May Challenge Review

Finally, back on track a bit with the challenges! May was all about filling up some notebooks with writing, and I aimed to fill two that were already partially filled, or had pages ripped out, so it was like one complete notebook. And I’ve enjoyed the challenge so much, I think I’m going to try to do it every month from now on!

Writing by hand was satisfying for a number of reasons. One, there wasn’t any distraction. I couldn’t be looking at word counts, or procrastinating on the internet, or worrying about whether the sentence I just wrote was perfect. I had to just write. And trying to complete pages was much more satisfying than trying to hit a word count – the tactile pleasure of turning to a fresh page and feeling the progress by watching yourself get closer to the end.

It also has the added benefit of using up my notebooks. I love notebooks, and I have many. Most of them have three or four pages written in in odd spots, and nothing else. I can’t justify buying new shiny ones because I have so many. I’m really looking forwards to getting through everything that I have so I can go out and buy a really nice notebook that I can get excited about writing in!

And though meeting the challenge for the deadline did involve a little bit of counting the pages towards the end of the month and working out how many I had to complete every day to make sure I hit it, for the most part, I got on with it without having to think about that. The pages filled quickly, and even when I knew I had to do five every day to ensure I finished up, it was easy to go over that and get carried away with scenes. There really wasn’t any chore to it, and that’s what I’ve loved most about this challenge!