For the month of July I engaged in a writing challenge in which I wrote something everyday in response to these daily prompts. Though the real challenge was using the prompts to write a single, cohesive narrative with each of the daily prompts guiding where the story went.
When I started writing the first installment, I wasn’t sure what the story was going to be. I ended-up writing about someone dealing with weird dreams and insomnia and, as a result, the story went-off from there. When I was thinking about doing this challenge, the expectation was that I was going to write something that was more comedic and “random” given the nature of the challenge. And, also, I thought I would have more fun writing. But, of course, things turned-out differently and I ended-up writing something more dramatic and grounded in reality. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the process of writing became more of a slog as I worried more about the quality of each post as I was writing something more “serious.” As a result, I ended-up procrastinating most days which negatively impacted the story.
Some days were pretty difficult, especially in the last week in which I was working near 12-hour workdays. So when I got home from work, I wasn’t exactly in the best headspace to write something “decent.”
However, overall, I’m glad I did it. It helped me really sit down and write something everyday. And, sometimes, it was fun to write. However, I’m not sure if the final product is something people would want to read. There are some installments that I think came out well. Not great writing, but hints of something that, perhaps, I could expand upon in future projects. One thing I probably should have done better (on top of a bunch of other things) was the way I handled some of the other characters. The story ended-up being insular to the main character, which makes sense given what the story is about, but I wished I fleshed-out the rest of the cast more such as his parents and Burt Romero. The latter is the main character of a web fiction series I’m planning, but his character ended-up being really one-dimensional. The only time he became alive was in one of the dream sequences.
So, I might do a more in-depth retrospective later, or not. But I might end-up revisiting some of the ideas I explored here. So, I guess, overall, doing this whole challenge was more beneficial to me, as a writer, then to the reader.
But, if you’re still interested in reading feel free to click on the link here. I was thinking about doing another one for this month, but by the time I finished I was like “fuuuuck no, I need some rest.” But, I might do something like this again in the future.
I’m either going to start on The Great Romero (the web fiction series I’ve been planning) or another project I have in mind. I’ve also been thinking about uploading posts on non-writing topics such as philosophy, politics, and art. So continue reading or not bye.
