#creative challenges

“Genre is a marketing tool, just like a book cover.” – Mur Lafferty In this episode of Ditch Diggers, Mur and Ursula rant about genre expectations, marketing, and what happens when you decide that genre isn’t for you because you’re special.  Ursula lists her whales, and Imposter Syndrome doesn’t really make a showing when Mur travels.  Highlights: – (05:12) Ursula’s anxiety over multiple…

Welcome to Horrible Bingos' Summer/Winter 2024 This or That Mini Challenge!

The purpose of this mini challenge is to offer some dark seasonal prompts to any creatives out there!

This prompt card will be running between the moment of its publication and until September 20th, with a new card coming up for the Fall/Spring season by then!

You can pick one column and stick to it, the one that fits your own season or not; you can also do both columns if you have the chance (please, don't overwork yourself!), or cherry pick prompts according to what you like. You can do Summer's column all the way down and then switch and do "Folk Horror" instead of "Survival" for all you want! You can also interpret the prompts in any way you want, even stray away from Horror or Speculative fiction, except of course for the final two prompts, which are much more straightforward.

All fandoms and original works are welcome, same with pairings, alternate universes, and other content. All I will ask of you is to tag and warn accordingly: you may keep general au/tone/trope tags as vague as you wish, but please add warnings either before the text or in tags, even if it's only in the name of courtesy.

All that matters is that you can find something to get you creating, whether that's a written work, a little sketch, or even a mood board or playlist! Do an essay if you want!

There are no official minimums or maximums, but I can give some recommendations: min. 100 words for writing; min. a clean pencil sketch for art; min. 3 songs for a playlist; min. 3 images for a mood board; min. 1 picture for edits. Also, prompts can be combined freely. If you wish to use all of Winter's prompts in a single short story, go on ahead!

Tag the blog in any of your creations if you want me to reblog your post!

I forget how the saying goes exactly. Good is the enemy of great? Done? Something like that.

For me good is just the enemy. And I’m facing off with it a lot recently.

I’m doing a challenge where I write a short story a week for a year. It’s a scary challenge, but something I have the time and ability to handle.

But wow is Good coming after me. I thought I’d made my peace with nothing I write or make every being good enough. I’ve been doing pretty well at finishing things anyway.

Something about this is making the old Not Good Enough mantra in my head stand up and start yelling though. I can’t be casual about my work right now, otherwise Good with freeze me up completely. I’m getting through it, and working out some ways to get past Good, and have fun with my art but it’s definitely a battle.

I’m also becoming more aware of how Good is stalking us all. I hear it’s echoes in creatives all around me, asking how to get ideas, how to start, how to finish, how to get themselves to create. How to be GOOD.

Goblin Week 2019 starts tomorrow, 20th January.

goblinweek.tumblr.com

Witchsona Week 2019 starts on Monday, 21st January

31 Days 31 Plays

This is an annual creative challenge to write 31 plays (of at least 1 page each) in the month of August. Official website: 31plays31days.com

ArtSlam

This is an art challenge running every year from June 1st to August 31st. You can take part in one, two, or three months. What? Draw something every day to a topic you chose yourself. Where, how to take part: Sign up at Livejournal or Dreamwidth. There is a Tumblr, too.

August AdiPOSE

This is an art challenge running annually from August 1st to 31st What's the challenge? Draw fat people, ideally one per day Where/How to take part: Post anywhere, using the tag “AugustAdiPOSE”

Fawngust

This is an art challenge running annually from August 1st to 31st What's the challende? Draw fawns and other forest animals, ideally one per day Where/How to take part: Post anywhere, using the tag “fawngust”

Smaugust

This is an art challenge running annually from August 1st to 31st What's the challende? Draw dragons, ideally one per day Where/How to take part: Post anywhere, using the tag “smaugust”

Monthly challenges

Deviantart Colour Schemes Challenge

This is a monthly art challenge. In a community on DeviantArt, a colour palette is posted, and you have time until the end of the month to create an image using that palette. More information at www.deviantart.com/colour-schemes

EMG Sketch Fest

This is a roughly monthly art jam running in 24 Aug at 12:00 to 26 Aug at 12:00 Alaskan time. There is a focus on fantasy themes. What's the deal? You can leave prompts for other people to use, and/or draw sketches based on other people's prompts. You may not spend more than 1 hour per sketch. (Finishing it later is cool, though.) Where, how to take part: Sign up on the official website, www.ellenmilliongraphics.com/sketchfest/

WritingChallenge.org

This is a writing challenge running each month. What's the challenge? Write at least 500 words each day. Where, how to take part: Post on Twitter with the monthly changing tag, and insert your progress in a communal spreadsheet. More info at writingchallenge.org

Weekly challenges

Illustration Friday

This is an art challenge running weekly. What? Create an image based on the weekly theme posted on the official website on Friday Where, how to take part: Post the image to your own gallery, submit a link at illustrationfriday.com

Thimbleful Thursday

This is a weekly flash fiction writing challenge. What's the challenge? Every Thursday an idiom and a target wordcount is posted for people to write a piece of flash fiction. Where, how to take part: Prompts are posted at thimblefulthursday.wordpress.com, and posting links to your prompt fills in the comments there is appreciated.