As I was going through my bookmarks folders and trying to rid them of the junk I’ve accumulated over the past year or five (I’m really bad at sorting through my bookmarks; it’s a problem), I discovered a link that led me to Debbie Ridpath Ohi’s blog. I’ve been here before, and I find her writing cartoons amusing (occasionally in that, “OMG, are we all really that neurotic?” kind of way, sometimes just cus they’re straight-up hilarious, like the one I’ve re-posted below), but today I discovered something I can definitely use. It’s called the 500 Words A Day Writing Challenge.

Writers love to procrasinate, fo’ shizzle‽ (comic by Debbie Ridpath Ohi and re-posted under the CC license)

Based on the NaNoWriMo concept of cranking out a certain number of words on your novel, per day, throughout the month of November, this writing challenge takes it once step further, asking you to write 500 words per day throughout the entire YEAR. Whoa! Since I’ve definitely been in need of a proper kick in the butt, when it comes to taking the “me-time” I need to actually work on my novel (as opposed to the millions of other things I’m working on, including blogs, articles for work, and my guidebook in progress), I thought I would add the button to my sidebar to remind myself.

And now that I’ve posted a blog about it, perhaps you, my good reader, will also hold me to it?

Just as an FYI: Debbie’s site also suggests the 1,000 Words A Day Writing Challenge, but since I’m just getting started with this, I figured I wouldn’t overwhelm myself straight out of the gate. 500 words a day is definitely doable, and if I find myself writing more and more as time goes by, this will help encourage me to stick with it. 1,000 words a day is a noble goal, but as a full-time professional writer, I don’t think I have it in me to do my day-job writing work AND 1,000 words of fiction every day. It may not sound draining to sit at a computer all day, tapping away, but it definitely can be. And besides, we all could use a break from keyboarding!

If you’re a writer and would like to play along at home, check out Debbie’s site, Inkygirl.com, for more inspiration, cartoons about the writing life, or to grab a badge for your website. And let me know how you’re doing! It’s always nice to have friends in the trenches.

P.S. For the TRULY CRAZY, there’s also a 10K Day for Writers coming up on August 13, brought to you by Milli Thornton. Can you write 10,000 words in one day? Take the challenge, face your fears, and find out!