The 65 Days of Summer Writing Challenge

And just like that, school is out and summer is here.

The nice thing about being a teacher: I get two months off every year to relax and recuperate from the school year. And if you spent all day every day with preteens, you'd need to decompress too.

The bad thing about being a teacher: If you don't set specific goals for yourself over the summer, you'll get lazy and nothing will ever get done.

Enter, the 65 Days of Summer Writing Challenge.

In the past, my summer goal has always been "Write for 30 minutes a day." Thirty minutes usually turns into more, as I get hooked on a scene or chapter. I'll end up writing for a few hours, and I'll forget all about my house that needs to be cleaned.

The worst part? So much of what I wrote during those times was just bad. And repetitive.

This year, on top of the various assorted household tasks I hope to complete by the end of the two months (clean garage anyone?) I plan on stretching myself a bit, forcing myself to write about something different every day. How do I plan on doing this?

With my handy-dandy 642 Things to Write About book. Every day, for 30 minutes, I plan on writing on a topic randomly chosen from this book.

I will use a random number generator to select the topic, and I will write on that topic for a full 30 minutes. Do I plan on creating some pretty lame stuff? Sure, why not? But I also imagine I'll have bursts of really great stuff. Stuff I could then turn into a short story or even a chapter of a novel. We can only hope. The point is. I'll be writing about things I normally wouldn't tackle. The point is I'm stretching myself, challenging myself to try new things.

What will I do with my writings? I plan on posting them on the Summer 2018 Tab (found at the top of the website) completely unedited. You'll get to read the ramblings of my mind without the benefit of edits. The writing process in action, as it were.

Day 1 starts tomorrow!

Wish me luck. I'll see you on the other side (aka: August 1)