The most important thing for any writing challenge isn’t to win—it’s to start writing. Because with every word, you improve.
I’m down to the wire, Story Quester, working on a short story for a contest. The same contest I entered last year and won. Which earned me a coveted spot in this anthology.
The story is due Monday by midnight and I’m mostly done with it. It’s got a 5K word hard cut-off. So I’m in what we call the “refining stage” where I cut anything unnecessary while conveying as complete a story as I can in 5,000 words or less.
But you might be thinking, Why do a writing challenge at all?
Well, Story Quester, I Can Give You 3 Excellent Reasons:
1) To Grow those Skills
Writing challenges help you stretch those narrative skills and grow as a storyteller.
Before National Novel Writing Month in 2010, I’d only written a handful of random things in my life. Mainly short assignments for English class. Then for NaNoWriMo, I wrote 50K words. Literally half of my first novel.
Yep, I’m talking about Daemons in the Mist, the very first version that released over a decade ago.
2) Fresh Crisp Storytelling
If your verboseness and lack of clarity are dragging the quality of your storytelling down, then a challenge with a max word count is the way to go.
It will teach you how to make those much-needed cuts in record time.
That has been my experience anyway, with all the writing challenges I’ve tackled between 2023 and now. For example, each piece for Fantasmical had a 1K max word count and my episodes for They Come at Night were all between 500-900 words.
The writing contest I’m currently participating in has a 5,000-word max for all its challenges.
But what’s the benefit of attempting such a thing? Because having a hard word count max teaches you the importance of word economy and conciseness in your storytelling.
3) No More Blank Pages
Writing challenges can also spark your creativity when you’re suffering from Blank Page Syndrome.
Many groups in community spaces like Wattpad offer creative prompts for their challenges. And various groups and fellow writers offer prompts on social media on a regular basis.
In fact, I’ve even got one for you right now:
The Legendary Character has just been accused of a horrible crime they didn’t commit and is forced to flee from authorities.
This prompt was inspired by Netflix’s Nimona based on cartoonist ND Stevenson’s graphic novel of the same name. It’s an exceptionally well-written film about gender fluidity, challenging rigid authoritarian systems, and acceptance of neurodiversity in a society.
And it’s brilliantly animated and hilarious. Honestly, it’s the best film I saw in all of 2023. Seriously, you should go watch it now.
But back to that prompt. We’re 10 days into July, but it’s not too late to join Camp NaNoWriMo.
Because unlike the main NaNoWriMo event in November, Camp NaNoWriMo (which is in both April and July) lets you set what project you’re working on and the word count. Which means you can take on a smaller challenge than 50K.
Or even tackle editing a novel like I’ll be doing after I complete this short story.
But just remember: the most important thing for any writing challenge isn’t to win—it’s to start writing. Because with every word, you improve.
Until next time, Story Quester, this is your friendly neighborhood storytelling Kat signing off.
