Hats off to all my friends who are participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)! Short-term challenges with well-defined boundaries and specific goals, such as NaNoWriMo, are excellent ways to renew motivation and get back into the flow of writing. One of the requirements of flow—of getting so caught up in an activity that we lose ourselves in it and time stands still—is that the activity has built-in, ongoing feedback. We can assess our progress along the way. This is why well-designed video games are so addictive: they continually let us know what we need to do to level up, and they reward us when we reach even small milestones.
I’m not doing NaNoWriMo this year, but I do feel the need for a new challenge, something to shake up my routine and push me in different directions.
My personal answer is iPadWriMo. For the rest of this month, I will post here daily, with each post being written on my iPad 2, which I enjoy immensely but want to become more adept at using. Right now I’m using the free WordPress app, but I’m seriously thinking of using I just spent $4.99 of what is left on an iTunes gift card to get Blogsy, so tomorrow’s post will be written with Blogsy, and I’ll offer a comparison.
What kinds of fun challenges do you set for yourself to stay motivated?
*She now nervously presses Publish and hopes for the best!*
I’m participating in Picture Book Idea Month – PiBoIdMo this month. It’s a great way to think about ideas for stories and begin drafting them. Do you type with the iPad keyboard or an external one? I will be interested to read about your progress.
Stacy, I hadn’t heard of PiBoIdMo! It sounds like a great idea.
I’m using an external keyboard (Apple wireless), and I really like the feel of it. I just need to figure out more of the shortcuts.
I figure I had better reply to comments using the iPad, too (iPad 2?). 🙂