How a Writing Challenge Improved My Creative Energy

I discovered a technique to spark inspiration.

I sparked my creative juices, improved my writing, and became more efficient at my craft.

All I had to do was accept a challenge.

Recently, I read an intriguing post from Priyanka Srivastava.

It was an invitation to participate in the National Poetry Writing Month 2021. I had a look at the prompts and was interested.

A side note — I love a good challenge and have sometimes been called the ‘Queen of Follow-through’, so I try to be selective.

We were invited to submit the poems to Literary Impulse, a Medium publication that showcases inspiring writing.

My intention was to write only to the prompts that inspired me. I wasn’t going to attempt them all. Just one or two, to see how that went.

I decided not to try to write a poem a day or to write them in order. That felt too prescriptive for me and nothing dampens inspiration like being told how to be creative.

I like messy. If you’re interested, here’s a short demonstration of how I write poems.

About halfway through the month, I realized I had a real shot at writing all thirty, so I doubled back and put some effort into writing to the prompts that weren’t as inspiring to me.

Here are the poems I wrote.

Here are my take-aways from this creative experience.

I discovered a bit of discipline is good for me.

• Harnessing my writing energy and directing it toward a single word ultimately sparked an idea that led to a thought.
• That idea often led to another one and the poem began to take shape.

My writing improved.

• Practice makes perfect. Well, not exactly perfect, but my writing improved.
• I developed a technique that helped spark inspiration if a prompt wasn’t inspiring any ideas on its own.
• I became more efficient at creating each post. Tags, title, image, links. When you write to an ongoing challenge you have to get efficient or you fall behind. No pressure, right?

New fans, new friends, and new readers.

• I don’t often submit to Literary Impulse, so there were readers there who weren’t familiar with my writing. I was delighted to read their comments and meet new friends.
• I always reply when someone comments on my work and I read something of theirs as well. I found several fantastic new writers to add to my reading list.

New opportunities.

• I’ve been invited to participate in a Podcast, which scares the heck out of me. So that’s why I should do it, right?
• It’s possible that one or several of my poems will be included in an anthology. Cool, right?

My views and reads for the month increased by about a third.

• I’ve been experiencing a lag in reads the past few months and was excited to see increased interest in my writing.
• It wasn’t just the poems either. Other work was being discovered by readers, which is always gratifying.

It was satisfying.

If you are looking for a way to jump-start your writing, I would recommend the experience.

If this idea interests you, here are some open-ended challenges that might inspire you to begin.

The prompts for this challenge are Made Up Words.

Here’s a challenge you can do anytime. I’m getting ready to jump in.

This is a #catchphrase challenge that I enjoyed writing to. Thanks, Stuart Englander for the inspiration.

Your experience is what you make it.

Jumpstart your writing.

Find a challenge that interests you and begin.