Every now and again, even with a mountain of WIPs staring out at you for the creative recesses of your mind and the shadows of several synopsis whispering to you, one finds themselves TOTALLY distracted by a totally unrelated writing challenge.
This is where I have currently found myself and I have decided to invite you all along on my journey!
Now, let me give you a bit of insight into what has inspired this challenge. A few years ago, I decided to unsuccessfully paint a small abstract painting. I shamelessly have the confetti explosion of random colors hung proudly upon my wall and each time I look at it I find myself saying its name out loud, “The Dodo Lives in Joshua Tree.”
The title is only marginally random as there looks to be a Dodo in the painting and oddly enough when my glasses are off, there are appears to be a house. But those two things aside, it seems as if my calling out the painting’s name has called a story into being, one born from fragments of other fictional ideas and novel what-ifs.
For a few days now, the story has been taking up more and more space in my imagination, thus winning the right to exist in this present moment, giving birth to this challenge!
WELCOME TO THE RANDOM WORD NOVELLA WRITING CHALLENGE from April 5th to May 5th.
WHAT IS IT
A creative writing challenge where your story is guided by a collection of 30 to 50 random words. Your goal is to:
- Use 1 to 2 words a day to guide the narrative of your novella and the ebbs and flows of your plot
- Aim for at least 400 words a day
Remember, a novella is roughly 17,500 to 40,000 words in length (30,000 being the sweet spot) so in order to reach the goal of 17,500, you will need to average 583 words a day. BUT KEEP IN MIND lean days are often followed by fat and full days so if you are shy of the 583-word goal every now and again, don’t sweat it.
And a nugget of thought for those panicking at that number, you likely type more than that in a random text thread or comments on social media posts so you’ve got this in the bag.
If this still seems too much, try writing a NOVELLETE or SHORT STORY
You will need to write:
- 7,700 to 10,000 words total
- 256 words a day (to reach 7,700)
WHEN IS IT
The challenge begins today, Tuesday, April 5th, and runs until midnight on Thursday, May 5th.
WHERE ARE THESE RANDOM WORDS
You can use the list that I have compiled below or you can go to the Random Word Generator site and create your own list.
Here is my list of 50 Words:
• terrify
• cousin
• act
• square
• patient
• straw
• occupy
• temperature
• thank
• produce
• video
• willpower
• settle
• electronics
• hurt
• stitch
• kneel
• arena
• sandwich
• senior
• layer
• find
• presence
• driver
• differ
• seat
• spirit
• crutch
• invisible
• awful
• project
• revoke
• peasant
• forge
• grand
• thinker
• despair
• pain
• subway
• absent
• application
• privacy
• defeat
• address
• heaven
• mutation
• cute
• sustain
• cope
• foreigner
I do how you join me on the journey and share with others.
AND if you see this posted challenge after the 5th, then let whatever day you find it, be the start of your 30-day writing challenge. Just give it a shot. I promise you won’t regret it!
Until next time.
Write on? RIGHT ON!
Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”
Louis L’Amour
Assuming (again) that you are already a seasoned writer, I am pretty sure you are familiar with the process of your creativity ‘jumping ahead’ of your story as you write it. For example, you may be working on chapter five when suddenly some thrilling scene pops in your head that has nothing to do with the current flow of the story BUT it somehow fits, like a glimpse into the future. You just don’t know where.
CANDICE COATES 