9 Reasons Why You Should Try a Group Writing Challenge

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others:  read a lot and write a lot.” -Stephen King

Writing can be a lonely, hard thing to do. First, you have to find the time to write, and then you have to protect that writing time. Once you get a writing routine going, then questions start to come up that you need a tribe to help you answer. We’ve talked about writing groups as a way to add some accountability and support to your writing routine. Now, let’s take a look at another way you can find your people:  group writing challenges.

Here are nine reasons why you should try a group writing challenge:

1. Built-in Community: A group writing challenge is full of people who have usually signed up and committed to a similar goal. This shared goal already puts you on a level playing field with like-minded teammates. Each person is striving to hit a word count, a page count, a specific number of new poems or story ideas or whatever. 
2. Variety: There are as many group writing challenges as there are writers. Ok, maybe not that many, but there are a lot out there. Each one usually does a pretty good job of explaining the challenge parameters to let you pick what is going to work best for you.
3. Duration: You can find group writing challenges that last a week, a month, a quarter, a year, or some other length of time to fit a theme. Experiment with what works best for you and your schedule. Challenges that happen over a short period are typically repeated a few times throughout the year. Weekly challenges may happen every week with different themes allowing you to participate when you want and sit out when the subject doesn’t inspire you.
4. Accountability: Most challenges include a process for checking-in or giving updates on your work. These updates from the participants provide a way to cheer each other on to the finish line. Seeing others move steadily closer to the goal is a great motivator. Not to mention that needing to post your progress will help you stay on track.
5. Freedom: The purpose of most group writing challenges is to write. Write quickly. Write without your inner editor making you stop to question where the commas go (or don’t go). You are free to write badly in the interest of getting the idea and words onto the page. Let your mind take over and write or type or talk the story onto the page. You can always go back later and edit.
6. Customization: You’ve researched the various challenges out there and picked the one that best fits your needs. From that point, you may still need to tweak the assignment a little to make it fit your specific project. That’s perfectly fine. Go ahead, do it. Yes, there may be challenge rules or guidelines. There may be people participating who insist you have to do everything by the challenge rules or fail. Never mind all that. Do what makes sense for you and your process. Do it respectfully and don’t demand everyone else participating do what you are doing to bend the rules.
7. Pajamas Encouraged: Most challenges are based entirely online. There may be chances for face-to-face meetings for people in the same area, but those are typically not required for participation. You can write in your pajamas or whatever makes you feel the most comfortable and creative.
8. Budget-Friendly: Most challenges are free to join and participate. Of course, you sign up with your email address which means you are on their mailing list, but most have an opt-in/out option when you sign up. The freebie challenges may ask for donations or have merchandise that you can buy to help support things like websites and hosting, guest authors, or other costs involved in running the challenge. There are a few challenges with low-cost membership fees that may also give you access to other writing resources or services.
9. Rewards: Yes, there may sometimes be prizes (especially in pay-to-participate challenges). For some of the larger group writing challenges, you can win prize money or discounts on writing software and books. Smaller groups may offer reward points or tokens that can be traded in for critiques or other writing services. All challenges award bragging rights and a feeling ofaccomplishment for hitting the goal!

Who’s ready to try a group writing challenge? You are welcome to use Google to find your own, but I’ve listed a few below that you may want to check out.

1. National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) starts in November
2. Camp NaNoWriMo happens in April and July
3. YeahWrite has new challenges each week (Looks like a paid membership is needed.)
4. A Round of Words in 80 Days (ROW80) starts four different times throughout the year (Not to be confused with Around the World in 80 Days.)

Thanks for reading!