I Challenge You To Be Creative

I’ve been feeling this urge to connect with creative people.  Not because we all have the same interests, but because we dream big and place a certain value on creating new things.  My creative thing is writing, but I find inspiration in music and photography and design. I love to see people do whatever they do really well.

I challenge you (and myself as well) to pick a creative project and spend the month of July working on it.  I mean for “creative” to be defined broadly and your project is completely of your own choosing in both content and size.  It can even be something you have already started.  The point is to spend a month focused on doing whatever it is you do and share that with other people.  That’s the other part of the challenge: you have to share your creative project to some degree.  You don’t have to share your finished product (your challenge might just be to get started), but you have to share your process, because I think that’s how we can best inspire each other.

My project will be to write the first part of my new novel, Some Other Air to Breathe.  Your project might be to write a new song, design a new blog layout, write a novella, sew a new dress, try some new recipes, take some new photographs, make some new products for your etsy shop, or film a new video.  You set the parameters of your challenge, whether it’s to start a novel or finish one, try one new recipe a week or five, write one new poem  or write one new poem every day.  The point is to focus on pursuing your creative interests and not to burden yourself with an impossible task.  Find something that will push you, but not overwhelm or defeat you.

If you’re interested, here’s what you should do:
1. Leave a comment on this post or email me at writetoreach@gmail.com letting me know you want to participate.  I will list everyone participating here.  Help me spread the word to other people you think might be interested.
2. Decide on your project and write a post on your own blog sometime this week letting us know what you’ll be working on.  Feel free to apply whatever additional rules or parameters you want to be part of your challenge.  If you think your readers might be interested, try to get your post up earlier so that they’ll have to time to prepare as well.  Please send them over here so that I know everyone who is participating.
3. Periodically throughout the month, blog about your project and the progress you’re making.  You may choose to share what you’ve been working on or just talk about the process.  There is no precise schedule, so you can share as much or as little as you want.  Like any challenge, you’ll get as much out of it as you put into it.
4. Connect with other creative people participating in the challenge.  Cheer people on, ask them how it’s going, and give them feedback if they ask for it.
5. Write a post at the end of July with your thoughts on the project, whether you judge it a success or failure, whether you will be continuing with your project or not.

More than just challenging ourselves to be creative, the point of this for me is to connect with other creative people.  I could use your ideas for how we can best do this.  It’s my secret hope that we emerge from this at the end of July with at least a small group of people who will continue to support each other creatively.