Have you heard about this writing challenge?  (The first one was in 2010.)

I only learned about it this week and am already signed up, ready to go. But I have to wait….tick tock, tick tock. My fingers are itching.

What is StoryADay May?

It’s my challenge to you: to challenge YOURSELF to write every day, not “some day”.

Write and finish a story every day this May. That’s it.

-Julie Duffy

A story being a written piece with a beginning, middle, and end? To me, that says a plot outline! So, taking a cue from Debbie Ohi over at InkyGirl. Just Signed Up for the Story a Day May Challenge. I’m jumping in.

It’s been awhile since I’ve participated in a writing challenge and I’m ready for one. What I really like about this challenge is that it will stretch my creativity and at the same time build up a backlog of novel ideas to choose from later.

I’ve got a box filled with story starters that I’ve been collecting. Now’s the time to pull them out and see what plots have been forming in the back of my mind.

Anyone else sign up?

StoryADay.org

          I love my art classes! I think I’ve said that a few times in the past few weeks. It’s still true. I do love my art classes. I’m taking two of them, Drawing and Foundations of Time and Space.

          Time and Space is sort of a sculpture class. Each of the assignments has been to create something with certain materials and various “rules” or criteria. One project was to create a sphere from cardboard, another time we had to create a wearable hat, mask or shoe from items we would normally throw away.

          Each assignment has been challenging. Each time I wondered how I would be able create anything that would satisfy the instructor’s criteria. Each time I succeeded. And each success has brought new encouragement and confidence. No wonder I love my art classes.

          Drawing has had its own challenging moments. Each new drawing assignment has its own goal. We might be learning to make the glass look transparent or the leaves look curled or the ribbon look realistic. And each successful drawing (and the B grade I got at mid-term) has increased my motivation to keep drawing. (So very different from the drawing class I took my first year of college 30+ years ago!)

          In addition to drawing and creating art from found objects, I’m rediscovering my process of creativity. There are some definitive steps and stages I progress through with each project. Sometimes those steps and stages are more obvious than other times, but they are always there.

The initial “I’ll never be able to do this” stage.

          This is when I am sure I will not be able to think of anything that will work. That manifests itself in various ways, but essentially I am certain I will fail. In drawing, it usually is seen in the way I lightly draw, erase, draw, erase until I finally get the beginning “skeleton” drawn. From there I can add, fill in, shape and shade.

          This stage is a little more dramatic (and scary) in my Time and Space class. Part of the process is to sketch ideas and plan what we will do. I don’t plan well. (That’s why my writing is more organic and less structured.) Sometimes I’ve had to just play around with the materials. When we had to make a sphere from cardboard, I cut lots of circles and half-circles and arranged them together in different ways before I discovered what I wanted to do. When I’m familiar with the materials, it is easier. The found object shadow box was almost easy. This first stage is more of a discovery process, although sometimes it is accompanied by a (false) certainty that I won’t be able to do it.

The Excitement stage.

          This is when I have a clear idea of what I want to create and the confidence I can do it. Or, if I’m not completely confident, I at least believe it’s possible. Varying levels of excitement accompany this stage. In drawing, this happens when I step back from my drawing and realize I have the basic shapes drown well and not I just need to add in the details. Or when I realize I’ve hit on a particular way that really works, like shading so that it appears two objects are ovelapping.

The “I’m failing” stage

          This happens partway into the project. It might be near the end or it might be in the middle, but a good portion of the project is finished. I’m certain, though, that the project is terrible and I need to drop it. Or start over. Since these assignments must be turned in, I don’t have the option of quitting. I have to finish the project. In this stage, it gets harder and harder to ignore the voice in my head saying I will fail, I’m not smart enough to finish, there are more important things to do, and a myriad of other thoughts designed to get me to quit. Or start over. A few times I have started over. Was that the right thing to do? Maybe. Maybe not. In the case of one of my drawing assignments, it was the best decision I made. Other times, I was certain I was not going to be able to finish the project, but I kept working at it. Eventually, that led to . . .

The “I did it!” stage

          This is when I look at the completed, or almost completed work and realize I did it! I finished the project and I finished well. I’ve actually surprised myself at times.

          Did I mention that I really love my art classes?

          What does that have to do with writing, you ask? Everything! The cerative process I go through for my art classes is the same process I go through with my writing. I’m sure re-learning that is going to help me reignite my desire to write and my output. I need to “play with the materials.” I need to find and choose a project and start working. I need to push past the negative thoughts and keep working. Once I start doing that on a regular basis, my writing output is sure to increase. More importantly, my writing excitement is sure to increase.

While watching “Shark Tank” recently, the TV show where entrepreneurs try to convince millionaires to invest in their businesses, one “shark” told a woman that her greatest strength was already proving to be her greatest weakness – she wouldn’t give up. He wouldn’t invest with her because he believed she wouldn’t close the stores that were losing money. In the interview later, the woman reiterated that she wouldn’t give up.

I totally get this!

I’m sure that one of my strengths – and therefore weaknesses – is the same. In some instances, I just won’t give up. Unfortunately, I’m feeling the effects of the weakness side of this right now. I had a short story due in February for an anthology a bunch of friends are putting together. I rarely write short stories, so that in itself is difficult for me. But this one story just wouldn’t come together! I knew the “writer’s block” was my brain’s way of telling me something was wrong. I wrote it from every angle – third person from her point of view, third from his, first person in her head. Nothing worked. Then I stumbled into a way of thinking that will become a new writing routine for me when I get stuck.

STOP!

First, take a moment and stop. Think. Stare at the trees or the ceiling. Why isn’t this working? What don’t you like? What do you like? I wrote my friends and double-checked that the anthology would be romance short stories with a happily-ever-after. Yup. This story? Not so much. More like a “with romantic elements” story with a satisfied-for-now ending. This couple is part of my superhero world and I know she won’t end up with him. I don’t want to write a short story that implies that they’ll be together only to write a novel later that shows he’s not the one. Once I stopped and thought about it, I knew this particular story wasn’t hitting the marks for the anthology and that was likely why it wasn’t working.

DROP!

So the next thing I had to do was what I’d refused to do for months – drop it. Because I’d struggled so long with the story, it was (eventually) easier to let go of it. I may write it later, but not as part of the heroine’s real romance. Now what to do? I was two months past a deadline with no story!

ROLL!

Time to brainstorm again. I thought for a while about what other short stories I could write in the same universe. Maybe the backstory of another character, how her parents met and why they got divorced. Oops! Not a romance in the end. Well, maybe a secondary character… ::thinking, thinking:: Couldn’t come up with a story I liked. Still felt like I was a remote control car trying to go forward but only hitting a wall. Ah, maybe I needed to back up and go an entirely new direction!

I decided to roll with whatever ideas my brain came up with, listen to anything that remotely sounded like a story that would work for the anthology. I remembered that last month I did a ton of brainstorming with my friends Lauraine and Kathleen about my upcoming series, The Strays of Loon Lake. Maybe something with that. Then I got a Facebook message from a friend saying all my moving woes could be great in a story. I had an idea and wrote a couple paragraphs. Voila! It worked! I have an idea for a short story about a woman who moves to Loon Lake and, in the first scene, she finds her best fancy dress wrapped around her ex’s snorkel fins. It made me laugh just thinking about it. (Which was not my reaction when I opened a box to find my fancy dress wrapped around John’s fins! “Professional” movers, my foot!) Then I was out walking and met up with a dog walker. Wham! I had an idea for the hero. Now I just have to finish writing the new story. YAY!!

Next time you get stuck in your story, try this:

1. Stop what you’re writing and think,
2. Drop the old idea if necessary and look for a new way to go, even a totally new story, and
3. Roll with your ideas, let the brainstorming take you to a place where the story flows again.