Your July Challenge; Wrap Up
A Tale of 31 Stories
A month of writing challenges in the bag!
In July I set out to write every day in response to a writing prompt or challenge of some kind. There were a few open one’s going around at the end of June to get me started and I actively hunted and solicited for more along the way.
I did that through a daily bulletin where I linked the day prior’s challenge response and maintained an active list of those upcoming, and those in the rearview mirror. You can see my compiled list of all the bulletins, and all the challenges here:
Initially, as a summary, I thought I would give a count of types of stories, but then I realized how boring that would actually be. Suffice to say there were several poems, some funny pieces, and many that supported other writers in unique ways.
I have to say that those might have been the best ones to respond to, because I always like supporting others and attempting to find the synergy in working together; one of the four primary values at ILLUMINATION. My favorite one to do was this very innovative idea by Zach J. Watson:
Writing testimonial or support type articles are reasonably easy to do. I find that there are so many good writers on Medium and ILLUMINATION that it isn’t hard to find something you really like and tell others about it.
But, some of the other challenges were a bit of a stretch for me. Holly Jahangiri and Rasheed Hooda asked for us to amalgamate articles from different writers on different publications along a common theme. Not “hard” necessarily, but definitely took some concentration and research to get it right.
B. A. Cumberlidge. liked to keep things lively by offering some very introspective challenges, like how to make ILLUMINATION a better place and who you would invite to dinner. Then he upped the ante and asked us to write a story and make a video to go along with it.
And sometimes there were topics that I just wouldn’t write about if not prompted. Dr John Rose’s prompt about the Gaia project was one of those, and I am very glad I took part:
And poetry! Who can forget the poetry? Before starting to write on Medium I would have never envisioned myself writing a piece of poetry for the rest of my life. I did one early on back in December, then figured one was good enough and called it a career for a while.
Then I couldn’t resist a few months ago and wrote an ode to all the poets. They seem so prolific here, and actually know what they are doing, so I thought they deserved a little respect.
Since then I have been a little less reluctant to dive in and poem (pretty sure that is a verb). So, while it is not my typical go-to I did produce several poems from the challenge pieces this month, including this one:
Most of my poetry tends to the humorous. Perhaps someday I will create a quiet, reflective verse. Maybe in August, who knows?
In summary, it was a bit of a wild ride at times. I have to admit that there were days when I thought, “how am I going to write about that prompt?” and didn’t have a good answer for myself.
But, eventually, I came up with something and I am glad that I stretched my capabilities a little bit. In fact, I heartily recommend that you do something similar. Find prompts, particularly ones that stretch your writing boundaries a bit, and then commit to finishing them.
It doesn’t have to be every day, maybe just one prompt a week; or one a month. I would have looked you straight in the eye and swore that I would never do an Abecedarian poem, right up until I did it. And now I am particularly glad that I didn’t limit myself in that way.
Go ahead, make August the month where you decide to venture out of your comfort zone. You will be thanking me later, I guarantee it.
While I am not “officially” answering a prompt every day in August, I still would love to be included in yours. And, who knows, maybe that will just happen anyway, because it really is a lot of fun to create stories from prompts.
Tag me in your stories and prompts and reach out on Slack if you have questions or want to interact.
Let’s see what August has in store!
If you like this, you might like some of my other writing:
Timothy Key spent over 26 years in the fire service as a firefighter/paramedic and various fire chief management roles. He firmly believes that bad managers destroy more than companies, and good managers create a passion that is contagious. Compassion, grace and gratitude drive the world; or at least they should. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and join the mail list.
