JANUARY CHALLENGE: This Year I Will Write

WHEN: Mon.- Fri. for 2 weeks (Jan. 6-10, Jan. 13-17)

WHERE: Online Tutorial via Email

COST: RBWG* Members $50; Non-Members $75

* Registration is through the Rehoboth Beach Writers Guild. To register for the September Challenge, fill out the form below. If you’d like to Join the RBWG, Click here.

“I think there’s a real virtue to that secret period when you’re developing your work and no one has read it. To me that’s the best time. You’re in your own little world. No one is commenting on it (the work) or misunderstanding it or praising it.”
— Meghan O’ Rourke, MFA vs. NYC

Deadline to register: 1/3/25

submit The form above to receive a note back with further instructions.

Welcome to the group!

DETAILS FOR JANUARY 2025 CHALLENGE

Whenever I am writing, or more accurately, whenever I have written, I feel better and more at peace as a human being.  — Rich Moody

Once again — but with all new prompts — we will begin the new year by making writing a priority in our lives. For ten days (we’ll skip weekends), our challenge will be to write 500 words a day, starting 2025 with a whopping 5,000 words.
 
There are times when the most important thing we can do as writers is to get words on the page. Stop fussing, stop editing, stop agonizing over word choice. Just write. Create character sketches, describe landscapes, write a detailed outline of the entire memoir or story or essay or novel. Write the poem without line breaks. Make a list of scenes, then force yourself to pick one and dive in. It’s a fallacy to think you must have it all figured out in order to begin. You don’t.

Each morning, those who accept this challenge will get a short email offering inspiration, and a writing prompt (that there’s no obligation to use). 

Each night, participants will email Maribeth one thing: the number of words they wrote. There’s no critique or praise, no sharing of work, just a community of writers all vowing to make writing a priority at the start of this new year. 

About the Challenges: Offered three times a year (September, January, June) these two-week sessions challenge participants to write 500 words a day for ten days (weekends off). Monday through Friday for two weeks, Maribeth emails an early-morning writing prompt with a few words of inspiration to participants who must email her back by days’ end with the number of words they wrote that day. Participants can use the prompts or not. (Many use the challenges to work on novels or memoirs already in progress).

There is no review of the work—just the requirement to write 500 words a day and be accountable to Maribeth who will keep track of your word count.