Lately I’ve been binge-watching televisions series that I’ve watched before. And those shows are a, sci-fi and b, romance. And I’m not sorry.

And I don’t think you should be, either.

Whether you are taking time to write or to consume fiction or art or music…you are building a stronger, more resourceful and more resilient human–and how can that ever be anything but a good thing?

Time to Create

It’s October, and I bet you’ve noticed how busy the end of the year becomes. So much so that it can be hard to find time for creative activities that feed your soul…like your writing.

My invitation to you is to take some time today, to plan islands of calm, to make space for creation, over the next couple of months. 

StoryADay November

And if you don’t already have a plan, I’m going to suggest signing up for StoryADay November.

Important Rules Alert:

My ‘rules’ for StoryADay are that you attempt to start and finish a story each day that you write, during the challenge. 

But I do encourage you to define what ‘each day’ means, for you. 

Writing a new story every single day of the month is tough. And it might be more than you need, to boost your creativity and to get you excited about writing again.

Set your own rules

Want to write three days a week? Five days? One? Great! Make that a rule. 

Then come to the site, pick a prompt from that week, that sparks your interest, and commit to finishing what you start that day, even if it’s bad, sketchy, has massive gaps, or feels like nonsense.

Most importantly, come back on the next day that you designated, and write a new story. 

The point is to keep going, even if you’re disappointed in (or excited about) the previous story. 

Build a stack of sketches, drafts, imperfect and incomplete stories, that you can draw on throughout the year, any time you want to write.

Improve Your Chances of Having a Good Writing Day

The only way to feel successful at this writing gig is to prove to yourself that all is NOT lost, if you had a bad writing day last time you sat down to write.

The more you write, the more you’ll discover how little relation there is between our effort and the quality of the output. Some days writing is easy and brilliant, some days you work really hard and hate what you wrote. 

Since we can’t predict how our writing day will go, the key is to keep writing anyway. 

More writing days is the ONLY way to guarantee more good writing days.

To Do Now

• Decide now, that you’ll join us in StoryADay November. Sign up here
• Pick a number of days that you will participate. Post your goals here 

And I’ll see you in the comments, next month!

Keep writing,

Julie

P. S. Want more support, including daily writing sprints, monthly discussions, workshops, Critique Week and more? Consider joining us in the StoryADay Superstars. Find out more…