Challenging Myself by Writing

Around the end of last month I decided that if I wanted to be a writer, I needed to write. A few of my friends had started blogs but nothing really caught my eye until I read Debra Kristi's blog.

One post in particular mentioned a writing challenge. I encourage you to read some of my other posts here as I have mentioned the writing challenge a few times. I misread the date, and then on the due date she sent me a message and asked if my story was ready, as she needed to link to it. I almost considered ignoring it, but thought about it for a couple of minutes. I decided that whatever else needed to be done around the home, the writing project had gained importance. So off I went and submitted my flash fiction link to her.

I have written short stories since I was a child and entered the Doctor Who fanzine field in the 1980's.

Something happened around the 1990's and 2000's and I was no longer interested in writing. Life obviously got in my way.

After I was laid off from my graphic design job in 2007 I found Associated Content. Non-fiction articles gained performance pennies, and occasionally a special project was offered. I decided to give it a try and did quite well for a couple of years. Many of my credit card articles can also be found here.

Yahoo bought up Associated Content around 2010 and turned it into Yahoo Voices. After Yahoo bought up the site, they stopped paying Canadian writers citing the tax laws. Don't you just love corporate values?

That didn't stop me from posting stories there, I continued to put up the odd one, and accepted a short story science fiction challenge they had which ended up being on a feature page.

Now we're back to the end of April and my flash fiction writing challenge. I decided I needed to incorporate the writing culture into my daily life.

I gave myself a 21-day blog writing challenge. Initially I was going to write about Steampunk and Queen Victoria every single day, but that never materialized. One day I wrote a graphic poem, another day I just posted photos.

I still have a couple more weeks to go, but since it only takes two weeks to develop a good habit such as writing every day, I intend on never stopping again!