How do YOU Write?

There are so many unofficial challenges happening right now! Do you want a list of them? I suppose I should oblige...

In no particular order

• Rick Henry Christopher's "Lost in a Story" Challenge
• Jazzy Gonçalves' "Filthy Haiku" Challenge and "The Perfect" Challenge
• JBaz's "Silent Thought" Challenge
• L.C. Shaëfer's "Death" Challenge
• Matthew Fromm's "High Fantasy" Challenge
• Chloe Rose Violet's "October" Challenge/Prompts

...and I'm sure I'm missing some...

These got me thinking. How many of you find it easy to write for these challenges, in addition to the stories/poems/articles that you're passionate about?

In addition to the official challenges?

In addition to the AWARDS?

😱

I frequently look at the speed with which many of you post entries into these unofficial challenges and marvel. I can't do that, I think. There's a process! I must have an idea first, be inspired.

(Side note: What is "inspiration," really? Is it just an idea? Is it the passion + an idea? Is it completely externalized from you, as the writer, who is a conduit?)

Anyway...

Tell me your approach to these challenges, or to writing in general. Do you get inspiration for the prompts or do you find yourself writing about the first thing that came to mind? Are you passionate about these fun exercises, or are they more like a blip in your "real" writing for the day?

Art, surely "real writing" is art...? I wonder if I put too much precedence on what kind of writing is "real."

Said another way, I cannot write about anything. Sure, the skill for that to be true is there. I can write. Theoretically I can write about anything. Not in practice, however. Give me a prompt, any prompt, and I guarantee I'll have no excitement for the idea that springs to mind.

See, for me, ideas are like pitch meetings. You throw out what you think the editor wants to hear and alongside the 5 or so ideas you really would love to write about, you spit out 15 that match the trends, the editor's tastes, the magazine's mission, etc., and rarely, very rarely, will you get assigned a piece that you care one iota about.

But you have to make it work; that's your job.

Is that what writing is? To follow your ideas, no matter how well you can craft them, no matter your emotions?

(Seriously, is that what writing is? I'd love to hear your thoughts...)

With these unofficial challenges, I find myself loving the concepts. My imagination goes crazy. I see myself having fun...And then I just don't end up doing them. Some, I'm inspired by. But the majority? I kick myself for letting the deadlines pass, for seeing other writers' brilliance and thinking, I could have participated in that light.

So, I'm curious what it's like from your side. Yes you, whoever you are, reading this right now.

What kind of writer are you?

Some of this has to come from style and taste.

Take me for instance. I want to write in other genres, like horror and fantasy, and sometimes, I can touch the edges of them. The challenges are great for stretching my comfort zone, but I can't be satisfied with my work when I'm uninspired and the muses are silent.

I write literary fiction, literary poetry. That is to say, the focus in "literary" anything, is on characters and emotions before plot. Plot might not even factor into the piece at all.

A LOT of challenges are best suited for genre fiction or genre poetry, where conventions rule, plot takes precedence, and a world can sweep you away.

I can't write like that on demand. I have to sit with drafts for weeks, experimenting, researching, failing, and giving up, only to try a new idea again and repeat the process.

Often, I'll try to make a challenge fit my style. But then, there are those that fly in the face of my capacities. These can be really interesting, though! And I'm left either kicking myself or trying and hating my attempts, over and over.

Are you the kind of writer that can just manifest their ideas, and quickly? Are you the unicorn?

These challenges are a wonderful community-bridging attempt, and they are successful! They bring so many people together in the pursuit of art for art's sake, and for fun. So...

...this isn't to say that I must participate; of course it's all voluntary. (Otherwise, what would be the point?)

What it is to say, is rather, to ask:

How do YOU write? I'd like to know.

And now, for the challenge...

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Just kidding.