WRITING CHALLENGE
What My 30 Day Writing Challenge Taught Me
And will I try it again?
Wrapping up my 30 day writing haiku challenge includes the inevitable self-reflection and evaluation.
First of all, it ended with a humbling and resounding ‘dud’ because I never finished. Why? Because I burnt out even as I was convincing myself I could do it.
Which begs the question, if I wanted to write for thirty days, why didn’t I?
I’ve whipped through a few other challenges easily. “A plank a day” for a month? Easy and now I hold a 90 second plank and a side arm plank daily. “Clear out the junk” challenge? Done and my garage looks great.
But those challenges were physical; no thinking involved, just muscles and movement. This writing challenge, however, involved consistent creativity. And that was my weakest point.
Being creative consistently requires an ongoing awareness of my environment and emotions so that I could channel them into writing.
Being creative also needs a requisite sense of balance. To write well means there has to be time for reflection and interpretation which I didn’t give myself as I was so wrapped up in trying to write daily. That was my downfall: too much ‘output’ instead of a balance to maintain creativity.
But let’s look at this ‘dud’ of a challenge with the lens of a ‘win-win’ situation. What did I learn from this?
Besides writing almost 20 short poems, I read some of the masters of haiku. I dove into ‘kigo’ and seasonal words, counting syllables and linking lines together. I began to immerse myself into the art of haiku.
The purpose of any challenge, be it a way to improve your health, finances, or clean out the garage, is to believe that you can succeed and that you are helping yourself in some positive manner, no matter how tiny the challenge.
So by tweaking my perspective, this challenge did not end with a dud. It certainly did not propel me into the land of super star poets, but it helped me to see that I have to be extremely clear about why I’m doing a challenge and what my goal will be.
What was my goal? To write haiku for a month. To succeed at it, I had to practice writing consistently. And even though I didn’t write daily, I still wrote, edited, wrote some more, researched and rewrote. My notebook has almost 20 new poems, some drafts and some already posted here on Medium.
And as I wrap up the month, I feel more confident in writing. I also feel more confident in pacing myself as I write.
Would I try this again? Definitely! I’m always open to a new challenge; it’s what keeps my core strong, my garage clean and my creativity cranking!
Writing challenge? Bring it on!
