Stephanie writes young adult novels and is the creator of GoTeenWriters.com. Her novels include The Reinvention of Skylar Hoyt series and the Ellie Sweet books. You can connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and check out samples of her work on her author website including the free novella, Throwing Stones.
Several times now, we've hosted a "100 for 100 challenge" where a group of us commit to write 100 words a day for 100 days. For some of us, this works great. For others, it's hard to be consistent for so long. (I know someone is going to ask this, so I'll just put it here—yes, Go Teen Writers will host another 100 for 100 challenge. We anticipate doing so this summer.)
The March monthly challenge is to write 300 words a day for 30 days.
(Yes, March has 31 days. 300 for 31 doesn't have quite the same ring to it.)
If you write 300 words a day for 30 days, you'll have at least 9,000 words written by the end of the month. Isn't that amazing to think about? The 100 for 100 stretches on so long for me, that it's hard to find a season of life that it fits into, but I'm hoping that for 30 days, I can push myself to do at least the bare minimum.
How to take part:
If you want to participate in the challenge, you're welcome to do it on your own, or you can fill out the form below. Sometimes it helps to physically sign up for something. Makes it feel more official.
When the month is over, I'll ask you to send me an email telling me how the challenge went and what you worked on. You don't have to send me your actual writing, but just a few sentences about your experience.
Those who sign up for the challenge and send me the email at the end of the month will be put in a drawing for a $20 Amazon.com gift card!
This challenge is for writers of all ages in all countries. You'll be able to sign up until the end of March 1st and then the form will close.
March is looking to be a super busy month for me, but I'm so in!! The February Challenge worked out great for me. Good luck to everyone else participating!
ReplyDelete(side note: I think I may have accidentally submitted the sign-up form twice. If I did, you can remove one of me. :) )
Better to submit twice than not at all :) Glad you're in!
DeleteYes, another challenge! The February one was great, I'm so excited for this one!
ReplyDeleteHi, Mrs. Morill! I love this blog. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm done with my first draft of my WIP, so could I make this work for editing instead of writing? Edit half a chapter or something? I could really use an editing challenge right now. :)
Thanks!
Anna
I second this question! My plan is to finish my WIP this month and then use the next month to focus primarily on editing and figuring out what I'm doing for Camp NaNoWriMo. I mean, I still want to write, but 300 words a day is a bit more than I probably want to do. (Note the "probably" . . .)
DeleteEditing challenges are hard because progress with editing isn't so easily marked, since some days you might wind up researching, another day you're cutting entire scenes and rewriting new ones, etc. So if you want to use this as an editing challenge, you have a couple of options for getting in your daily required effort:
Delete1. When you're adding scenes or paragraphs, write 300 words and that counts.
2. If you're in a section where you're cutting or adding words here and there, either cut 150 or add 150 or some combination of the two. (Like if you cut 75 words from a page, but you also added 75, that would count even though your word count won't have changed much. Just do your best to estimate on this.)
Questions? Concerns?
That's what I thought. But I'm a busy genetics student anyway, so I probably wouldn't have been consistent even if I was writing a new first draft. :) I'll take this challenge and see what I can do! Thanks!
DeleteSo because of my editing style, I'm still not sure how this'll work . . . but I'll think about it and make a decision sometime soon.
DeleteSounds like an awesome challenge!!!!
ReplyDeleteGreat!! This will really inspire me to finish up my plotting in time to START WRITING. Thanks, Stephanie!
ReplyDeleteThis is the best challenge ever! I think I'll be able to do it. So hyped!
ReplyDeleteYay!
DeleteWhat happens if I sign up and don't end up writing 300 words one day? Can I just add more on the next? How strict are the rules, I guess I'm asking :P
ReplyDeleteWe won't be super strict. Ideally, you would at least be consistent most of the time, but if you have a couple days where you need to catch up, that's fine too.
DeleteAh, thanks! Then I'm definitely signing up!
DeleteWish I could do it, but I'm going to be overseas until the ninth of March. Then again, I probably don't need to do it as much as others. I've been trying to do 1K a day for two months, and I've succeeded at that pretty well.
ReplyDelete1K a day? Good for you!! :)
DeleteWow, Jessi! That's great! Hope your travels go well :)
DeleteThanks. I figure if I ever want to be published, I need to be able to get stuff written at a decent pace. The scary part is the editing.
DeleteWOW! I am TOTALLY ENTERING!!!
ReplyDeleteLOOOVE IT! I am entering, don't question me!
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't know how this will work with school and work, but I signed up to give it a go. Hopefully I can make it!
ReplyDeleteI was doing fairly well with the February challenge, but then my cat smashed my computer. Luckily there are three more computers in the house I've just got to re-write the ideas since I remember most of them.
ReplyDeleteBut I should be able to do the march challenge.
That's some cat!
DeleteAre we allowed to count work on multiple projects towards the daily 300, or must the challenge be restricted to one specific project? The reason I ask is that I'm working on a research paper, a writing journal, and an honors literature paper for school right now, as well as my WIP, so I'm not sure if I can dedicate that much of my writing time every day of March to a fiction piece. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI'm fine with you splitting your words with multiple projects, Kelsey. Thanks for asking!
DeleteYay! In that case, I think I'll join. :)
DeleteI have a couple of speech tournaments in March, but I made the interesting decision to sign up anyway. I can sure use the push.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds cool! I accidentally signed up as Josie+ (my silly hands xD) without my email address. Oh well. Anyway, this'll work great with the book I'm writing!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds so much fun! And perfect timing. I was planning on starting a mini project in March, one that wouldn't take up too much time and with a little word count each day.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I turned in one form without an email, so I had to put another in. So there might be two of mine in there.
~K.A.C.
I've been wondering about the 100/4/100. So glad to hear we will be doing it this year! And I am looking forward to this challenge also. I, too, will be editing, so thanks for the word count advice you gave above :) I've been trying to decide if the fact that I have to rewrite so much of my MS is a good thing or not, but I guess this challenge decides for me!
ReplyDeleteI am going to do this I really am...... I am so bad at actually sitting down to write. But I will do this.
ReplyDeleteCool! I'm glad I have a couple of days to choose a writing project to work on. Can't wait to get started:)
ReplyDeleteThis sounds soo cool! Being relatively new here, this will be my first challenge, so I'm super excited!! :):)
ReplyDeleteIt'll be my first challenge here, too! I can't wait!
DeleteYay! Glad you guys are joining us!
DeleteDoes editing count?
ReplyDeleteI'm copying and pasting this from a question above:
DeleteEditing challenges are hard because progress with editing isn't so easily marked, since some days you might wind up researching, another day you're cutting entire scenes and rewriting new ones, etc. So if you want to use this as an editing challenge, you have a couple of options for getting in your daily required effort:
1. When you're adding scenes or paragraphs, write 300 words and that counts.
2. If you're in a section where you're cutting or adding words here and there, either cut 150 or add 150 or some combination of the two. (Like if you cut 75 words from a page, but you also added 75, that would count even though your word count won't have changed much. Just do your best to estimate on this.)
Questions? Concerns?
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteGreat! Thanks for answering, Mrs. Morrill, I must not have seen the comment above. :)
DeleteYUS. I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS. I was originally looking to see when the next 100x100 is going to be, but this works just as well XD Idk why but these specific word goal challenges work really well for me, even if I miss a couple days. Thank you SO. MUCH. for hosting this!
ReplyDeleteYay! I'm glad this will work well for you, Lisa.
DeleteThis sounds so cool! I'm definitely signing up :). I was wondering, does it matter what the 300 words are? Do they have to be part of one of our WIPs, or can they be other things (letters, schoolwork, etc.)?
ReplyDeleteThe idea for is to be adding on to one project, but if you need to spread your words to other things too, that's fine. Not like emails or blog posts or things like that, though.
DeleteOkay, gotcha. This is going to be fun! I signed up :).
DeleteHey, Stephanie. This is kind of random, but how long should you sit on a story idea for before you start outlining/writing? I had an idea for a YA contemporary this morning but should I rush to plot it for the 300-for-30 challenge? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI think it just depends on you and the idea. If you feel like getting started on it, great. The worst thing that will happen is you'll discover you need to sit with the idea a little longer before you can make it work.
DeleteThank you! I really do feel like trying it...I read something of Shannon's recently about how a title can shape a story and then, this morning, a title--and a corresponding story!--sort of dropped into my brain. So, I've changed my mind yet again...oh, boy!!
DeleteI'm totally doing this! I have a pretty hard time actually WRITING my book, so hopefully, this will help!
ReplyDeleteI'm in!!
ReplyDeleteI want to do it!! :)
ReplyDelete