Season's Scramble 🎄

Because I didn't do enough writing in 2024 and am trying to fix that.

One goal I had for myself for the year 2024 was to try to actually keep an active blog. Not just to keep it, but to post once a month and really keep to my writing goals.

And in some ways, I did. I submitted to a couple of writing competitions (and got rejected by all of them) and actively added to both my personal journal and reading journal. But in other ways, I didn’t.

Like this blog here.

sometimes you just slip up.

There are three reasons I didn’t. The three reasons are as follows.

1. I am a perfectionist.

2. I am a procrastinator.

3. I am a coward.

I know. Kinda harsh.

But these things are kinda true. True of all artists at one point in their lives. I’m always too scared that my work isn’t good or that people will judge me for what I make. However, I don’t want to be like that forever, and after checking the calendar I have found there still happens to be 31 days left in the year.

Am I going to hit my 12 blog post goal? No way. Should I still be writing and creating? Yes.

The Challenge

This challenge comes from my super awesome friend Maddie after she suggested doing a writing challenge for the month of December. I have failed every writing/art challenge I have ever attempted to do, but thanks to here I still want to try. Together, we came up with our own little end-of-the-year prompt list. I wanted to share it here to a) keep myself accountable and b) share it so that anyone else who is interested might be able to use it.

Each week was given a different theme/structure and was broken up by some single writing exercises we found online/made up. All of the online ones come from Reedsy and are linked accordingly. We did this because doing just one-word prompts for a whole month seemed super hella boring. Having a variety seemed like a good way to keep up the challenge fresh even if we fell off at some point.

The main goal of this challenge is to just write 30 minutes a day. Each day we set a timer and just write inspired by the prompt we have been given. The goal is to not worry about finishing or being perfect, but just to make something for ourselves.

The first week is based on a common writing exercise of the “three-word prompt.” This exercise encourages you to take three unconnected words and turn them into a piece of prose or poetry. We randomly generated all of our words and then randomly picked our exercises to break up the three-word prompts. Details for the exercises are as follows:

Week One Exercises:

• “As (never) Seen on TV”- Hone your corporate word salad skills by creating a mock advertisement for a fictional product.

• “What a Character”- a prompt pulled from Reedy’s writer’s block prompt list. In order to write good characters you have to get real with yourself! Grab a notebook and answer the following questions as they pertain to you. When you finish think about how you can incorporate these vulnerabilities into future projects.

  • What emotion do you struggle with because you feel it so deeply?

  • What type of situation makes you feel vulnerable or inadequate?

  • What past mistake causes you the most regret?

  • What core moral belief is so ingrained that you live it every day?

• “A Whole Week”- Describe each day of the week as a person

Week Two is just about getting creative with different plots. Create a character (or use one that you have) and write them in different places and dealing with different things. If you need help- Writing Exercises has a lot of different generators to play with.

Week Two Exercises:

• Blue- Imagine you are trying to describe the color of the sky to a blind person, but you can never use the color “blue.” (if you aren’t big on describing the sky as robin eggs or oceans, then try another color and a corresponding object!)

• A New Chapter- grab a favorite book and flip to a random page. Wherever you land, rewrite it in your own way.

• Picture Perfect- Head over to your Pinterest (or Tumblr or whatever) and scroll through your feed for 5 mins. Pick an image you see and write something inspired by it.

This is the week to play around with descriptions in fun ways. Here is the list of sense prompts and a random number generator to get you started on Week Three!

Sensory Writing Prompts -

SEE 👁️

1. sun rays

2. rainfall

3. shadows in the corner of your eye

4. an old friend

5. home

6. autumn

7. a sunset/sunrise

HEAR 👂

1. silence

2. laughter

3. a whispered prayer

4. a soft I love you

5. sirens

6. a wail

7. roar of an engine

SMELL 👃

1. smell of burning

2. smell of a rain

3. smell of a baby (could be an animal)

4. smell of cold crisp air

5. smell of a person

6. smell of rot

7. smell of books

TASTE 👄

1. bitterness

2. a glass of water

3. salt on your lip

4. a meal with loved ones

5. a perfectly brewed cup of tea

6. guilt

7. bloodlust

FEEL 👋

1. numbness

2. sickness

3. feet hitting the ground

4. betrayal

5. floating

6. blood pumping

7. a hug

Week 3 Exercises:

• Under the Influence- Write about someone under the influence of alcohol, drugs, etc. Try to write in a way that comes off just a woozy and tipsy as the character is feeling.

• Sweater- Describe your favorite item of clothing and reflect on what that says about you.

• Merriam’s Word of the Day- write something based on Merriam-Webster Dictionary’s word of the day. Find the link to the page here.

And for the last full week of the year, we went with a week inspired by the seven deadly sins/virtues. Here is the list for your reference.

Seven Heavenly Virtues: 👼

• Humility

• Charity

• Chastity

• Kindness

• Temperance

• Patience

• Diligence

Seven Deadly Sins: 😈

• Pride

• Greed

• Lust

• Envy

• Gluttony

• Wrath

• Sloth

Week 4 Exercises:

• The Box- select a box from your house or from a picture that is less that 12x12 inches. Write a story or poem inspired by the box

• Flowers- Another one from Reedsy that is worth checking the link for. Pick a flower they provide for you and write a short story based on its meaning. (Need more flower ideas? Check out Old Farmers Almanac for more inspo)

We decided to go for free space for something wintery for the 24th and for the 25th to just take a break! I want to be optimistic that I can write for 30 minutes each day, but I wouldn’t be surprised if those two days get a bit busy.

And lastly Week Five! Tada! Everyone made it.

Week Five Exercises:

• “Dialogue Only Please” - Write a short story that ONLY uses dialogue.

• “Dear So and So”- write a letter to someone. It can be from you or from a character and the recipient could be real or fictional. Try to tell a story through one page of mail.

So anyway that's it! Hopefully, halfway through December, I will post a little update and maybe even share something. This was a fun list to create, and I am very grateful for Maddie to try this experiment with me. Who knows! Maybe it will go great.

Pfft. Who are we kidding?