I need a writing challenge – yes, I know I already have one, to finish my next book, but over the last few years I have set myself different writing challenges. Last year I wrote a hundred 100 word blogs over one hundred days. I published these as a small book aptly titled 100/100/100. Another time I came across a list of thirty random words; I can’t remember where I found it, but I wrote something inspired by each of those words. Some of the things I wrote were stories, some were what you might call articles, there were reflections and reminiscences, it was quite varied! In 2017 when we went to Tasmania for six wonderful weeks, I thought I might not be able to post things while I was away, so I scheduled six weeks worth of blogs – and sometimes a couple or three a day! I was obviously very inspired by the prospect of our travels! Previously to that a friend and I challenged each other to write about 73 different topics we randomly found. Unfortunately after the first thirty or so they became very repetitive and similar, so we abandoned it, although we did publish a book of what we had done so far!
I feel I need another challenge, something I haven’t thought of for myself, something that is someone else’s inspiration. My daughter suggested I write inspired by the alphabet, and that might be my fallback suggestion! I know there are random generators of word lists, but although it would be a challenge, it would be quite a straightforward challenge… I want a challenging challenge, something I will have to work at. As we do these days, I looked on-line here’s an example of an unchallenging challenge:
- Cars. What was the first car you owned?
- Holidays. What were your favorite holidays when you were a child?
- Coffee. Do you like coffee?
- Photography. Do you take a lot of pictures?
… and here’s an example of a random word generator:
- slit
- boot
- outstanding
- scientific
- illumine
Strangely these five words could be cobbled together – slitboots for example, (maybe the latest fashion!) and that amazing, outstanding, scientific illumine!
I want something different, something interesting, something brain-cudgeling, but if I don’t find it I can always go back to the alphabet, or on-line challenges, or random word generators.
73: 1-25 by Lois Elsden and Richard Kefford: https://www.amazon.co.uk/73-1-25-blogs-LOIS-ELSDEN/dp/1723871931/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1645821089&sr=8-14
100/100/100: 100 words/100 blogs/100 days by Lois Elsden: https://www.amazon.co.uk/100-words-100m-blogs-days/dp/B09FC6C2R5/ref=sr_1_18?crid=2E5KR50C51DVR&keywords=lois+elsden&qid=1645821254&sprefix=lois+elsd%2Caps%2C272&sr=8-18
Lois Elsden 