How To Keep Your Challenge Committments, or: Strategies For Challenge Success

[icarus]

Strategies For Challenge Success

The flood of Christmas writing fests are now behind us and most are on to our New Year's resolutions. (I don't do New Year's resolutions because the only way to keep a resolution is to resolve and re-resolve it every day -- as you fail one day, examine why that was, then re-resolve, adjust if need be, and pick yourself up the next. The very concept of a limited "New Year's-only" resolution guarantees you will never change. Failure is part of the process of change and needs to be built into a resolution.)

Some of us may have done well on our writing challenges. Others may have fallen flat on our faces and find ourselves avoiding our friends, banned from participating in X or Z challenge next year, and counting our excuses. We have many to choose from:

- Last-minute emergency (translation: I didn't start early enough).
I have a last-minute emergency every challenge. Let's be honest. The reality is that I look at that deadline and say "oh, lookie, I can write it all the last week after finals" and don't start early enough. I have very little elbow room when that due-date hits and something has invariably come up.

- I didn't have time (translation: I didn't plan very well).
Part of the process of deciding to do a writing challenge is time management. You set aside the time in your mind and picture, "Hmm, okay, I need at least two weekends where I write the first draft, it takes a couple days to find a beta, the beta might need a week so I'll have... okay, this is minimum three weekends in December. That's doable." If you're vague about why you didn't have time then you didn't go through this planning process.

- The muse didn't strike (translation: I didn't plan at all).
The point of a story challenge is to write a story. Sometimes it's a great story. Sometimes it's a lousy story. But you just have to produce something. Generally speaking, if you put the work into a story, it will be better than one where you put no effort. Creating a story for your recipient involves research and if you do your homework, you will have at least one story idea. It may be a lousy, stupid idea, but all you need is a story.

Costing Yourself Self-Discipline: A Heavy Price For A Writer

The real problem of not meeting challenge deadlines is the cost to the writer. Yes, the mod will be unhappy, although the challenge recipient probably got a pinch-hitter. Yes, you're banned from participating next time, although probably not the only one who fell through. But writing is hard. Adding emotional freight makes writing even harder: guilt is bad for you.

More importantly, writing takes self-discipline. If you don't fulfill one commitment to yourself as a writer -- and a challenge is a committment to yourself -- the next one becomes harder, or in a sense ... e-a-s-i-e-r ... to let yourself off the hook. Once you let yourself get away with not following through on a challenge, I've noticed it becomes easier to not push yourself through that tough spot in your own fics. Show me someone who consistently lets themselves slide on challenges, and I'll show you someone with at least one abandoned WiP or a stack of unfinished short stories. Because they have undermined their self-discipline. For your own sake as a writer do not sign up for challenges you can't finish.

All is not lost. If you didn't make your challenge deadline(s), you may just need to reexamine your motives and your strategy for writing challenges.

The Writing Challenge requires certain time management skills that can be learned. It's not a coincidence that the "busy" people in fandom who have the least actual time are the ones who manage to write for four or five challenges while working full-time, running an RPG, and juggling committee responsibilities (I'm looking at you, femmequixotic).

#1 - Should You Sign Up At All?

First - Do you want to do a writing challenge?

This may seem obvious, but a lot of people sign up for challenges to help themselves get motivated. For a few this works, but for most, if we're not motivated, we're not motivated. A challenge won't change an underlying malaise. Do not sign up for this reason unless you know that challenges do, in fact, motivate you. If you've signed up for three different challenges and crapped out on the them all, chances are you aren't motivated by them.

Second - Do you have time? How long does it take you to write?

Some of us can whip out a 1,000-word story in an afternoon. Others of us crank through 100 words at a time -- and then throw away half. Don't worry if you fit the latter description. Some of the best writers in fandom do. But you will need more time to write. Make sure you will have the time to complete what you think you'll write for the challenge -- and notice how I didn't mention the minimum for the challenge?

I know people, excellent writers, who can't do a complete story in 1,000 words. Don't base your assessment on the minimum, that's a common mistake. Base it on your typical story length.

Third - How busy is your schedule around the challenge deadline?

A lot of challenges are due at a really busy time. Finals week for students. Christmas vacation when the kids will be home. Bear in mind that despite good intentions, you may not be able to get that story done in the months before that final week. You need to be able set aside enough time to do the whole thing from scratch the last week it's due.

"What?" you say, "I of course will do it Thanksgiving weekend!" Yes, yes, well, I just had a story due last Christmas and it just... stopped working for me. I couldn't spit it out. I ended up writing a new story from scratch the final week. Shit happens. And, ask any mod, it always happens the last week of the challenge.

Fourth - How many challenges have you signed up for all at once?

There is a 12 Step Program for the compulsion to sign up for these things. Be realistic. If you've never done it before, please just sign up for one.

#2 - Plan, Plan, Plan: The Writing Stages

One of the best ways to take the pressure off a challenge deadline is to finish early. Way early. For my first second challenge I was nervous and finished the story in January that was due in March. It was the best story I've written for a challenge (The Hat Trick, if you're curious) and it went far more smoothly than all of my subsequent challenges. At the very least, give yourself a reasonable amount of time. Minimum three weeks for the average writer.

First - Research your recipient.
Do this the moment you receive your recipient's request. You'll hopefully have a good writing cue from them, but even if you don't, go to their LJ and read what they write. Yes. Read your recipients' fanfic, or the fanfic they recommend. You will get a good feel for what they enjoy. For example, my last challenge bluflamingo mentioned she liked Teamfic and Lorne/Sheppard. When I read bluflamingo's fanfic I noticed she liked to have things tied very closely to canon and realized that was important to her. This helped fuel a few ideas for stories for her, and cut off a few dead-ends that I realized she probably wouldn't like. This should take an hour or two.

Second - Brainstorm a couple of ideas.
Do this right away, immediately after you've read your recipients' fics. Why wait? The ideas are fresh now. Notice I said more than one idea? Write a few down. Because you never know if that first story is going to turn into a novel that you could never finish by the challenge deadline, no, never in a million years. Having something right away, even if you don't write it instantly, will remove that problem of "blanking" under pressure if you try to do this right before the deadline. This should take an hour, maybe less. Give yourself a couple of days to do it if you don't spark ideas right off.

Third - Scratch out your rough draft notes.
Now I know a lot of people in fandom don't write truly rough drafts. Usually, they open Word and that first file is exactly what gets sent to their beta. If that works for you, far be it from me to mess with what works. But what works for me is a rough listing of scenes with a smattering of dialogue, either written down in one of my notebooks or hashed out in chat with a friend. The rough notes tell me if I can write this story in the time allotted. Otherwise, you'll probably be able to see how long your story will be within the first couple paragraphs. This should take three or four hours, tops, to have enough of your story to know if it'll work for your challenge. This is important. Many people end up with loooooong stories and under the gun. (P.S. femmequixotic in comments goes a step further and estimates each scene will take about 1,000 words. Other writers might have longer scenes - yes, I'm smiling at you auburnnothenna - but my scenes also average about 1,000 words, so that's a good rule of thumb.)

Fourth - Begin the first draft early.
Hopefully, by brainstorming as soon as you got your recipient's request, you have a fresh idea that'll grab you early. There is nothing wrong with finishing a story way before the deadline. I've noticed a direct relationship between how early I've started, and the quality of my resulting story. Most challenges have a minimum of 1,000 words, but the average challenge length story is usually around 3,000 - 7,000 words. Depending on how fast you normally write (and how easily the story comes), you're looking at a minimum six to fifteen hours of writing. Most of us can't do it in one sitting, so probably three days minimum of five hours behind a computer, just writing. Which is really seven hours because humans run from writing -- check email, read fanfic, complain in LJ, etc. A smart person gives themselves at least a week for the first draft, and a week to beta it.

Fifth - this is the part that people forget takes time - Beta it.
Yes, your beta may think your story is wonderful except for that typo on page five. Or they may tell you your ending makes no sense. Nothing's more frustrating than a story you didn't have time to finish, and then the readers come back and say, "Gosh, that was great except for the ending...." You want to tell them, "I know about the ending, I just didn't have time to fix it!" Well, if you give yourself a week for beta, you won't have that problem. *ding!*

In all, for a fanfic challenge give yourself no less than three weeks. Really.

#3 - Uh-oh.

But let's say that at your office it rained work and snowed delays. Or you've had a miserable quarter at school with many group projects. Or you didn't plan ahead, but, eh, it usually doesn't matter because you're a quick writer -- and this time it bit you in the ass. What do you do?

First - Notify the person running the challenge that you've run into problems but, by god, you're still working to get that story done.

I know. You think you're saying: "I am a pathetic loser who's failed, failed, failed at life!"
But what the challenge mod hears: "I am a responsible person who cares about my committment, who has given you half a chance to plan a pinch hit, and most likely won't bail at the last second. Don't you love me?"

Yes, indeed we do. I've run a challenge. The people who communicate almost always come through -- no. Make that always. It's far more common for writers-in-trouble to run from their problems. And us.

Second - Streamline.

Back in the 80s, TV cook Julie Child knocked a turkey onto the floor during a live broadcast. She ducked behind the counter, plunked it onto the platter, and said, "Remember! You're the only one in the kitchen."

Remember! Your challenge recipient has no clue what you have planned. Neither does the mod. You're the only one in the kitchen.

When time gets short, jettison what you have to. Usually, this means your attempt to tailor your story to your recipient. Make your fic fit the challenge, of course, but chances are that when you're stuck, writing what comes from your gut will go a lot faster. When your options are "a story" or "no story" -- having "a story" wins.

Third - Pull Out The Speed Writing Techniques.

You no longer have time for that carefully plotted fic with each line honed like a diamond. I have two main speed-writing techniques:

NaNoWriMo Style -- I sit down at the computer and give myself a minimum word count for that session. I write anything to meet that word count. The results are often a little... slap-happy. But definitely unique. I once ended up with Draco Malfoy ice skating down a hallway and crashing when he hit the stairs. (Turns out I was listening to "Trapped Under Ice" at the time -- it filtered into my subconscious.)

Cheerleader Style -- I grab a hapless friend in chat and tell them the story, relying on their energy to get me through it. Then I copy-paste the chat transcript into Word and flesh it out. One time I ended up with Lucius Malfoy playing a deadly solo while chatting with Electric Android while another time Percy Weasley cross-dressed in public as I talked through the story to Lizardspots. In SGA, I once wrote an entire Sheppard/Lorne fic in LJ comments, egged on by Auburn, and you can ask Amothea how many SPN stories started out in chat with her.

Fourth - Cheat.

Check your hard drive. What do you have lying around half-finished that will work for this challenge?

Okay, okay, maybe you have to squint a little, or pick the option at the bottom of your recipient's list, or write Rodney into Teyla's role in that unfinished fic, or expand a drabble you never imagined as a longer fic. You know what they say about desperate times. I know plenty of people who've done this for Yuletide. Your unfinished fics could save your arse.

#4 - Dealing With The Guilt.

This is the point where you post your 1,500 word expanded drabble ... and invariably someone has written you a three-post 20,000 word epic. *blush*

Well. It all comes out in the wash or the rinse. Next year, you'll be the one with the 20,000 word epic. This year, at least you made it. And you're a better, more confident, and more disciplined writer. Congratulations.


(P.S. In comments angiepen suggests that even if you miss your deadline, keep going and finish the story, however long it takes. That's excellent advice.)

Comments

[lavvyan.livejournal.com]

There is a 12 Step Program for the compulsion to sign up for these things.

I wish. It's like my fingers start twitching every time I read the word "challenge" - I keep signing up even when I know I shouldn't. Though I'm proud to say I only ever failed once (and I'm still feeling lousy about it).

Plus I work a lot better with deadlines. Challenges are good for me. *coughs*

May I link to this? You had some brilliant points and I can think of several people on my f-list who might be interested in them.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I twitch eagerly every time I see a challenge. It must hit something primal.

Please link. I hope it's helpful, coming from someone who's been the mod, the smug-nah-nah-I-got-mine-done-early person, and the oh-shit-oh-shit-oh-shit-help-help-what-now person.

[crownglass39.livejournal.com]

This is an awesome post!

There was ONE challenge I signed up for, a year ago just shortly after I started really trying to write fanfic.

I didn't plan well.

It didn't get done.

I STILL feel guilty.
sigh.
I am SO adding this to memories!

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh, I can't imagine doing a challenge so early in my fic-writing career.

[nicocoer.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is really good. *pimps on own LJ* really, this should be introduced to all Challenge writers. Too often things fall flat. Thank you for writing this! :D :D :D

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

You're welcome, and thanks for getting the word out. I hope it's useful.

[zellieh]

Oh, this was a great post! Clearly written, logically laid out, and full of useful tips & tricks. Thanks! *adds to Memories*

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

*bobs head* Good, I hope it helps as much as the posts on writing prompts helped me this past challenge season, er, Christmas.

[sonadorita.livejournal.com]

I'm here via lavvyan's LJ :) Thanks for this entry! I recognized myself in some of your lines, and although I decided to stay far, far away from challenges in the future, the day may come when I'll need your suggestions and ideas *g*

*bookmarks*

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Challenges are addictive. Approach them cautiously. ;)

[femmequixotic]

Heh. This year it was four challenges in Nov/Dec, RPG modding, committee work, full-time pay-the-bills work, running a small SeSa exchange myself, and moving a rather large comm to IJ. Won't be doing all that at once again...I'm still tired. :D

Third - Scratch out your rough draft notes.

OMG, yes. Yes, yes, yes. Especially for fests. I might not do this for all of my regular fics, but I always do it for fests because it lets me know how much time each fic will take.

My general rule for myself, knowing how I write, is that each scene that I put on the outline/notes file equals about 1000 words. (In actuality when I write they'll end up being 500-1500 so it all evens out.) Then I go through and count up the number of scenes and I have a fairly accurate rough guessitmate of how many words will be required to finish the fic and if I have time to write that many. It's stopped me many times from getting deep into a complicated fic and realizing there's absolutely no way for it to be finished in time.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Aha! Just as I suspected: time management. And that's even more planning than I imagined. That rule of thumb's about right. My scenes end up about 1,000 words each, too.

Icarus

[apple-pi.livejournal.com]

Good advice here, and good reminders. :-)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I'm glad it's helpful. :)

[wishwords.livejournal.com]

Okay, this hurts because it doesn't just apply to challenges. I am so undisciplined. And there is no excuse, yet I still fail at meeting my own deadlines.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Truthfully, it only applies to challenges. I wouldn't extend this to personal writing where deadlines by nature have to be flexible. Unless we're being paid for our work, deadlines have to flow around our RL. In a challenge, however, we are being paid in a sense; someone is writing a story for us.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

This is great and I have nothing clever to add 'cos it seems really complete but this is a great time to ask this: what does "it all comes out in the wash" mean? I've heard it but I still don't think I understand it.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

but this is a great time to ask this: what does "it all comes out in the wash" mean?

It makes more sense if people don't mangle it (as they often do). It should read: "it all comes out in the wash or the rinse."

It refers to a food stain on clothes that's supposed to come out in the wash cycle in the washing machine, but, it doesn't matter if it doesn't, because there's always the rinse cycle afterward which will finish the job. Since both cycles happen consecutively in the washing machine, no one notices if the food stain washed out later than it was supposed to.

And whoever invented this saying watched one too many Clorox commercials....

[angiepen.livejournal.com]

Another thing I can recommend is that if you miss the deadline, keep writing. I've never flaked on an exchange fest, but I had one of those family-emergency issues where I'd left writing to the last minute and then couldn't, for a prompt fest. (One of the ones where people just toss in prompts and then they get claimed, but you're not really writing for anyone.) The stories were due in August and I finally posted in October. Late October. I did get it in, though, and felt 1000% percent better without all that guilt hanging around my head.

Angie, who's unfortunately motivated best by approaching deadlines :P

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Mmm. Good point.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

EXCELLENT! Thank you so much for this post.

This is also why I don't do challenges that often, unless bitten by a white-hot idea as I read a prompt. "Clipped Wings" was an aberration in many ways.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

My first challenge (which I blocked from my memory for a while) was the third annual Severus Snape Fuh-Q Fest. I didn't know to read what the recipient likes. I didn't know to start early or how to plan. Plus, my story was longer than the minimum and of course I'd planned my time around writing a much shorter story. On top of it all, my motives weren't that great. I wanted to "be part of" the famous SSFQF despite the fact that I'd moved away from writing Snape. Then, despite the fact that tboy was the mod and a beta of mine, I hid from her for at least a week after the challenge deadline passed, not communicating at all.

Eheh. I did everything wrong.

For about a year I'd convinced myself that "challenges don't work for me" and "I don't work well with deadlines." But then I did this drabble request thingy in my LJ that went just fine, and for another Fic-A-Thon a friend urged me to participate.

The second challenge, panicked that I'd fail again, I scrambled and got it done early. Months early. And I read my recipient's LJ. I did a scene by scene rough draft so I knew how long my story was. I lined up a beta early. It really wasn't so awful.

Since then, hmm, the third challenge I was the one running it. I was so overwhelmed with the logistics that I had to speed-write my story (and I was a day or two late).

After that, hmm, I had a challenge where I misread the deadline. A month beforehand (when I realized my mistake) I contacted the mod and bailed.

Another I wrote the mod and said I might be late, but then I wasn't, I finished at the last minute and wasn't happy with the story, but I did get it done on time.

There was a challenge where I didn't finish the story but I did finish the first part. It stood alone but ended at a place that left a bad taste in the readers' mouth.

I had one that went smoothly but I joined just to make myself write and found that it didn't make me more enthusiastic. The resulting story was... okay... but not top drawer.

Then I recently had one where I had to switch the story out at the last minute because the one I was writing, well, it didn't want to work.

So I've run the gamut on story challenge experiences.

[salixbabylon.livejournal.com]

This is awesome. I'm not awake enough to give you decent fb or pull out the bits I liked and gush but just - YES. This is everything I've ever needed to read about challenges and why they always make me so damn uncomfortable. And yet also gives me some strategies for planning, should I decide to participate again someday.

Thanks! I love your metas. :)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Challenges are rough, and on the whole they aren't really "fun" so much as a great way to reach readers who'd never hear of you otherwise. Also, there's an exhileration to being able to pull off something you never would have considered outside the challenge.

[salixbabylon.livejournal.com]

Oh - and would you mind if I linked to this from my LJ? There are several people on my flist I think could stand to read this. ;)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I don't mind at all, link away. :) In fact, that's the whole point.

[villainny.livejournal.com]

That's an awesome post, thank you very kindly.

*memories*

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Thank you. *grins*

[dossier.livejournal.com]

I tend to avoid most formal challenges because they freak me out, but (crosses fingers) I've always completed the ones I have signed up for, and only one was a day late. I've never done a rough draft for any of them, but I think that's a marvelous idea. I'm much better these days with at least one sentence per concept/idea/paragraph, so I'm taking that to heart.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I flaked out on one challenge completely. My first one. As a result, for a long time I believed that I couldn't do challenges.

My next challenge I completed the story months early. That's when I discovered that the problem with my first challenge was 1) time management, and 2) I signed up for the wrong reasons.

Ever since then I've slid home at the last minute on most of my challenges, though I learned as a mod how much communication is appreciated if you're going to be late.

here from metafandom

[forodwaith.livejournal.com]

how me someone who consistently lets themselves slide on challenges, and I'll show you someone with at least one abandoned WiP or a stack of unfinished short stories

Heh. What about someone who has yet to default on a challenge... and still has a hard-drive full of unfinished stuff?

Good post; there's a lot of helpful hints here I finally learned through (painful) experience.

Re: here from metafandom

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Heh. What about someone who has yet to default on a challenge... and still has a hard-drive full of unfinished stuff?

Ha. They have plenty of material with which to bail themselves out?

[auburnnothenna.livejournal.com]

I've never flaked on a challenge yet, but I came close this year and I recognize myself in this whole essay, which is just excellent. Especially your point about roughing a draft and figuring out how long your idea will take to write. (Being one of those that just about can't write a story in under 1000 words - that's the just the scene that sets up the scene that introduces the plot...*g*)

Of course the last time I tried to write a story from a prompt in comments it ended up running to 170000 words and took about a year to finish, so the one you did still impresses the hell out of me.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I actually had you in mind as one of those who just can't write a 1,000 word story. You have such lush descriptions. I was thinking of synecdochic when I described those who write 100 words and then throw away half.

Apparently, femmequixotic (I've been watching the number of challenges she does with something akin to amazement) does a rough listing of scenes. She takes it a step further, estimating the length of the story at about 1,000 words per scene.

In The City Of Seven Walls is brilliant. Also, I'm amazed at your speed. I'm at just over 100k on Out Of Bounds and I started it in 2006. *cringes*

[sophinisba]

Thank you for this great post! I especially like the part about how defaulting on a challenge is worst for you as a writer - I'd never really thought about it that way before.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that I have to admit different people have different responses. I know one person who got lazier. When I defaulted on my first challenge I came to a bunch of conclusions about myself as a writer that were just... wrong. "I don't do well with deadlines" and "I can't write under pressure." I gave myself a really bad time about it.

I'm glad I tried another challenge. I managed to get rid of all those negative assumptions that would have stood in my way as a writer. It's just good planning and time management, that's all.

[plaid-slytherin.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this. :) I ran a small exchange off LJ this year and for a small group of people I knew well, I was surprised at the problems I encountered! I know I'm making a lot of changes for next year.

I wasn't happy with the fic I wrote (though the recipient really was; perhaps it's just because I'm not really a fan of that pairing) and I can definitely also use your tips for myself when I participate in the future.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I learned the hard way the importance of lining up your pinch-hitters beforehand. Also, that being late brings out the defensive craziness in some. ("My dog ate my story, I swear!")

[princessofg.livejournal.com]

this is all so fucking wise!

*academy award for YOU*

the bullseye for me was: I am not motivated by challenges. I am oppressed by them. Full stop.

Figuring this out has taken me five years. But at least I figured it out.

GO YOU! Legions of fangirls unborn will thank you.

Am reccing.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Reccing? Oh, way cool, spread the word (I want to help). My first challenge went soooo badly, I almost never did another one ever again.

I've learned that I don't do my best work for challenges. But sometimes I do good work, so they're worth doing. :)

[grey-hunter.livejournal.com]

But what the challenge mod hears: "I am a responsible person who cares about my committment, who has given you half a chance to plan a pinch hit, and most likely won't bail at the last second. Don't you love me?"

*phew!* Thanks for this! I don't much care about being thought of as a loser, but I always thought I'm pestering the mods with unnecessary info while they have so many things to do anyhow with my "both of my betas fallen ill, trying to replace them"-notes. ^^;;;

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Let me tell you what happens with some of the other writers.

About 2/3 - 3/4 of the writers, everyone comes through on time. There are no problems, no drama.

Then there are one or two who contact you early, letting you know that their beta's mother-in-law passed away, but they're still working on the fic.

The final day (and two or three days thereafter), you get a slew of emails from stressed people that they're trying to make it, but they're going to be late. They all offer reasons. The only part I read is the "I'm going to make it."

Then there are the writers who do... nothing. There's no communication. There's no story.

The mod gets out the butterfly net.

A portion of those people reply instantly to an email, fretful and panicked, promising their story soon (which is the only part I read). Another portion of those people... don't reply at all. *blink*

Then there are the crazies. The worst one I encountered was an individual who considered themselves a BNF (they contacted me once to ask why I didn't include them in a BNF battle). This person lashed out at me in comments for leaving the link where their story was supposed to be blank -- apparently clicking on the blank link brought you back to my LJ. It gets better. This person then claimed that I wrote in my own LJ URL on their story link as a passive-aggressive means to suggest that I was now going to have to write their story.

But wait. Like the Ginsu commercial, there's more.

This individual then accused me of not reading their journal -- or else I would have known their current Trials and Tribulations and would never have expected them to come through with a story. Yes. Apparently I was responsible for their story, not them. Even better, said Trials and Tribulations? It was an illness that existed years before this individual ever signed up for the challenge.

Emailing the mods to tell them that you're running a little late? No, not really so much of a hardship.

[ratcreature]

Hm, while I only do art, there are some similarities. I think my problem with challenges is that I am "motivated" by them in that at least so far (a grand total of three times I formally participated in anything) I haven't failed to come through eventually, regardless of procrastinating like crazy, so in a way it "works" for output. But that because the massive fear of shame caused by not fulfilling a challenge comittment usually trumps everything else, so it is not exactly pleasant.

I mean, this year I signed up for something because my overall output had been so little, so in the weeks approaching the deadline I felt increasingly awful and guilty, and yet still not bad enough to overcome inertia causing the lack of art production in the first place. Then what I wanted to illustrate at first didn't work out as a drawing and I had to start over, making it even more stressful. I did meet the deadline, and with a decent drawing too, I think, and felt good about it afterwards, and am looking forward to it being posted to see whether the recipient will like it (the posting is still in progress over at yuletart), but it wasn't exactly fun.

So generally for me signing up for challenges is kind of a desperate last ditch effort to force myself. Effective, but I tend to wonder whether it is worth it, because if I was in a midset or phase where producing art was fun, I wouldn't need a challenge in the first place.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Challenges aren't fun so much as exhilerating when you accomplish them.

[ix-tab.livejournal.com]

I'm actually really, REALLY glad you posted this, because I just signed up for a 20k word challenge, and I've never, ever attempted anything like that before. *takes advice on time managment to heart*

Would you mind if I linked it in the challenge's support community? i think people would really appreciate it.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh, please do. This is all stuff I've learned the hard way and I hope other people can learn it the easy way. Also, I got a lot out of the yuletide posts on how to write a good story request, so I hope I help just as much. :)

[sinuous-curve.livejournal.com]

This is absolutely brilliant.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

It's the product of many mistakes with challenges. *grins at you*

[agirlnamedfia.livejournal.com]

Got here through ix_tab's link, I am def. bookmarking this. :D

Personally, I try to not write out *too* much of the story because several times I've had the problem that I hash everything out and plan it and then when I sit down to write it I can't because I'm kind of... sick of it? :/

I will try this time, though! :)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Think of it as ... surfing the story. Don't write too much of it, just tick down the main points. And don't get married to it yet. Allow yourself some freedom to change.

Icarus (whose rough drafts are often a big mess with tiny handwriting, entire scenes I didn't consider, and other sections that I skip altogether)