Starting Off: TeachWritetober20 (W)Right

Several months ago I used this blog to put forward that I would be setting goals for #OLW and using the word LAUGH in my classroom. One of those goals was blogging about LAUGH once a month and just generally seeking more laughter in my day. It’s led me to be more open to letting things go, paying attention to the things that bring a smile to my face, and just generally have a more positive outlook.

And now it’s October and I decided that one blogging challenge wasn’t enough.

THE CHALLENGE

October 1st brings with it not only the Halloween season, but also the annual writing challenge: TeachWritetober. It’s a fairly simple challenge: commit to working on your writing in some way every day in October and complete a daily accountability tracker sent to us.

I participated in it last year and not only enjoyed the challenge of writing every day, but also the community and support I discovered in doing so. Unlike NaNoWriMo (which occurs in following month) there isn’t the pressure of having to complete any one project.

You just show up and write.

THE GOAL(S)

What does this have to do with my OLW goals? Well, in order to build some accountability for myself and to write with more intention — I thought it prudent to track my progress in a more public place: this blog. Here are the things I would like to accomplish while writing for #TeachWritetober20 and the 31 Day Writing Challenge for Teacher-Writers:

1. Write 15 minutes every day — This is a minimum requirement. During the school week this shouldn’t be a problem, since I try to write with students every day (three classes per day x five minutes per day = 15 minutes at least). The struggle here will be weekends, but if I am intentional with my time, I am confident I can carve out at least 15 minutes every day for a month.
2. Write 31 notes — Originally this was going to be a note a day, but some days it might be easier to write notes than others. So I decided that as long as I wrote 31 notes over the course of the month I would be good. These notes will mainly go to my fellow teachers and writers, but can also be for anyone I feel “needs it” this month.
3. Five Blog Entries — Technically this is going to be a blog per week (4.5 weeks in October). I foresee these mainly being blogs that focus on a weekly check-in and writing about my experiences with #TeachWritetober20 this year. I think it will be good to do a weekly reflection and, if I’m lucky, one of these blogs can serve double duty of being my October #OLW blog as well.
4. Write 4000 Words of Fiction — This is perhaps my most difficult and loftiest goal. I have not worked on my novel in quite some time. I got a burst of inspiration this past weekend and it occurred to me that this month could be my opportunity to “try again.” NaNoWriMo can be so intimidating trying to eek out 1337 words DAILY — but I think 1000 words per week is much more manageable.

In my notebook I have set up some pages to help keep track of these things over the week and you can watch this blog for weekly updates. I’m really excited to see where my work takes me over the next 31 days.