It’s leap day and that means it’s the last day of February and that means the writing challenge is over!
I still have two plays to write today but I know what I want to write about – I just need to sit my arse down and get them written.
Instead, I am writing this blog because I am Distracto Scribe and this is called The Reluctant Writer for a reason.
It has been, as always, an emotional rollercoaster. Days of ‘I can’t do this’ to ‘I rock at this’ to ‘there are zero ideas in my head’ to ‘what was that garbage? Just hit submit and move on’ …you get the idea.
But I would highly recommend doing a writing challenge if you can. They will test you and push you and you’ll love/hate every moment. It’s good to get out of your comfort zone and be told what to write and when to write it, if only so you appreciate your freedom so much more when it all stops.
I do not write every day and I admire those who do. Doing a challenge like this shows me I can write every day if I need to and makes me appreciate that my brain can come up with new ideas so quickly. Even if some of them stink and should never see the light of day again.
I’ve done this challenge every year for about 5 or 6 years and it has given me so much more than folders full of work that I can potentially go back to and use.
I now have a group of friends who love/hate writing as much as I do and are willing to read, critique, support, share and generally chat without making anyone feel inferior. They mean the world to me – and I am a deeply anti-social person who avoids human interaction, so that’s really saying something.
Without these challenges and these people I would never have been able to start my podcast theatre company – Shouting in the Evening – and we would never have produced over 100 plays with amazing writers and voice actors.
So, as I get on with my last 2 plays I am already looking forward to a day off tomorrow. No writing – it will be luxurious!
And then onward and upward. I have to get back to writing the next Daniel book, which has been waiting patiently since NaNoWriMo, and I will blog about all the ups and downs of getting that finished and up on Amazon for the world to enjoy/ridicule, etc.
But for now…2 plays…here we go…don’t look at the washing up in the sink, just get on with it!
Happy Leap Day everyone!
The Reluctant Writer 