Writer’s Challenge, Challenge

Writing Challenges are Totally Stupid!

So, I tried one; and now the writing topics just seem to flow

I wasn’t looking for a writing challenge. It found me.

I was occasionally bemoaning how difficult it can be some days to find something to write about. And, I was dealing with the fact that I should be working on making my writing more concise. Tighter.

Which is probably why Dr Mehmet Yildiz’s suggestion to write a brief piece every day for thirty days jumped out at me. He suggested 300–500 words that delivered three points of value each day.

I don’t think I was even planning to write the day I read that particular piece with the suggestion; but for some reason it lit a fire and I pulled out a clean, crisp new Word document and set pen on paper.

I figured I could write 300 words pretty easily. But I needed a topic. Or at least an inspiration.

Behold: Wikipedia!

Say what you will about the peer-edited online encyclopedia, but, if nothing else, it contains a wealth of eclectic information. So, my thirty-day saga began.

Now, on day 23, I have a confession, a few insights, an epiphany, a second confession and some award-winning wisdom to share with you:

First confession:

I didn’t write a challenge-related piece on day 20; but I did write that day. I was a bit beset with some angst about less-than-stellar behavior I had witnessed online recently, so I wrote my feelings into the piece, Internet Etiquette for 9 Year Old’s, here:

So, I haven’t technically complied with the terms of the challenge, but I feel like I am still aligned with the spirit, since I did write that day. I just ran out of time to do a challenge story.

First insight:

I have unexpectedly learned a lot more than I ever thought just by perusing the “Did you know” section of Wikipedia. I have written about female wrestlers, aviators and rap stars. I delved into a British television medical drama, the business arc of Tower Records and how Shakespeare inspired Star Trek.

I found out about a viral profanity-laced autumn essay, birds that isolate during mating season, and a centuries old ornate piano that survived the Nazis.

And one of the quirkiest items I found was about the state of South Dakota filing suit on 15 cats. I think it might be my favorite so far:

Second confession:

I didn’t actually write each day. I am not going to go back and check, but I am pretty sure that Dr. Y’s challenge was to publish a challenge story each day for 30 days. Let’s not mince words and assume that I am right.

That said, my normal writing week is Sunday through Wednesday. Those are the days my wife is at work. On her weekend, we typically do stuff together, so it is harder to peel off time to write. So, when I first started out my plan was to write two challenge pieces on each of those days, so I would have a stockpile of articles to publish on the other days.

I did that the first week, but in practice I found that it was pretty easy to actually write each day if I knew it was a short piece and I had a topic lead ahead of time. Since then I used up the stockpile and I am flying day-to-day.

In fact, I will be writing a challenge piece after this one today. I haven’t decided, but I see there is some juicy stuff about a British fascist cab-driver’s group and a guy that learned how to make omelettes blindfolded. Tune in later to find out…

My epiphany:

If you already know what you are going to write about each day, it makes it way easier to figure out what to write about.

I know, stupidly profound, right? Or profoundly stupid maybe. But bear with me.

The fact that I knew that I would write about a random Wikipedia piece each day took all the pressure off deciding what to write. And then the ideas (outside the Wiki piece) just began to flood into my brain. Weird, right? But effective.

Since starting this challenge, I have also written articles on the difference between cryptocurrency and blockchain as well as things to consider when investing in cryptocurrency. I wrote about internet etiquette, COVID-19 (ugh, I know), the prevalence of dogma in medical practice, the season and series finale of the Schitt’s Creek television show, and my take on the formula for innovation here on ILLUMINATION.

And, more than that, I have a whole list of ideas in the hopper that I am confident would not have emerged if I hadn’t gone down the thirty-day writing challenge rabbit hole.

Second insight:

You really never know what is going to appeal to people. I wrote a story on what I considered to be the least interesting of all my topics in the challenge so far about rice production in Texas. I know, right? It sounds boring already.

I did it because I had the chance to meet some really wonderful humans from Beaumont, Texas while I was attending a class at the National Fire Academy back in my fire career. I picked the article topic solely so that I could do a Facebook shout out to my friends in Beaumont and say that I was writing about their town in this story.

You guessed it. It was the only story in the challenge series that was curated. Apparently, the Medium editors loved it.

I will let you pull your own take-home out of this insight. I am pretty sure it isn’t, “write about boring stuff”. But who knows, maybe it is?

Award-winning wisdom:

Write consistently. You know this already, and you have heard it from countless others. In this case, I was awarded a Top Writer in Innovation because of my consistency in publishing a piece every day. This is my first-ever top writer nod, and it came because of this challenge.

Therefore, my wisdom that everyone already knows is technically award-winning wisdom. At least to me!

Final thoughts: The Writer’s Challenge, Challenge

The take home here? If you haven’t done a writer’s challenge do one. Especially if you have turned up your nose at the thought.

Not every challenge is going to appeal to everyone. Dr Mehmet Yildiz’s challenge that quantity also matters appealed to me, so I have provided the link so you can check it out too.

Another single piece challenge I responded to recently was by Sherry McGuinn with the prompt, “If I wasn’t a writer, I would be…”. Here is my response:

But whether you do one of these, or find your own calling, I urge you to take up a writer’s challenge. Simply for the sake of doing so and experiencing what it can do for your writing.

Connections and asks:

I am tagging you in this post so that you will consider undertaking a Writer’s Challenge, Challenge.

First, and most importantly, I ask you to tag me Timothy Key in your challenges. I tagged you, so it is only fair. Plus, I am a prolific reader and I want to read your stuff! There are a lot of great writers and editors here in ILLUMINATION.

I follow almost all of you (I got capped on my following binge, but I will get everyone eventually), and you have likely seen me in your stories’ applause list already. However, I typically rely on the front page and Dr. Y’s compilation emails. If you want me to read your story for sure, tag me. I will definitely read it.

Second, please use the Medium kicker, “Writer’s Challenge, Challenge” and hyperlink it back to this article. Here is the link to how to put a kicker in your article and hyperlink it. (It is a whole article on formatting, the kicker info is about mid-way down.)

I have two reasons for this. The first is that challenges often lose the connection to the original challenge impetus. This allows a standardized method for linking back to the genesis point.

The second is that if there enough responses, we may want to channel them into a specific topic on ILLUMINATION (with Dr. Y’s okay, of course) or potentially find some other place to compile them. The link back will allow us to place an origin link at the top of this article to wherever that compilation place might end up being.

Below are the spectacular editors and writers for ILLUMINATION. I sincerely hope you will all join me in taking on the challenge of a challenge!

Dr Ron Pol, Mary Holden, Dr. David Martin, Paul Myers MBA, Todd Lankford, Gabrieknowseverything, Michael Ritoch, Chris Hedges, Jessica Alfaqih, Karen Madej, Misa Ferreira de Rezende, Blake Lazur, Joe Luca, Shin Jie Yong, Lilycelle Belarmino Ausa, Stella Fidem, Aurora E, Salvatore Cagliari, Will Murphy, Sylvia Love Johnson, Catherine Delia, Snezana Djuric, Aileen Shiue Belitz, Domagoj Vidovic, Tina Morlock, Francesca Brandani, Brenda Mahler, Madoc Maduka, Volo Vash, Shantanu Kulkarni, Lyndsay Landrey, Justin Swenson, Stephen Chapendama, Jill Ebstein, Eliel Cruz, Dipti Pande, Blair Fawcett, Ryan Roghaar, J.D. Harms, Kimi Ceridon (kceridon), Antonio Grasso, Salam Khan, Timothy Key Amy Cottreau, Deborah Horton, Michael Ritoch, Anthony Chaine, Todd Lankford, Jennifer Rosater, Brian Lamacraft, Gabrieknowseverything, Jemas Whalen, Tom Byers, Steven Anthony, Chris Hedges, Alexander Cares, Chrissie Morris Brady, Desiree Driesenaar, René Junge, The Mindful Mamacita, Deana Woolf, Bill Abbate, Dawn-Renée Rice, Margie Peterson, Gurpreet Dhariwal, Garrett Elson, Alvin Ang, Matt Ray, Brenda Mahler, Paul Myers MBA, Corrine Roberts, T H Wong, Greg Lawlor, Nicole Linke, Aurora E, Karen Madej, Jessica Alfaqih, Stella Fidem, Mike Alexander, Gregory A ☕️, Shin Jie Yong, Abraham T. Steel, Blake Lazur, Nita Jain, Sebastian Mueller, Snezana Djuric, Aileen Shiue Belitz, Salvatore Cagliari, Isak Dinesen, Joe Luca, Joi Lake, Charlotte VanDerLouis, Catherine Delia, Terry Mansfield, Sylvia Love Johnson, Erwin Lima, Gina Daniel, novalis, Amy Marley, Misa Ferreira de Rezende, Tim Maudlin, Will Murphy, Lilycelle Belarmino Ausa, Akos Peterbencze, Francesca Brandani, GFC: Grown Folk Conversations, Domagoj Vidovic, Dipti Pande, G.R. MELVIN, Tina Morlock, JJ Lim, BSc (Hons), Madoc Maduka, Andrew George, Julia E Hubbel, Impact Aisha, Dean Middleburgh, Markham J Moody, Jill Ebstein, Eliel Cruz, Mary Holden, Bridget Webber, The Wicked Orchard by Sidra Owens, Stephen Chapendama, Lyndsay Landrey, Nicole Dyer, Nicole Dyer, Justin Swenson, Dr. David Martin, Ryan Justin, Deborah Barchi, Jezebel, Renee Rose, Shantanu Kulkarni, Selma, Justin Swenson, Rodney Daut, Volo Vash, Jason Dookeran, Naomi Knight, Blair Fawcett, Pavane Ravel, Dr Ron Pol, Ahmed Jamal, Mesut Felat, Ryan Roghaar, Bre Bitz, Cee A. Davis, George J. Ziogas, Michael Brooks, Rasheed Hooda, Lanu Pitan, Antonio Grasso, Charlotte R Dixon, Lori Brown, R Tsambounieri Talarantas, Matthew Gliatto, Livia Dabs, Kathryn A. LeRoy, Caryn Leach-Smith, Clem Samson, Simran Kankas, Sinem Günel, Helen Boss, Mike Schoenhofer, Ksenia Sein, Arthur G. Hernandez, Max Klein, Kimi Ceridon (kceridon), Daniella Mini, Marlane Ainsworth, Chowa Sekai, Stephen Scott, Farrah Smith, Ananya Agarwal, Salam Khan, Simon Black, Brooke Morrigan, Indra Raj Pathak, Aliff Azhar, Joan Kent, PhD, Yvonne Palmer, Michele Thill, Pamela J. Nikodem, MS, Timothy Key, Melody Campbell, Trista Ainsworth, Mark Oehlert, iWrite!, Annelise Lords, Somsubhra Banerjee, Candy L Hill, Larry Nowicki, 🌲Andrea D’Angelo🌲, Brian E. Wish, M. W. McCabe, Jarrett Wilson, Claire Elaine, Paul Mulliner, Carlos Nunes, P.G. Barnett, İpeksu Durmaz, J.A. Taylor, Brian Abbey, KeepingItRealWithAnnick, Stacey Christiansen, Robert Nelson, Terri DelCampo-Nelson, Kerry Martin, Pasquale Langella, Wolfie Bain, Trapper Sherwood, Dr Rick Dobson, Henery X (long), Darcy Thiel, Emmanuel Prado, Spandrel, Ann K Frailey, Ashish Juneja, CJ Kowalski, John Cousins, Feather🕊tales, Shreya V, -vheretichermit, Gabriela Rosales, Roxanna Azimy, Christina Hoag. Jessica Cote, Emme Beckett, Nikita Vipul, Charles Roast, Eliot Kersgaard, Nivaaz, Lisa Wathen, Stephen Dalton, Dave Lee, Lynette Clements, Erin King, Harshita, Muhammad Zunair, Gena Vazquez, Kira Dawn, JimX, Gerald Gabel, Fiona Sommer, Holly Jahangiri, Holly Catherine, Layane Moura, Harley King, Julián F. Fernández, Julien Mauduit, Solvita Sofi, Steven Allison, Sherry McGuinn, Christine Graves, Emilio Ortiz, Kristen Abram, Drew Spangler aka Orlando Laser Lipo Services, Ugur Akinci, Agnes Louis, Dew Langrial, Kevin Buddaeus, Kim Petersen, O.J. Gillom, Renay Intisar Jihad, Ryan Frawley, Derry Cox, Anna Rozwadowska, naveen, Mary Dalton Selby, MaryRose Denton, Helen Bartley, Marla Bishop, Kevin Buddaeus, Besom & Bletherskite, Sandra Barrett, Marty de Jonge, Simona, Ryan Fleming, Paddy Corry, Mario Lopez-Goicoechea, Gena Vazquez, Apostolis Kallioras, Farrukh Jamal, Demi Gina, Mike Arnold, Kevin Heads, Katherine M. Gamble, Willem-Jan Ageling, Rebecca Romanelli, Rasmus Bøgelund Christiansen, Estacious(Charles White), Bob Jasper, Marlon Weems, Robert Locke, Estacious(Charles White), Bob Jasper, Marlon Weems, Robert Locke, Chirag, Evan Wolfson, Bria Yalden, TheresAnn Sylvan, Dana Lynn Pope, LauraRaduenz, Alena Powell, keypressingmonkey, Sarah Simon, Umi Perkins, Anchal Sood, PhD, Darshak Rana, Steven James, Tree Langdon, Melinda A Smith, Jean-marc Buchert, Li Charmaine Anne, Max Phillips, Dr. Caroline Figueroa, Kimberly Fosu, Zoe Naz, Kira Dawn, Sumera Rizwan, Suraj Ghimire, Gone Foreign Project, Rosennab, Aric D Mayer, Sarah Thomas, Alifiya Nagree, Feima Sannoh, John Ross, Shathir Naleer, Zo Hayes, Francisco Martos, Timothy O’Neill, Krissy Ruiz ☽✪☾, J P Smith, John C Davis, Elisabeth Khan, Michael Fichter, Ryan Breen, Joshua Idegbere, Priyashaa Ghos, Elikplim Zanthia, Christian Mazzone, Sarene B. Arias, Brynn Mahnke, Ashley Cleland, M.Ed. Leander Caspar, Melissa Kerman, Evgeny Kim, Rashed Qureshi, Nachi Keta, Ashley Birchwood, Rebecca Boese, Umberto Urso, Miss Writer

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.