30-Day Challenge

Two articles over the last two days came to my attention and got me to thinking.

The first was the National Novel Writing Month where you are challenged to write 50,000 words and a new work of fiction between November 1, 2010 and November 30, 2010.

This intrigued me, but didn’t grab me. I love to write, but really don’t feel the call to write fiction. But, the whole idea of committing to producing a completed manuscript did get me to pondering what I could write in 30-days.

Then this evening I was reading Jonathan Field’s blog and his newest blog post made me sit up and take notice. It’s called The Bucket List Lie and challenges that most peoples lists are merely “works of fiction, written but never manifested”.

I have such a list, although I call it my 100+ Life List. Same thing, different name. I’ve crossed off several items over the last few years, but some of the items on my list feel more like unattainable dreams.

I hate to admit that Jonathan is right.

So, that got me to thinking about his challenge…

Make a List Of One.

A single, meaningful action you’re going to take before the end of the day to move you one step closer to a single, deeply meaningful quest.

Don’t go to bed tonight until you’ve completed your List Of One. And done one other thing, made your List Of One for tomorrow.

Do this every day for a month, long enough to begin to inculcate the habit.

So, I’m thinking about a 30-day challenge to and for myself, a deep commitment to my dream of being a writer.

Writers write.

It’s as simple as that.

But, there are many days that go by that I find lots of excuses not to write.

Even as I write this I feel the butterflies of anxiety and doubt begin to fly around in my belly.

Can I really do it? Can I commit to writing every day and actually produce something? Am I really a writer?

I even found myself doing a load of laundry in the midst of writing this post without even realizing what I was doing.

Resistance.

Distractions.

Fear.

They are not excuses.

I’m reminded of The War of Art (aff link) by Steven Pressfield and his discussion about professionals and amateurs.

The amateur plays for fun. The professional plays for keeps.

To the amateur, the game is his avocation. To the pro it’s his vocation.

The amateur plays part-time, the professional full-time.

The amateur is a weekend warrior. The professional is there seven days a week.

The professional loves it so much he dedicates his life to it. He commits full-time.

It’s time for me to commit full-time to the writing life. This means that regardless of how uncomfortable or inconvenient it may becomes, it’s time to go for it and stay the course.

I’m setting myself a two-fold 30-day challenge.

The first is to blog every day for the next 30-days and the second, is to write an additional 1000-1500 words a day and produce the first draft of my first book by November 30, 2010.

“So it is written, so shall it be.”

Update

Curious if I’m sticking to my challenge and want to know how many words I’m writing each day in regards to this project? Check out the tab 30-Day Challenge where I list my daily word count.