What’s the 10❌10 Challenge?

It’s the big brother of the 💯 Story Challenge. It’s a little scary.

I’m always looking for word mountains to climb.

Even if I’m only plodding along, like an alpine tortoise.

But as my 500th story came up, I’m stood on that milestone and thought about what I could do next.

What bigger steps can I take?

But not a bit bigger, an order of magnitude bigger. Not 10% bigger but ten times bigger.

If tech startups can, why can’t word startups like me?

As creatives, writers I’d say in particular with our homebody ways and our biscuit particularities, often think too small.

We make somewhat timid creative bets, even when we’re feeling risky, and because of it, stay stuck in a certain familiar creative rut.

At least that’s true for me and I’d wager it’s a little true for a lot of writers.

So here’s the next challenge that could reshape our careers.

I’ve heard from many writers now that the 100 💯 Story Challenge was transformative. It helped writers experiment, explore and explode their writing. We’ve written over 2000 more stories than we might have before.

And as one writer said:

Thank you again for the 💯 [story challenge] — it was life-changing!!!

Publishing more stories, more consistently than ever before. Learning new habits, new skills, and making new friends.

So what could we do next?

I’ve hinted at it over at The Reader Experience, and so I think some of you won’t be surprised. It has to be much bigger. A little scarier too in fact.

It’s a little pun on the whole 💯 name…

The 10❌10 Challenge

But once you’ve done the 100 Story Challenge, or if you already have a body of work on Medium, you’re good to go with this one.

Because it’s really simple.

But I believe it’s going to be quite damn hard.

The Basic Rules

1. Find your ten most successful, highly commented stories.

Before you ask, we want the stories you like and the reader data supports.

• The stories you were excited about, that you loved writing and felt a special spark.
• The reader data supports. Highly clapped and commented stories, especially with comments asking for more. Also look for comments that show a strong emotional impact.

2. Take those 10 and make them 10x bigger.

Take them to the next level. Make them an order of magnitude better.

• A 100 word drabble becomes a 1000 word flash.
• A 1000 word flash becomes a 10K short story.

Make your best ideas richer, deeper and more involved.

Develop your worlds and your characters. Take that gem of an idea, the one your people validated, and invest more of your time and particular genius.

Allow your fans to luxuriate in the stories they’ve enjoyed the most and asked for more of.

Your readers want more — don’t let them down.

Remember to make the new story, your rewrite, sufficiently different that Medium does not consider it a duplicate post. 

Now the hard part

Strive to publish elsewhere.

We can get comfortable, especially once we get consistent.

We like our normal running routes, we enjoy the familiar, we feel safe again. We know the editors who routinely publish our work.

And we’ve collected a few slam dunk, fire and forget places that will accept us in all our drabbling glory.

Let’s shake that up a little

Easy route:

Find new Medium publications you’ve never signed up to and share your stories there. Push yourself.

I’ll publish a long list soon with story lengths from their submission guidelines to make this easier.

Hard route:

Publish your stories off of Medium, diversify your audience and try to expand your reach across the internet.

I’ll share my full master plan for #buildinpublic accountability as well. And I’ll tag writer friends in it too to ask them to kick my ass if I falter.

An Example of What I’m Doing?

I’ve got a Fan Favourites list and I used this method to alert me and make sure I don’t miss any stories worth building on.

I’m going to focus on one fiction genre to build up a collection of work and write to one or two ideal readers.

I’ll also experiment with my challenges, prompts and themes to create a print challenge journal for example.

Story Example:

This particular comment by FJCMontenegro (who may just be my ideal reader) made me realise I’d written something special.

Even though I’d say he’s a writer friend, having a comment like that for me a signal to invest in this story and make it bigger.

So I plan to expand it as an Escape Town ten part serial. Focusing on cyberpunk themes of power imbalance, inequality, and dealing with trauma through VR assisted therapy.

I’ll also collaborate with my wife (Dr. and therapist) for ideas on how to make it deeper and more true to life.

Then I’ll schedule that serial on Medium and Royal Road with a “Get Early Access” call to action directing readers to my lower Patreon tiers.

Time limit?

This is a hard challenge.

So adding a time component might be insane.

But I know personally how motivating time pressure can be.

• Easy Route: 10 in 10 weeks
• Hard Route: 10 in 10 months (Max!)

Or make up something realistic that works with your personal stress levels, life balance and commitments.

It’s really up to you

1. Write up your plan
2. Tag your accountability partners (me included) and get started.
3. Use things like Nanowrimo to add rocket fuel and build momentum.
4. Lean on friends, family and fellow writers for inspiration and experience.

I’ll be doing just that by interviewing JF Danskin about his Amazon and Royal Road adventures so I can avoid any newbie mistakes.

That’s it.

If you’re in, may the road rise up to meet you. And may we all stand on the summit of Mt Words having transformed our lives and writing careers forever!

This is going to be fun! 🚀

Challenge Tag

Remember to tag your stories 10x10 Challenge.

For your longer stories, your plan and update posts linking out to your off-Medium stories. I wanna see what you get up to!

Summary

1. Find your fan favourite stories
2. Pick the ten best based on comments demanding more
3. 10x those stories.
4. Pick your route:
5. Easy: submit to new publications
6. Tag: 10x10 Challenge
7. Hard: share your fiction off Medium
8. Tell us your plan before you start. We’ll cheer you on.

Remember, this challenge takes you to the next level. It breaks you out of any creative comfort and pushes the limits of what you can do.

It’s not meant to be easy but it is meant to be fun.

Good luck and let’s see what you can do!

Updated with feedback from May More.