Page A Day Challenge

It's finally here. The challenge I can actually probably do. And achieve. And not neglect family, myself, and home doing.

Weronika Janczuk, teen writer extraordinaire, has devised a deliciously doable challenge for all of us writers who think that every time we sit to write we must write a ginormous amount of words or it's not worth it. (Raise you hand, anyone?)

The challenge is here if you want to participate, but in short, this is it: Pledge to yourself to write a page a day from May 15 to June 15. No more, no less. Not that you can't write more if you want, and if you get on a roll by all means, write your little heart out!! But if you can only squeak out a page, you get to pat yourself on the back because the idea is that a page written is a page written. It's not overwhelming, but it's something. It's something you didn't have yesterday, and all those little somethings add up. They do! Like proverbial drops in a bucket. Because what is a book but a series of pages with words on them?

I thought this was brilliant, because I'm one of those who berates myself if I can't come up with a ton of wordage in a sitting, and I get utterly frustrated reading tweets of writers who regularly rack up 7,000 words in a day. I have never done that. I can't imagine ever doing that. And so, if I can't get much done, I feel like I wasted my time.

BUT Weronika's point is so great! 

The main purpose of this is to get you writing, but I also like the idea of raising some awareness: that, realistically, you don't need to set unrealistic goals AND that writing a page-a-day (or a derivate of that goal) will make your writing better if you take your time with it.

And what's the worst case scenario? You spend one year writing a novel.


I'm so on board with this!

She suggests we keep a calendar and track it in this post, but I'm going to keep a log of my writing on the sidebar, since it's easier access to me.

Join me if you're up for it! Today is the last day to officially sign up on her blog, but you can do it even if you don't sign up. All you need is a teensy bit of commitment, and a whole lot of optimism that every little thing we do is working towards the end.