Challenges

I know I haven't been blogging much of late. Shall we just say "extenuating circumstances" and leave it at that?

One of those circumstances has been a challenge my writer friends and I extended to each other. For various reasons, it seemed we were all in a slump. Not much output and very little urge. So one of the others suggested a challenge. We put a small amount of money into a pot for $5.00 bookstore gift cards. Whoever produces the most in one week, wins the card for that week. We'd get a point for each page of new writing or five pages of editing. We could pick the best of five days out of any seven per week. And it has to be our own stuff.

It doesn't sound like much of a challenge, does it? But what you don't understand is that the five of us are rather competitive. So we were off and running.

And our output has been amazing. In the two weeks since we started, I've written 90 pages on a new story - and I'm nowhere near the top of the heap. Depending on the day, I get anywhere from five to (my personal best) twenty pages of new writing. Some of the others are doing up to 30 pages. And one did an edit of almost 400 pages. Our output has increased tremendously, as has our excitement.

We needed a challenge and we got one.

Speaking of challenges, last Friday, after our family dinner, we decided to play some Wii bowling. I assumed the players would be the adults - my husband, myself, our son and his wife. But our 4-year-old grandson complained that he wanted to play also so my husband bowed out. I was a little concerned about him using the remote, etc. even though they have one at their house. After all, he is only 4. I needn't have worried. What did surprise me was how good he was -- to the point that he almost beat me! Talk about an ego bruising.

But then I forget who his father is. This is a man for whom the electronics industry was created. And his son is no different.

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Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go. - E.L. Doctorow