Next week, on Monday, I’m beginning a writing challenge, and I wanted to say a few words before I step into it. There’s always something slightly thrilling about the moment just before a project starts, that clean, unmarked stretch of time where anything still feels possible. The pages haven’t been written yet, but the shape of the work is already beginning to gather.

I like challenges for the same reason I like deadlines: they create form out of fog. Left entirely to my own devices, I can spend a great deal of time thinking about writing, talking about writing, and making elaborate plans for writing, all while the actual writing quietly waits in the corner. A challenge cuts through that. It says: now. Not later. Not when the mood is perfect. Now.

This one feels especially important because it gives me the chance to be intentional. I’m not just hoping to write more; I’m choosing to make room for the work and to treat that room as sacred. That means showing up even on the days when the ideas come grudgingly, or the sentences need more coaxing than I would like, or the page looks back at me with open suspicion. Those are often the very days when something worthwhile appears.

I’m also looking forward to the discipline of it. There is comfort, for me, in a structure that asks something definite. It doesn’t have to be severe to be useful. In fact, the best creative structures tend to be generous ones, frameworks that keep you moving without squeezing the life out of the work. I’m hoping this challenge will do exactly that: hold me steady while still leaving enough room for surprise.

Of course, I’m aware that beginning is the easy part and continuing is where the real conversation happens. It is one thing to declare an intention; it is another to keep it alive once the novelty has worn off and the writing must stand on its own two feet. But that, too, is part of the appeal. I want the challenge not only for what it might produce, but for the way it might sharpen my practice, clear my head, and remind me what kind of writer I am when I keep faith with the work.

So this is me, on the eve of it all, looking ahead with a mixture of excitement, nerves, and determination. I’m ready to begin, and curious to see what emerges once I do.

Details of the challenge and how it will work are in the video below and I would LOVE you to join in!