried that I would freeze on the last few. So I got the list down to 80 of the more poetic prompts from that list:

Things that enter by way of silence
Walls the colour of tears
Shapes like stars
The place where wings unfurl
An immobile time not marked on clocks
A word left unspoken
It’s what was whispered about
The instrument of the sorrowful
Black as a crow’s wing
Everything became shadow
Memory as thick as mud
At the end of an empty street
The world before you were born
These are the seductive voices of the night
The antidote to pain
A stranger came to town
On the edge of what felt safe
It was written in the margin
The idea inside the morning
This is what i remember
The moon made me do it
Rain heavy on the windows
What waits at the top of the stairs
It shimmers in the distance
Past midnight, drunk on purple wine
He refuses all fear
Lighting the first lamps
The last stop before arrival
I am writing you from a far off country
She wore flowers in her hair
Only here, only now
They told me it would be like this
A black and white photograph
The expectation of pleasure
I was meant to be someone else
A random selection of bad habits
The details of unremarkable days
In my dream, i was the first to arrive
Nevertheless, it’s still summer
You woke up and found him gone
In search of impossible light
He called you by your real name
Even the lightning spoke well of them
Houses have their secrets
After we became acquainted
The towns you drive through on the way to somewhere else
The way water falls on skin
The memory that circles your bed at night
Small madnesses
You’re traveling, you’re not alone
What happened between one moment and the next
Beyond the confines of ordinary language
What washed up upon the shore
The map of a daydream
Seven or eight things you know about him
What is meant to be remembered
In the garden after dark
Instructions on how to cry
This is what my grandmother told me
On the eve of the wedding
Arriving on Saturday
A history of whispers
Your Daddy’s pride
The opening of the blossoms
Nothing can be heard
You don’t know where you are
There is a place somewhere called Paris
The place where the pines grow wild
Inside the circle
This is the hand you were dealt
Riding the all night train
A dark December day
The catalogue of my betrayals
This is the geography of his/her body
We said we’d never speak of it
It’s either the beginning or ending
In anticipation of catastrophe
A list of hungers
Three days of hard freeze
One last thought

[potentiality_26]

Such an interesting list, thank you!