Today’s challenge is for me to declutter my writing. Oh, and this also includes cleaning up my work area.

Let’s tackle the latter part of the challenge first, shall we?

Crickets chirp.

More crickets chirp.

Still more crickets chirp.

How about I create a new directory (folder, for you Mac and Windows Vista/7/8 people*) on my computer to put my latest writing project files in and call it a day? Cool? Cool.

* Truth be told, I am one of those Windows Vista/7/8 people. But I grew up calling folders directories. Even Apple called them directories, back when ProDOS was AWESOME. It was, too. I’m not kidding. Actually, there is a subtle difference between a folder and a directory, but no need to quibble over minor details.

OK, back to decluttering my writing. The key lesson to be learned is to strip out, eradicate, and remove all the extraneous, unnecessary, nonessential, unneeded, pointless, superfluous words.

Methinks this may be a tough lesson for me to learn. NaNoWriMo is all about writing gobs of text with no editing allowed. Editing, which includes decluttering, is reserved later months. Nothing I’ve written for NaNo thus far is worth decluttering. Cannibalizing, yes. Decluttering, no.

Still, I will make an effort to work on this challenge in my everyday writing.

Today’s challenge is for me to share work others have done.

This is all about giving a lift to someone else by showing off what they have done. Oh, and this is done without telling them.

Granted, this may be the easiest challenge in the series to accomplish. But, it is still an important one. Every popular writer was at one time not so popular. Sharing helped change that.

There isn’t a single person I have read or read now who wasn’t shared to me somehow by someone else.

I am going to find someone’s work I have never shared with anyone before and post it in another entry tomorrow. It deserves a post of its own. And it is way past my bedtime. Yeah, I’m copping out, but I need my beauty sleep.

Whose work would you share and why? If you have written a post about it, feel free to share the link instead.

Today’s challenge is for me to connect with other writers.

In a way I am kind of surprised this is even a challenge. Software developers connect with each other all the time.

“Hey, how do you do this?”

“Did you see the cool new features in the new version of the IDE (integrated development environment)?”

“Try adding this. It should make your query run about four times faster.”

Somehow, it seems like we writers aren’t as eager to connect with each other. Maybe it is because our product is less flashy. Maybe it is a culture thing. Whatever it is, I will make more of an effort to connect with other writers. My blog’s like and follow list is a good place to start. (Thank you all!)

The guidelines of the challenge say there are three kinds of writers I should seek out: friends, fans, and patrons.

As a developer, I know how to find friends and fans. I am not so good finding patrons. The few of those that I have had along the way have come along more by their action than anything I did directly.

This could be my most difficult challenge yet.

Today’s challenge is for me to build.

Build. To form by combining parts, to develop according to a plan, to increase by adding gradually. Thanks, Wiktionary!

I look at that and I realize I am often not very good about building. I often don’t get to a finished form. I often have no particular process. I often increase my creation in spurts, when I feel like it.

Instead of the hare, I should be more like the tortoise. Measured, steady, ongoing progress, one step at a time. Reaching the final goal instead of burning out.

Today’s challenge is for me to start. Not just start, but start ugly.

Babies are so cute, you’d almost think they were made from unicorns and kittens. Maybe they are. I never saw The Film in fifth grade.

One thing I do know, babies sure know how to start ugly. Take eating, for example. Spaghetti with sauce. Need I say more? Or, how about coloring? That blue blob does have a striking resemblance to daddy. Learning how to write their own name. There are days I wonder if I ever did.

In all of these and more, we started ugly, took a look at the glorious mess we made, and tried again. Gradually, our tries got better and better.

I used to have spaghetti and sauce all over my face, clothes, table, wall. But now I can eat it without making a mess. I used to wear that green crayon down to a nub drawing the blob I called a tree. Now my drawings of trees actually look like trees. The scribblings that were my name, well… Let’s just call my signature an ongoing work in progress.

Writing for me is the same. I still start out with gobs of ugly text. But I refine and polish. I am slowly getting better. Three tries at trying to write a novel have shown me three ways it shouldn’t be done. I will try a different way come November, and learn more lessons as a result. I only need to start.

Today’s challenge is to steal.

Great, six days into this writing challenge, and I am to head toward the seamy side of life, fraught with danger and excitement. Well, so be it. The Joneses do have a rather nice, theater-sized TV hanging on their wall. It would look rather nice on my wall. It’ll be a challenge getting past their Rottweiler and security system, but those will add to the thrill. Best of all, the whole experience will make for a great story! If I’m caught, I’m sure claiming “research” will smooth everything over.

You didn’t buy one word of that, did you. Didn’t think so.

Instead, today’s challenge has me looking around to see what others have done, stealing their ideas, and reusing them in my own projects. The intent here is to break free of what software developers often call “not invented here.”

Sure, it’s nice to claim all the glory for oneself. But more often than not the bits and pieces ideas I have have already been thought of before. Rather than waste mental energy on trying to invent more new bits and pieces ideas, it makes more sense to figure out new ways of combining existing ideas.

Right now you are reading an example of ideas I borrowed from Jeff Goins and turned into something new. And what he wrote is an example of ideas he borrowed and turned into something new. And so on, and so on, and so on.

I never really thought much about it before, but when I am writing software I often look up short snippets of code that other people have written. It saves me time from solving a problem from scratch. But right away I mold the found code into my own style and create something new with it. I am also careful to make note of my sources, both because they deserve proper credit, and because I know who to refer to again.

So why don’t I do more of this when writing stories? Maybe I am not yet comfortable applying the same borrowing technique when the project is something other than software. This is a skill I will work on improving.

How about you?

Today’s challenge is to prepare.

Oh dear, this challenge hits closer to home than I expected. In short, working toward a goal is preparation toward the next step toward the goal, and anything else is procrastination.

Three and a half goals come to mind.

Three and a half?

Yes, three and a half. I suppose you have seven or eight. I’m just not that motivated at the moment. Revel in your superiority whilst you can! But enough about you…

Goal one

Let’s get the one about writing a 50,000- word story in a month out of the way first. A month or two ago I decided to make this year’s event different. Rather than flying by the seat of my pants each day, I wanted to have some idea of who my characters are, what happens to them, and what they plan to do in response. According to the generously loose rules of the game, all manner of preparation is allowed, but all actual writing needs to be done during the 30-day wordfest. Alas, one or two months after making the decision to prepare I have yet to do anything but procrastinate. Only twenty weeks to go, and quickly it will. I need to get cracking now!

Incidentally, I just sent in my registration form to be a returning Municipal Liaison for NaNo 2012. Basically, that means I am a participant encourager, gathering organizer, and party planner for a month. I guess that means I’m committed to this year’s event!

Goal two

The second goal commanding my attention is for me to finish my 6502 emulator. For those you baffled by what I just said, I am working on a program that duplicates the behavior of an actual computer. Geeky, I know. Done before? Yes, many times. So why? Can’t really say, other than it is something I have wanted to do for years.

Goal three

Complete a century (100-mile) bike ride event in six and a half hours, including time spent at rest stops. That would be a full two-hours faster than my all-time best last fall. I’ve got an actual road bike this year, which I can ride significantly faster than my old, heavy hybrid bike. Although I don’t do race events, it appears I am heading in that direction.

The half goal

This one I’m still debating, so I’m calling it half a goal. I can’t remember the name of the event, but it’s one of those messy obstacle course events. No, it’s not Tough Mudder.

So there you have it: my three and a half goals that I am preparing for, only one of which is related to the writing challenge. Go figure! What goals are you preparing for, writing or otherwise?

Today’s challenge is for me to practice writing. In public, without waiting for perfection.

Well, this would appear to fly in the face of NaNoWriMo’s safety net of “no one else gets to see” that I mentioned yesterday. But I say it does not. My readers (hey, that would be you–hi there!) don’t need to see the ugly mess that is my initial rougher than rough draft. And your readers don’t have to see yours. Let’s be nice to our readers and at least make a pass or three of edits. A mad dash of tossing things into the basement store room or stuffing them under the bed before the guests arrive in an hour. We can drag the items back out later if a later edit finds a way to put them back on display.

Now here is where I have a tendency to get hung up: editing until perfect. I’ve been writing software for over half my life, so you’d think I’d thoroughly understand that there is always one more bug, or one more feature that should be added. A product that ships with a few minor bugs or missing features is much better than a perfect product that never makes it to release. The more I write, the more I see much the same in my writing.

One thing I notice about today’s challenge is that by putting something out into the public eye, writing becomes a two-way process. Not only do my readers read what I have written, but they now have the opportunity to provide feedback.

Feedback is a good thing, even if it is negative. It tells me how close I am to hitting the target.

According to the terms of this challenge I need something to write. Besides my ramblings about the daily challenges. I have a couple ideas floating through my head. I need to pick one, write, and put it on display for all to see. Stay tuned; something is bound to show up.