The Psychology of the Challenge

If you've been following my blog at all this month, you're probably aware that I signed on for a writing challenge: 30,000 Words in February.  Today's the last day and I'm a couple thousand words short so I'll be jumping from here to my WIP.  But first I want to look at challenges.

As this challenge is coming to a close, members of the sponsoring group are already e-mailing their desire/need for another challenge.  This group is ceratinly not unique.  Everywhere we turn there are writing challenges and blogging challenges...you name it, someone is holding a challenge for it.

Why?

What is the attraction?  We supposedly write because we love to write.  Because we can't not write.  Because we have this great driving need to write.  So why do we need a "challenge" to write?  Isn't writing enough of a challenge in itself?  If not, we also have the challenge of the query, the pitch, the unreasonable editing demands, the changing publishing world, etc.

Or maybe that is the attraction.  I can't make an agent love my book.  I can't even make an agent read my book. But I can decide to write 30,000 words in a given month.  A challenge that's within my control.

Or is it the peer support?  The "we're all in this together", "come on, you can do it", "stick with it, don't give up" support that comes with a common goal.

I don't know.  I know I've written more consistantly this month (obsessively checking my word count as I go) than I have in a long time.  I've measured my count every night against the graph that shows where I need to be to make goal and used that to spur myself on.  I'm even considering taking on another challenge.  But why does it work for me?  I couldn't tell you.

Maybe, as an unpublished, it's as close as I can get to an editor's deadline. 

What do you think?  Do you like challenges?  Do they work for you?  Do you know why?

Got to go now.  I've got a lot of words to write before midnight.  Got to meet that challenge.


My current word count: 27,054

I'm currently enjoying: Lion in the Valley by Elizabeth Peters

Groaner of the day: Mother Lion and Father Lion had gone off hunting, and had told their two children not to wander away. However, a couple of small wildebeests wandered by, and the baby lions could not resist the temptation to try out their own hunting skills. They ran out, chased after the animals, killed them, and started eating them.

Just as the baby lions were reaching the end of their meal, the parents appeared in the distance. One of the baby lions turned to the other, and said: "That is the end of the gnus. Here again are the head lions."