I’ve never met a 30 day challenge I didn’t like. It all started many years ago with NaNoWriMo, when I wrote a 52,000 word first draft of a novel I would later be so ashamed of that I threw it in the trash. But the sense of achievement that came from this mini-marathon led me to participate in the novel-writing challenge 3 more times, two of which were abject failures. While I liked my final attempt, I realized that I hate writing, and I decided to focus on visual art full time.
One of the things the mavens of these 30 day challenges neglect to tell you is that as soon as you commit, your employer will immediately start asking you to do overtime. Still, you’ll persevere, scratching out mediocre scribblings as high school and college students set social media awash with epics churned out in their gobs of spare time. I’ve come to value the inevitable, low-stakes failures of participating in these challenges– that first full night of sleep after you realize you’re going to have a stroke if you don’t give up is sooooo wonderful.
This past Inktober I followed the Jake Parker sanctified prompts for the first time. The fast pace tends to shake one loose from their comfort zone eventually, and that happened a little quicker when I had to work around a theme I didn’t choose. I always learn a little more about myself as an artist when I do these, so I’ll never stop. Maybe when I retire and forget how much I hate writing I’ll try NaNoWriMO again and I’ll have time to smoke those junior college English majors at last.