2019 is going to bring a lot of new and fun things. I’m excited about what I have planned and I can’t wait to share them and implement these ideas and try new things in general.
One new thing I’ll be trying is the is 85K Writing Challenge.
I had originally heard of this challenge from Ari a while back. It was something I had looked into from time to time always telling myself I’d do it and then I never did. In 2019, I’m finally going to do it.
What is the 85K Writing Challenge?
This is a year-long challenge catered to writing, editing, and publishing a book. Of course, I supposed you don’t need to participate in the whole year. If you already have a novel needing editing, you could only do those months if you wanted.
Here’s how it works… every step of the challenge is done in 90 days, which is three months.
January, February, and March are “Write” months. This is where you get your writing done. Duh. You have 90 days to outline (if you outline) and write the first draft of your novel. April is used as a “Finish” month in case you need some extra time or you’d like to take a break.
May and June are the “Edit” months with July being the “Finish” month. So, you have two to three months to get your editing and revising done plus room to take a break before you move onto the next step of the challenge.
August and September are known as the “Prep” months while October and November are known as the “Publish” months. This includes all your planning and prepping for publishing, actual publishing, along with marketing and the like.
December is then, of course, a “Finish” month. Whether you’re finishing up your publishing step or you want to take a break before the new year and a new challenge.
Yeah, so? What makes this so special?
The 85K Challenge website has blog posts, forums, and a writing tracker to aid you along the way. There’s encouragement and support on the website but also ask around and see if anyone you know on your social media and within the blogosphere is doing the challenge.
We’re all in this together and it’s great to have others keep you accountable. Having a website and a tracker definitely helps as well.
Why am I doing this?
I need to get into a better routine with my writing. I know I say this a lot, but I always try different routines and none of them end up sticking. When I said routine, I mean I need a timeline and deadlines for myself to get things done.
I have so many different ideas and want to do them all. Sometimes I end up working on multiple projects and ones that are close to being done get pushed to the back burner. I need something to keep me accountable to follow through for every single novel I write through the end.
This writing challenge starts at the writing stage and ends at the publishing stage. With this, I could have a book a year out.
This is my first time doing this challenge, so we’ll see how it works for me. I’m eager to start though! I can’t wait to get into a better timeline and have deadlines throughout the year. I make deadlines for myself, but… sometimes I don’t always keep them because there aren’t any true consequences.
What about NaNoWriMo?
I still plan on participating in Camp NaNoWriMo and NaNo. Those months are April, July, and November. April and July for the 85K challenge are “Finish” months. So, it won’t exactly be a break for me but it’ll be a break from that current project. I can work on my Short Story Sundays or Wattpad.
November is a “Publish” month for the 85K challenge, but again, I can work on other things while I do the technical side of publishing for the novel I can work on something else.
Ambitious, I know. But I always give myself way too much to do, so the tradition needs to continue.
I have five days (holy crap, 2019 is in five days!) to come up with a plan of action for both the 85K challenge and NaNo throughout the year. I need to figure out my self-publishing schedule along with Wattpad because I do want to stay active on there.
So, I’ll be coming up with writing goals for the new year. That will be its own blog post though in the new year… which is in just a couple of days… so you’ll know it soon.
Are you participating in the 85K writing challenge in 2019? Have you done it before? Are there any other challenges you do? Let me know in the comments below. If you liked this post, please share it around.
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