Well, today an opportunity presented itself and I took advantage of it. While chatting with a friend of mine, the idea of writing a short story every week as part of challenge came up. This particular idea was one I heard from Dean Wesley Smith. It was the writing challenge that propelled him forward in his writing career. He and a fellow writer wrote a new story every week for several months. Each week he submitted that story to a market, and kept every story he wrote in the market until it sold. The incentive for continuing was the accountability of the other writer and the consequence of not keeping up the challenge was buying the other person a steak dinner. Talk about a good motivation!
Anyway, it occurred to me to do this but I hadn't found the other person. Yet, I had been wanting my friend to give writing regularly a go. So I connected the dots and suggested the idea of a challenge to him. He said he would do it so we are.
I have regular deadlines to look forward to that will force me to produce new, finished fiction every single week from here on out. An excellent idea for somebody who wants to be a professional fiction writer. I get to interact with my friend regularly. We plan to meet up and have a bit of workshop to talk about each other's work every month. We swap stories every week and serve as first readers too. It's all really great. Just the infusion that I needed this coming year.
My plan of producing novels is still on the table but this structure of weekly short stories provides a way to get on target with my time management failings and become more productive overall. It's a great start to the new year.
I look forward to the first deadline!
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