The benefits of creative challenges

Creative challenges are really fun. Some of the most popular writing ones that spring to mind include NaNoWriMo and its cousin ScriptFrenzy. Then there's the NYC Midnight competitions... And the list goes on!

Blog memes have also been popular for a long time, and then there's other creative discipline challenges such as the Fat Mum Slim photo a day challenge.

Frankly, there are loads of challenges and competitions out there. But if you're not careful, you can spend all your time (and money if competitions have fees) working on challenges instead of working on your portfolio.

So why take part in them? What are the benefits?

Competitions:

• Prizes!
• Deadline discipline
• Generates new, quality, written content
• Can get you industry recognition if you place

Fun challenges:

• Fun!
• Helps improve skills
• Wakes up the creative brain each day
• Can encourage friendly and constructive criticism
• Encourages networking whilst sharing responses with others

If chosen wisely, competitions can be an excellent investment of your time and money. And as for challenges – they can really help exercise creative skills and inspire further work.

Over the past year or so, I've been developing some challenges for writers. First, there was #wordsaday, a monthly general writing prompt to inspire poetry, loglines and fiction. This was popular, but difficult to maintain if you were writing longer pieces.

Then there was the writer's photo a day challenge, #wpad, which has now evolved into a blog/pic response challenge. Think of it as a month-long blog meme, which will help give you valuable inspiration for your blog and social media content. Write as little or as much as you like!

The newest challenge is the #loglinechallenge, aimed at all writers with the intention of sparking daily story ideas. This fun challenge will only take a few minutes of your time each day, as loglines should only be a few sentences long, so it's an excellent way to flex those creative muscles.

What's more, is that by the end of the month you'll have a portfolio of new ideas to help inspire future projects. Why not give it a go? There's also a #loglinechallenge Facebook group where participants can share their loglines and promote their blogs.

Michelle Goode is a script reader, editor and writer who operates from her little online empire: www.writesofluid.com, where she compiles writing resources, writes her blog and offers her services. When she's not creating fictional worlds through scripts and prose or writing articles, she's helping strengthen the work of others or assessing scripts for production companies, competitions and initiatives. Follow her adventures on her Facebook writer page, Writesofluid page and on twitter: @Sofluid.