In Today’s Journal
* The Bradbury Challenge
* Report on a Ten-Day Challenge
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
The Bradbury Challenge
The whole point of the Challenge is to have fun and grow as a writer. There is no cost. The only requirement is to write at least one short story per week. Feel free to jump in at any time.
During the past week, in addition to whatever other fiction they’re writing, the following writers reported these new stories:
- Balázs Jámbor “Guest pictures” 2000 General Fiction
- Balázs Jámbor “Dear shine of my eyes” 2200 Contemporary
- Balázs Jámbor “Asking for suicide” 2000 Contemporary, General Fiction
- Balázs Jámbor “Ghosts of schools” 2200 Ghost story
- Balázs Jámbor “Homework” 800 General Fiction
- Balázs Jámbor “Ghostly twins” 2500 Ghost Story
- Vanessa V. Kilmer “Burning Britches” 3011 Alternate Reality
- Vanessa V. Kilmer “Double Negative” 3000 Fantasy
- Harvey Stanbrough “But There Is No Corral” 2056 Suspense
- Dave Taylor “In this Moment” 3433 Sci-Fi
Congratulations to all of these writers.
My Hungarian writer friend Balázs Jámbor undertook a challenge to write ten stories during the ten days he had off from work.
In addition to the partial results above, Balázs also shared his experience with me in an email.
With Balázs’ permission, I’m sharing that email with all of you today as a guest post (see below). I think you’ll find it enlightening and encouraging.
Report on a Ten-Day Challenge
a guest post by Balázs Jámbor
I started a ten day challenge to write a story a day. Although I started well, I failed to write ten stories. But I failed forward.
Writing 6 stories and 11,700 words in 9 days isn’t such a big failure. And I’ve already started the next story, but will finish it tomorrow. Even with that it’s only 7 stories in 10 days.
After a good start I felt myself weary, and after I got behind it made me stress about whether I would be able to do the challenge… Such a mistake.
I put into points why did I think I failed, but maybe I just wasn’t ready yet. I wasn’t there with the right mindset.
Daily 1,000-2,000 words isn’t much if there is no work, so it should have worked. Even though I had a few events to show up, I still had the time.
So why did I fail?
First, I think it is the habit that I don’t start [something] new on the day I finish something.
Second, I think it’s the power of a streak: once a streak is broken, it’s broken. [I broke my streak] midway when I let myself not start writing when I had only a few minutes. And I didn’t have enough power for my challenge.
Third, when I have only a few minutes I should write. Little time is more than nothing. I handled the whole challenge the wrong way:
- I have time;
- I will do it later (procrastination—many mornings I’ve started late, I chose to have a break instead of writing);
- it’s enough to write less on a day and I will do more later;
- and so on.
Fourth, I didn’t prioritize the challenge well. I did other things during my week off, and I didn’t pay the attention to the challenge it needed.
But there always be a next time.
What I learned from this challenge I will bring with me to the next month, when I also have a week off from work. I’ve learned that
- I need to maintain a streak;
- I need to pay more attention to the challenge and prioritize it more;
- write more than I think I’m capable of; and
- start early every day.
So here is my ten day challenge report:
- Balázs Jámbor “Guest pictures” 2000 words (general fiction)
- Balázs Jámbor “Dear shine of my eyes” 2200 words (contemporary)
- Balázs Jámbor “Asking for suicide” 2000 words (contemporary, general fiction)
- Balázs Jámbor “Ghosts of schools” 2200 (ghost story)
- Balázs Jámbor “Homework” 800 words (general fiction)
- Balázs Jámbor “Ghostly twins” 2500 words (ghost story)
Also, I mentioned some negative results. I learned pretty much during this challenge.
- I can start and write a story with no preparation at all;
- I can get an idea from everywhere; maybe one for the title, the theme, but mostly for the character;
- I can have my precious writing time. (I just need to share with my family that ‘now I’m writing’.)
AND I got motivated on being a writer. A writer writes every day, and that is the next level for me.
Thanks, Balázs! Your report is the exact definition of failing to success!
Note: I’ll be back tomorrow with Writing Effective Dialect, Part 4.
Of Interest
Restart Challenge Dean’s running his own “Run with Harvey Challenge” (Remember 2025 words per day?)
5 Moral Dilemmas That Make Characters (& Stories) Better
A Spring Gift from WITS: Share Your First Lines!
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 780
Writing of Blackwell Ops 40: John Staple
Day 1…… 3397 words. To date…… 3397
Day 2…… 1651 words. To date…… 5048
Day 3…… 1960 words. To date…… 7008
Day 4…… 1777 words. To date…… 8785
Day 5…… 1310 words. To date…… 10095
Day 6…… 3346 words. To date…… 13441
Day 7…… 3322 words. To date…… 16763
Fiction for March…………………….. 64535
Fiction for 2025………………………. 250366
Nonfiction for March………………….. 20910
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 74840
2025 consumable words…………….. 318696
Average Fiction WPD (March)……… 2806
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 6
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 11
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 110
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 281
Short story collections……………………. 29
Disclaimer: Whatever you believe, unreasoning fear and the myths that outlining, revising, and rewriting will make your work better are lies. They will always slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
Writing fiction should never be something that stresses you out. It should be fun. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Because of WITD and because I endeavor to follow those Rules I am a prolific professional fiction writer. You can be too.
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