1500 Challenge

To go to the One Thousand Five Hundred blog, click here.

I began writing in the eighth grade. Since then, I’ve started many novels and pieces that never get finished because I just don’t have the time.

Or so I thought.

Then I came across Jeff Goins, writer and blogger, who challenged his subscribers to write 500 words a day.

I’ve come across, made up and read about a dozen different writing challenges but this time, I decided to take the challenge seriously. I also decided to take it a step further.

One of the best things a writer can do to learn about and improve their own writing, is read (another thing I thought I never had time for). Why not challenge myself to read every day, too? And, while I’m at it, start a blog about it all and add another 500 words onto the challenge?

Thus, One Thousand Five Hundred was born.

Simply put, the challenge is to write or read 1,500 words a day. For myself, I have split this number up into 500 words, 3 different ways, every day. Here is the breakdown.

1. 500 written words: as a writer and aspiring author, I need to write every day, and not just school assignments, either. These 500 words are solely creative. Whether it be a page or two on a novel I’m working on, a piece of flash fiction, a bit of a short story, or even creative journaling or nonfiction, I’ve got to get the creative juices flowing. I must step away from the mundane routines of every day life and work, just a little bit, to become the writer I want to be.

2. 500 read words: how many books have I stacked up on my shelves, added to my Goodreads to-read list or laid on my nightstand just to encourage myself to read them? How many times have I walked right past those books and fallen into bed because I’ve spent the whole day doing school work, editing the newspaper, browsing Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or sitting around thinking about reading? Because I’m an English major, I get assigned a lot of reading, some of which is stuff I enjoy. Some of which, I don’t. For these 500 words, I’m not going to count the assignments I don’t enjoy reading. What fun would that be? I must read 500 words, every day, of a book I enjoy.

3. 500 blogged words: I’ve started about five blogs and how many have I kept up with? One. That’s right. One. And by one, I mean I post perhaps once a month. Twice, if I’m on a roll. There was a time when I would post a flash fiction piece every day. What happened to that persistence? For the sake of my sanity as well as yours, I won’t post a rushed, 500-word post every day. Instead, I’ll take a few days to work diligently on a blog post and instead post once or twice, maybe three times a week. But no matter how many times I post, I’ll be working on something.

Put it all together, and I’ll be exporting or importing some combination of 1,500 words a day.

Join me?

Want a little more information on The Challenge? Click here to go back to the beginning.