Participating in a 12-Day Writing Challenge Brought Huge Rewards
Little lessons had a profound affect on my perceptions about my writing.
This excerpt was taken from an essay I wrote in January 2022.
A few days before Christmas 2021, I received an email from author Julie Hedlund, who coordinates an annual ‘Twelve Days of Christmas for Writers’. According to her email, I received it because I’d participated in her program before. I believe this was the sixth (or seventh?) year she’s held this event.
To be truthful, I didn’t remember participating before. I may have and have just forgotten about it. Or a more likely scenario is that I signed up…but failed to participate throughout the entire twelve days.
Knowing that I’d neglected my writing over the past year or so, when I saw the carrot she dangled before me, I immediately signed up.
“We are going to dig in to our writing journeys, find the gems, and carry those forward into 2022.”
Day Four unearthed some of the biggest lessons for me. It was a three-part exercise that built on itself.
The first part was to list some challenges, failures, or disappointments from 2021. I chose three.
