Thursday, April 30, 2015

Notes on the 2015 PAD Challenge


I can't believe today is the last day of April and consequently, the last day of Robert Lee Brewer's 2015 PAD Challenge. I thought I would reflect on doing the challenge since it has been my major writing project this month. This topic also fits with this week's Wordsmith Studio 3rd Anniversary Blog Hop so I am killing two birds with one post.

This has been my most successful PAD challenge as far as consistency and number of poems completed. As I'm writing this, I have posted 26 poems for the challenge. I expect to complete the poem for Day 30 so that will give me 27. I missed doing a few when I was on vacation last week. I still have time to catch up. I may but it's OK if I don't.

Here are a few of the things that worked to my benefit:

  1. I looked forward to the prompt each day. I made a habit of looking at it early in the day and writing it down [Note: I do my first drafts with pencil and paper]. 
  2. No drama after reading the prompt. No cursing, screaming, crying, wailing or hitting my head against the desk. Maybe a few deep breaths, which I consider drama prevention, and a "You can do this" or two.
  3. I was patient. If I didn't have an idea right away, I didn't panic. I'd write down ideas, play with words even write down a few lines until I had something I wanted to work with. When I completed a piece, I didn't hurry to post it.
  4. I was flexible. Because I didn't hurry to post, I continued to make revisions. Sometimes another  idea came to me during the day and I ended up with a completely different poem.
  5. I let myself enjoy the challenge and its challenges.

I established some good habits this month, and I hope to keep the momentum going. Time for another challenge!

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4 comments:

  1. So glad to hear about your experience, Michelle. I think my biggest "process" change during this year's PAD challenge is that I often found myself writing a completely silly first draft as a way of getting comfortable with the prompt. Rather than driving myself crazy trying to write a "real" poem right off the bat, I just wrote something ridiculous, got the "oh no, how am I going to write this one?" out of the way, and then settled down to write something more meaningful. I'm really glad to hear that you've also had "prompt-block" on occasion, although it sounds like you've found a saner way of dealing with it!

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    1. I think you have a great method, Patrick. I often start by playing with words. I write a few words that the prompt triggers then switch to words that rhyme or are opposites of those. I can't say I've intended to write a silly poem, but I know I've written many. Thanks for stopping by.

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  2. 27 new poems! Hope you keep your momentum and creativity going!

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  3. Thanks, Elizabeth. As Robert points out, the majority are first drafts so I have plenty of revising ahead of me. I'm most excited about how much I enjoyed participating this year. Thanks for stopping by.

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