Recently I wrote an article for the Journey Planet. Their “call for papers” for Famous Friendships theme was a temptation I couldn’t resist. Writing it was fun. I mean a lot of work, some if it hard but nevertheless a lot of fun. And I kept pondering – how to write more often?
The First Step
What is hard for me is the first step. Getting an idea. Once I have a good idea, one I am sure makes sense writing itself is… Well not easy, but certainly easier. Sometimes it takes me just an hour or two, sometimes it may be a few years. (Well it was not a few years of writing. I thought of an idea for a piece about human gender and sexuality as portrayed by Ursula K. Le Guin many years ago but I started writing it in 2021. It took me a lot of time as I had to reread some of the stories, do a bit of research and so on. But in the end I finished the piece and published it [in Polish] in A~Zyn in 2022.)
The first step is the hardest part. I hoped that Forged Zine will help me with that, and it did to a certain extent. Still I didn’t get where I would like to be. So I got an idea that I should just keep writing whether I think it makes sense to publish or not. Those that I will find too boring will never leave my hard drive but I will at least get the fun of writing. It made sense, but to make it work I need something more…
The Challenge
I am susceptible for gamification. For sure I am not the only one. So I thought that making a challenge would work for me. So here it is – I am challenging myself to write 52 articles in 2025 – average of one per week. Not too much. Not very little. Should anyone with to participate – you are all invited.
Let’s see how the 52 Articles Challenge will go for me.
As a proper internet challenge I even devised a hashtag #52articles – not very brilliant but it will work for me.
I don’t expect this to be hugely popular as the 52 books challenge was. I may even be the only one taking part – that’s ok. I wanted some gamification so I made it. I could have joined an APA and use this as a system to keep on writing. The problem is I am not sure whether I would like to share all 52 of the pieces – some won’t be worth publishing.
The Rules
Should you wish to join here are the rules of the challenge.
1) Set up a target for yourself and try to reach it.
2) Have fun.
3) Don’t push yourself too hard.
That is it. It doesn’t have to be 52, it can be 26 or 104. You may decide for 12 or 33. The whole idea is to have fun. So set up a challenge that would bring you fun and follow it. Should you achieve the goal – awesome! Should you miss – no worries – it is just for fun.
I decided to give it a try with 52 texts in a year. It should be manageable for me but we will see. I will write in Polish and English. Some of those you will find on my blog, some in A~Zyn and Forged Zine, some in other zines, and some on Ostatnia Tawerna. Oh and part of those won’t get published anywhere.
I don’t limit myself to the form so in my challenge I will count convention reports, reviews, essays, Letters of Comments and more. Basically all of my fanwriting qualify for me. You may prefer to choose only reviews or only essays – that is fine.
The rules 52 Articles Challenge.
Let’s Look for 2025
In a year I would know whether I succeeded or not. I will let you know. I will keep posting on my socials about the progress. I am curious whether it will help me to write more. What I would consider a success would be – having fun and writing more than I used to. The first part is most crucial – I need to make sure it is fun for me.
Feel free to join me in the challenge, or observe the progress, or completely ignore the whole idea.