Have you been staring at that writing project, but also putting it off? Or maybe you side-eye it every time you turn on your laptop.

I get that.

I know I have a notebook full of projects I haven’t started.

It can be hard to either start writing or even keep up good writing habits.

Well, sometimes you just need a good ol’ challenge to get (and keep!) you writing.

And I have just the thing to cure that procrastination!

Today I have a list of writing challenges throughout the year!

National Novel Writing Month isn’t the only time of year you can sit down and challenge yourself as a writer.

There are challenges for every month (except August, but you’ll see when you scroll down to that part).

With these Writing challenges, you don’t have to follow the rules exactly.

Wait, what?

But then what’s the point of the challenge?

Listen, it’s great if you want to challenge yourself, and maybe finally win NaNoWriMo.

However, sometimes you don’t have the space in your life to follow the “rules” exactly.

The rules aren’t even that strict, and the focus of these challenges should be writing more.

And if you find you can’t write every single day (maybe you need Sundays off), then take Sundays off and write 43,333 words instead.

If you have a project partially done (say, 25,000 words already written), and you want to finish it on NaNoWriMo: write the final 25k words during NaNoWriMo.

That’s still a lot of writing and is very impressive.

You know your life, and you know what you can and can’t handle.

Make adjustments that fit you.

And hey, if you know any other writing challenges that aren’t listed here, let me and others know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading, and happy writing!

January

National Journal Writing Month (NaJoWriMo)

Deadlines:

January 1st – January 31st

April 1st – April 30th

July 1st – July 31st

October 1st – October 31st

Goal:

Write a minimum of one journal entry per day throughout each/any month.

Rules:

They have three levels of participation:

1. “Beginner Level” – Write as much or as little as you want, you’re just trying to get into the habit of writing.
2. “Thematic Level” – The official website I have linked has themes available to follow each month.
3. “15,000 Words Challenge” – Exactly what it says, you write daily until your total word count is 15,000 words (about 500 words a day).

February

Flash Fiction February

Deadline:

February 1st – February 28/9th

Goal:

Write a piece of flash fiction every day of February.

Rules:

According to Masterclass.com, “There is no defined word count for flash fiction,” and can range from 6 to 1,000 words. There’s no genre or topic requirement.

February Album Writing Month (FAWM)

Deadline:

February 1st – February 28/9th

Goal:

Write 14 songs in 28 days.

Rules:

Write one song every other day of February, and no genre or topic requirement.

March

Writer’s March

Deadline:

March 1st – March 31st

Goal:

Write every day to finish your writing goal by the end of March.

Rules:

This challenge is supposed to be very flexible to what YOU want to accomplish.
Whether you write a novel, a short story, or poetry: spend every day writing to finish that goal.

April

National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo)

Deadline:

April 1st – 30th

Goal:

Write a poem for every day of April.

Rules:

There aren’t really any rules. Write whatever length or style of poetry for every day of April. The official website posts prompts throughout April, but they are not required to participate.

National Journal Writing Month (NaJoWriMo)

Deadlines:

January 1st – January 31st

April 1st – April 30th

July 1st – July 31st

October 1st – October 31st

Goal:

Write a minimum of one journal entry per day throughout each/any month.

Rules:

They have three levels of participation:

1. “Beginner Level” – Write as much or as little as you want, you’re just trying to get into the habit of writing.
2. “Thematic Level” – The official website I have linked has themes available to follow each month.
3. “15,000 Words Challenge” – Exactly what it says, you write daily until your total word count is 15,000 words (about 500 words a day).

Script Frenzy

Deadline:

April 1st – 30th

Goal:

Write a script during the month of April.

Rules:

Write one or more scripts with a total of 100 pages. It can be any type of script in any genre.

May

StoryADay

Deadline:

May 1st – May 31st

September 1st – September 30th

Goal:

Write a short story every day in May and September.

Rules:

Write a short story of any length every day of May and September. They can be fiction or nonfiction.

Academic Writing Month (AcWriMo)

Deadline:

May 1st – May 31st

November 1st – November 30th

Goal:

Complete your academic writing goals throughout the month of May and/or November.

Rules:

None! Other than completing your writing goals on any topic.

June

June Novel Writing Month (JuNoWriMo)

Deadline:

June 1st – June 30th

Goal:

Write 50,000 words throughout June.

Rules:

It’s like National Novel Writing Month, but it’s in June! The only rule really is to write 50,000 words (1,667 words a day) in June. No genre or topic requirement.

July

National Journal Writing Month (NaJoWriMo)

Deadlines:

January 1st – January 31st

April 1st – April 30th

July 1st – July 31st

October 1st – October 31st

Goal:

Write a minimum of one journal entry per day throughout each/any month.

Rules:

They have three levels of participation:

1. “Beginner Level” – Write as much or as little as you want, you’re just trying to get into the habit of writing.
2. “Thematic Level” – The official website I have linked has themes available to follow each month.
3. “15,000 Words Challenge” – Exactly what it says, you write daily until your total word count is 15,000 words (about 500 words a day).

August

30 Day Drabble Challenge (not specific to August)

To be honest, August isn’t an “official” drabble writing month. However, I couldn’t find any challenges for August.

But there is a really old 30-day drabble challenge that I found on Tumblr, and drabbles don’t have their own month anyway.

So I decided to stick it here.

‘Cause y’know what? Screw the rules, I can make the list however I want! And now you have an August option. Everybody wins!

Oh, and here’s an explanation of Drabbles if you need it.

Deadline:

None! This challenge isn’t specific to the month of August. BUT if you want to do it throughout August, just do one a day for all 31 days.

Goal:

Write a Drabble every day for a month.

Rules:

Write 30-31 drabbles (100 words each) throughout the month.

No genre requirements, but they do offer prompts here.

September

3 Day Novel

Deadline:

The U.S. and Canada’s Labor Day weekend! It always falls on the first Monday of September.

“The actual writing must begin no earlier than 12:01 a.m., on the Saturday of the Labour Day weekend, and must stop by 11:59 [pm] on the following Monday.”

Goal:

Write a novel in 3 days.

Rules:

No genre, subject, or length requirements. Although they do mention their average length for entries is about “100 typed pages, double-spaced.”

StoryADay

Deadline:

May 1st – May 31st

September 1st – September 30th

Goal:

Write a short story every day in May and September.

Rules:

Write a short story of any length every day of May and September. They can be fiction or nonfiction.

October

Blogtober

Deadline:

October 1st – October 31st

Goal:

Publish one post every day throughout October.

Rules:

No genre, subject, or length requirements! Just write a blog post every day.

National Journal Writing Month (NaJoWriMo)

Deadlines:

January 1st – January 31st

April 1st – April 30th

July 1st – July 31st

October 1st – October 31st

Goal:

Write a minimum of one journal entry per day throughout each/any month.

Rules:

They have three levels of participation:

1. “Beginner Level” – Write as much or as little as you want, you’re just trying to get into the habit of writing.
2. “Thematic Level” – The official website I have linked has themes available to follow each month.
3. “15,000 Words Challenge” – Exactly what it says, you write daily until your total word count is 15,000 words (about 500 words a day).

November

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

Deadline:

November 1st – November 30th

Goal:

Write 50,000 words (1,667 words a day) throughout the month of November.

Rules:

The only rule really is to write 50,000 words (1,667 words a day) in November. No genre or topic requirement.

Bonus:

Here’s a post on what to do with your 50,000 words after NaNoWriMo!

Academic Writing Month (AcWriMo)

Deadline:

May 1st – May 31st

November 1st – November 30th

Goal:

Complete your academic writing goals throughout the month of May and/or November.

Rules:

None! Other than completing your writing goals on any topic.

National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo)

Deadline:

November 1st – November 30th

Goal:

Post on your blog every day of November.

Rules:

None! Other than write 30 blog posts in 30 days. It can be any topic or length.

December:

Blogmas

Deadline:

I’ve seen two different “official” deadlines.
One is until the end of December, and one is up until Christmas. Choose whichever you prefer!

December 1st – December 31st

OR

December 1st – December 24th

Goal:

Write a blog post every day either throughout December or up until Christmas.

Rules:

They can be any length or topic, though I think people usually aim for a holiday theme. It doesn’t even need to be about solely Christmas, it can be about any holiday during the holiday season! Just as long as you post on your blog every day.

Bonus:

Alternatively, you can also do Vlogmas if you’re more interested in making videos than writing.

Vlogmas is the same concept as Blogmas. Only instead of writing a post every day, you record a video every day. It can just be a simple vlog of your daily life, or something more specific.

Whatever floats your boat!

Bonus

Itch.io Game Jams

If you prefer making games to channel your writing into, there are game jams going on basically year-round on Itch.io!

Different game jams vary in genre and topics, so you have your pick of game development challenges!

If you don’t know what a game jam is, here is the Wikipedia article on the subject.