This year I took part in Inktober. It’s a drawing challenge, where you are given one word every day in October as a prompt to draw a picture.

I had a lot of fun doing the challenge. I started to get interested in drawing in a way that I’ve always wanted to, but never thought I had the talent or commitment for. Inktober has shown me that I have the commitment, and the creativity. And drawing something every day has helped me learn what I like to draw, and what I want to learn. That’s a great starting point for developing a skill.

The other thing I’ve taken from this is that it doesn’t matter if it’s “good” or not. Nobody is judging this except me. There are drawings I’m proud of. There are drawings I was a little disappointed with. But they all count. And if I didn’t do the rubbish drawings, I wouldn’t have got as far as the good ones, and I wouldn’t have completed this challenge.

Things I’ve learned

• Humour and concept matter a lot more to me than realism or detail.
• I can complete a challenge that lasts a whole month.
• I don’t have to be a perfectionist.

Next up: NaNoWriMo

For a few years, I’ve been spending a lot of time recording ideas and starting first drafts of short stories and even a couple of novels. I’ve got into a bit of world-building for one, and I’m really excited by the idea. But writing a novel is daunting. So I’m trying to hone my writing skills a bit by writing shorter fiction, and I even used a couple of Inktober prompts as short story prompts. Check out my stories on this site.

Funnily enough, NaNoWriMo follows Inktober. It’s a similar challenge, helping people to get writing by really focusing on it in November. The original challenge was to write 50,000 words - a full novel. That feels like a lot. Over 1,600 words a day. But it has evolved to encourage you to set your own goals, and that’s my plan.

Inktober has shown me that I can commit to something for fun, and see it through. And writing fiction is something I’ve really wanted to do for a long time, and have enjoyed when I’ve got into it. But for various reasons I’ve found it hard to actually finish anything.

So in November, I plan to write and share two short stories. I’m going to spend a few minutes writing every day, and build the habit, as I did with Inktober. I have no idea how much I’ll be able to write but this feels like a good starting point.

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