The Challenge

A high school girl, who has never before shown an interest in photography as an art, decides that she will take a photo every day for a year. At first the photos are bland, ordinary representations of the world around her. But the more she looks through the lens, the more she sees, and soon, the photos shift to something more. With just one photograph a day she discovers a previously unknown piece of herself.

A similar story, about an author (I forget who, but my sister could tell you) who wrote a short story every day. One would have to believe that out of 365 short stories, the majority will be trash, but even if only a handful of them are good, it would be worth the effort.

Thus the challenge: to write something every day for a year. Just writing that sentence sends fear galloping up and down my spine. Could I really keep that up for a year? Maybe a smaller goal would be better. Say, a month. But then that feels like cheating. Besides, I didn’t say that I had to write a short story every day, just something. It could be anything, really. It could be a few pages of whatever book I feel like working on at the moment, or it could be a blog entry about my daily life, or it could even be a rant about how I have to write something that day and oh woe is me I don’t know what to write. And, let’s be honest, that will probably be the most common form this exercise will take.

I’m also not promising that any of it will be any good. As I said, the majority will probably be trash, but the idea is to improve, isn’t it? I have always loved to write, and felt that if I could just stick with it, I might actually finish something someday. But I only wrote when “the mood” struck. And more and more often, “the mood” refuses to strike. Hmmm. I’ve just taken a break to read an interesting article on forming habits. I had remembered hearing somewhere that repeating an action for a certain number of days made it into a habit, but I couldn’t remember what the number was, so I looked it up on ye old interweb. The article (which can be found here if you’re interested: http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/09/how-long-to-form-a-habit.php) references a study which showed it took an average of 66 days to form a habit. Much longer than the commonly believed period of 21 days, which was probably the number I had been quoted. The article goes on to say that while 66 was the average, depending on the activity, it could take anywhere from 18 to 254 days to form a habit. More complicated habits, such as doing sit-ups every morning, took longer and more will-power than simply drinking a glass of water with every meal.

Will writing ever feel like a habit? Or will it always require great force of will on my part? Even this little introduction is beginning to feel excruciating. Every word dragged from my fingers as I struggle to make coherent thoughts.

Well, I’d best move on to the rules of this challenge. As I said, the writing can be about anything I want, though I will try to write the occasional complete story. Complete story. You hear that Julia? That means you can’t just peter out in the middle. Even if you have to spread that story out over a couple days. Which brings me to the next rule: it must be at least 600 words. That equals about a page. Which, when you think about it, is really NOT THAT MUCH. A page should be easy. I will also post it on my blog, which should keep me honest. I won’t necessarily post the entire thing, especially if it’s part of one of the books I’m perpetually writing, but I will at least post that I did write something, and what it was, and why I’m not sharing it.

Well, this has taken me right on through 700 words, so, I guess that means it can be done. See, that wasn’t so hard.

See you tomorrow.

Julia