Take the Challenge - 100 words for 100 Days

by Stephanie Morrill

Many of you have been asking when you can start signing up for the 100 for 100 challenge, and today's the day! For those of you who are new to Go Teen Writers, we did this challenge last September, and it was quite popular.

Here's how it works.

1. You pick a project you want to make progress on. It could be the novel you're already working on, it could be nonfiction, it could be a new book you want to start, whatever you want.

2. You pledge to write 100 words everyday for the next 100 days beginning February 1st.

3. You write the words and occasionally you log on to a spreadsheet to type in your word amount.

That's it.

This challenge works so well because 100 words take very little time to write. Maybe ten or fifteen minutes. And yet if you participate in the 100 for 100 challenge, you'll have at least 10,000 words written by May 11th. Pretty great, right?

Here are the writing challenge guidelines:

The challenge will begin Friday, February 1st. That means you have between now and next Friday, February 1st to decide if you want in. No exceptions - if you don't sign up by the end of Friday the 1st, you can't participate.

The idea is for it to be a gradual trickle of words, not a geyser of them, so you must write 100 words every day for it to count. You can't write 10k on March 4th and call it good.

There is 1 "grace day" per week, meaning if you miss 1 day a week, that's okay, but you still must have 700 words completed by the end of the week. (Of course, this is done on the honor system. If you have 700+ words logged for the week, you won't be getting emails from me asking how many days you spent writing those.)

There is also one "grace week" per contest because life happens. So if during finals week you only write 500 words (or no words) you're still eligible for completing the challenge.

The words should all be for one book, not spread out over a variety of stories. The exception is if you finish a book.

Writers of all ages are welcome to join us. Last time we had lots of fun competing between the age groups and seeing who had the most participants versus who wrote the most words. (Here are the results from last time, if you're curious.)

Here are some questions you might have:

Can I write more than 100 words per day?

Absolutely. You can write 4,000 words on Monday and 103 words on Tuesday and 2,000 words on Wednesday, etc. It just has to be at least 100 words for 100 days.

When the challenge is over, do I send you my story?

No. All I need to know is how many words you wrote.

Are there prizes?

Everyone who completes the challenge is entered to win a 10,000 word critique. A few of us have books releasing in the next couple months, so I imagine we'll have some other items to give away as well...

What happens if I sign up, but then decide I don't want to do it anymore?

You let me know, and I take you off the list. 

Last time we had about 250 writers sign up, and 80+ completed. Here's what a few of them had to say about the experience:

I love the 100-4-100 Challenge. It's easy and fun, and barely any stress. It helped me reach the beginning of the end for my novel. I will always try to participate in the 100-4-100. - Katelyn


For a long time I’d been trying to write something every day, and the 100/100 challenge got me in the habit of doing that. Even during NaNoWriMo, when I was writing a completely different WIP, it was easy to keep up with 100/100, because lets face it, one hundred words aren’t a lot!
Even now, over a month after the first 100/100 challenge ‘ended’ I haven’t stopped, and I don’t plan on stopping any time soon. Seriously, y’all, it’s a great idea!  - Aidyl

The 100-4-100 challenge was great for me. Sometimes I have the problem of not writing, sometimes for several days at a time. But the 100 challenge, for lack of a better word, forced me to write. And nothing would have been better for me. I wrote enough words to grow near completion of my novel, and even now, I make myself write something every day, even if it's just a few words. And it's all thanks to the 100-4-100 challenge. I'm ready for round two! - Bethany