Impromptu: A Creative Writing Challenge

I’ve always been terrified of sharing my creative writing.

Though I’ve been writing stories and poetry since I was eight years old, I never actually let anyone read what I wrote until a couple years ago. Fiction writing was my first creative love—it’s how I got through some very tough times in my childhood. Like with most creative passions, the more something means to us, the easier it is for perfectionism and imposter syndrome to convince us that no one else will like it.

In 2021, some work friends and I started a writing group. It was the first time that I shared my writing with anyone besides my older sister. Through their feedback and encouragement, I started to gain confidence around showing my work to other people.

This challenge is an extension of that.

When I turned 30 this June, I said that I wanted this decade to be about doing everything that I was too scared to do in my 20s. So I’m challenging myself to do just that—to share my writing here, with you, even if it’s messy and imperfect.

For each week of my 31st year around the sun, I’m doing a new creative writing prompt. I’ve collected a list of over 150 options to chose from, some fiction and some poetry.

Every Monday, I’ll use a random number generator to pick a prompt for the week. The spontaneity of the choice is important. I’ve found that adding an element of randomness forces my brain to come up with unexpected ideas and helps me counter writer’s block. It’s also exciting to not know what the prompt will be ahead of time and then see where my mind takes me. I like to use prompts to write new scenes in continuation of longer story projects; the unexpected nature allows the story to develop in ways that I couldn’t have anticipated before.

My goal is to write for 10 minutes each week—just 10 minute of creative writing. That may not seem like a lot, but I’ve found that small, achievable goals are easier to maintain. I often write closer to 1-2 hours, but this baseline goal means that I can still complete the challenge even if my baby is fussy or life gets busy for a week.

I’ll then share my response here on Substack the following weekend. They may be completed stories or they may be fragments that I’ll chose to revise and build on later. Perfection is not the goal—building a sustainable writing habit and getting comfortable putting my words in front of other people is the goal.

You can find a list of all the prompts and my responses here. I’ll also be sharing a sneak peek of the new prompt on Monday to all Girl With Antlers readers via our community chat.

My responses will be posted the following Saturday or Sunday morning. I’d love to hear your feedback to them, so please be sure to leave a comment telling me what you thought ♡

I know firsthand the benefit of having other writers you trust to share your work with. If you’re a writer and looking for some creative community, I’d love to have you join in the challenge with me!

To participate:

• Visit the community chat on Mondays to see the prompt for the week. You’ll need to subscribe to Girl With Antlers in order to see it.

• Write for at least 10 minutes in response to the prompt. You’re of course welcome to write for longer!

• Share your response by 12pm the following Sunday. If you’re not comfortable posting your work publicly, you’re welcome to share a link to it, or just a line or two, in the chat. Be sure to also tell us what went well or what challenged you.

• Remember that none of these prompts is meant to be a box—you can adjust them as needed to suit whatever style of writing you like (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, etc).

• If you’re not feeling inspired by a prompt one week and want to work on something else, that’s ok! Let your inspiration guide you. The purpose of this challenge is just to help build a weekly writing habit.

Thank you so much for reading and supporting this project. I look forward to sharing more stories with you!