Lately, it seems to me that every blogger I have followed for several years has turned to creating writing challenges of one sort or another. Whether to challenge themselves or to simply and genuinely challenge others, or even to try to combat periods of writer’s block, the challenges are growing. Maybe I should start a challenge or two for all to share. And I have the perfect place in mind…

Several years ago, WordPress granted me a site that allows writing collaboration. Although it started out with five or six beginning and intermediate writers, it only lasted a few weeks before I pulled out of it for security reasons. Not WP’s security, but the security protocols on my devices whose Kaspersky security appeared to have been breached. That was a long time ago, and Kaspersky has fixed its problem. However, I never got back to maintaining that site. The site would be perfect to host writing (and art) challenges and allow communication among authors and artists. 

Enough history. A weekly challenge seems most appropriate to me. Since this weekend is a holiday one for Americans, maybe the “due date” for this one should be in two weeks. That’s Monday, September 12, 2016. It’s fine to post earlier, even multiple times. 

I have two quotes that I thought might be of interest to both writers of prose and writers of poetry, as well as photographers and other artists. Let’s limit poetry to 50 lines, and stories to 1200 words–give or take. Share only one work per “part,” but feel free to The quote or passage does not need to appear in your work unless you want it to. If you share an original photo or piece of art, please limit yourself to one photo or artwork per challenge “part.” Also, please include the words–phrase or quote–that inspired it as part of your post.  

For now, please leave a link to your work in the comments for this post. That is, post it to your blog and leave a link to it here. (I never know if I am making sense…). You may wish to post a comment with your link that relates to the linked work. 

 Quote 1 is actually just a partial line that I found particularly interesting. I am not sure what book it came from, but it’s one I have read during the past few weeks. 

— freaks, friends, fools, and failures—

Quote 2 is longer, and comes from a YouTube video I saw months ago. It seems to me I linked to it from National Geographic, but it could have been from the Smithsonian or an ecology-related site. Yeah, I know. I have a weird range of interests.

What is so amazing is that…the rivers changed in response to the wolves. … So the wolves, small in number, transformed not just the ecosystem of the Yellowstone National Park–this huge area of land–but also the physical geography.

Once I investigate that old site a bit more (it may take several discussions with the WP techies), we’ll start working from there. That is, if there is enough interest to keep DrEllie’s challenges going.

Meanwhile, feel free to share ideas, quotes, phrases, etc. that you would like to see for the next challenge. Leaving the selection(s) up to me might become trite after a while. After all, my strengths do not lie in creativity… 😉

Enjoy!

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