If you know me at all, you know how much I love The Writer’s Workout. It’s a non-profit website/community with a TON of resources for, you guessed it, WRITERS! They kind of have it all. Blogs, how-to videos, workshops, links, events, open-calls, and more. I’ve made some of the best writing friends and produced some of my best work by being an active member of their community.
So, every year (for the last nine years) they have had this amazing event for writers. It’s called The Writer’s Games. It’s this free competition designed to help each individual writer improve his or her craft at an accelerated rate. And by accelerated, I mean like 72 hours. Yeah, I know… But you can do it. I promise. Plus, every accepted entry receives honest, unbiased feedback from multiple sources. YES. Real, live, feedback with actionable items to improve your stories.
What’s the catch? No catch. It’s free. You just have to commit to participating for 5 weeks. Each Friday you receive the prompt and 72 hours later you have to submit what you have. This is #flashfiction and #shortstory writing at its finest, because you have no time to doubt yourself or your work. You hit send and let out a sigh of relief and laugh with joy. At the end of the competition, the top five stories from each category are posted and published in a book
Last year, I was fortunate enough to have placed in the top five and my short story, Obsessed with Watching the Nobodies was published in 72 Hours of Insanity the Games, Volume 10. (Go download it free on your Kindle, I know you want to read it).
Let me tell you, the games are not easy, this event will push you to your breaking point– crafting, writing, revising, editing, maybe a bit of crying, and finally hitting send. Then doing it all over again for five straight weeks, it literally is INSANE!!
However, the technique taught me a lot about myself, my abilities, my style and how to push far beyond what I thought I could do as a writer.
Fun Fact! Several of my stories from last year's event have been chosen for publication at other outlets after I followed the detailed revision document provided by the team at The Writer’s Workout.
Without further ado, go, leave, head over and join the games. Because becoming a better writer takes more than just practice. It takes finding that special group of people who want to see you succeed, like people who host a crazy five-week program to push you to your limit and places you never knew your writing could go.
You'll love it, I promise.
xo
S.E. Reed