by Carolee Sherwood and Jill Crammond Wickham
When you were a kid and another kid said, “I dare you,” your brain went into overdrive about the task, something you weren’t sure if you should do or could do, but certainly wouldn’t do under any other circumstances. Kiss a boy on the lips. Jump naked into a snowbank. Eat a mud pie. The (in)advisability of these acts was unimportant. What mattered was guts! What mattered was glory! You were tempted! You were exhilarated! But you were wavering.
Then came one of the hardest adolescent challenges to resist: the double-dog dare. If you had any pride at all and another kid said, “I double-dog dare you,” your fate was sealed. You would do The Thing. The Anything. You would do it with the world watching, and you would be victorious. You would have a reputation as a badass. No matter what. And, perhaps even of more value, you would see yourself differently. You would be the one who wasn’t afraid. And that meant something to you.
You could also wind up the one with cooties on her lips, the one with hypothermia and the one with a mouthful of dirt. Rising to a challenge is not without risk.
Poetry Mini-Challenges are like this. Take a wild act. (Write three poems or seven poems or 30.) Intensify it. (Write one each day.) Make it public. (Be accountable! Defend your honor!) But poetry challenges are better because you have company. Other people are suffering right along with you. You know, suffering in a good way, as in “suffering for his art.”
How we got here
A few years ago, we tried National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) together. Jill got to about day 10 and searched for some poetry to put into her novel-in-progress, and Carolee wrote paragraph after paragraph in search of a more lyrical way to tell a story. We both realized that novel-writing was interrupting our poetry-writing. We were poets, not novelists.
Then along came National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo). We were amazed — not with how easy it became to write a poem every day, but with how a new idea was born every day. Wow! If you sit down to write it, it will come. It was true! Six months later, we spent all of October writing a poem each day. And six months after that, we were back at it with NaPoWriMo again.
In the “dare” analogy, NaNoWriMo and NaPoWriMo represent the triple-dog dare. In “real life,” it’s not always possible to be so obsessed or so compulsive. Still, we knew we thrived inside some sort of compression, and we began teaming up to meet smaller goals, double-dog dares — mini-challenges, if you will. They help us put dry periods behind us. Neither of us believes in writer’s block, but we do know that sometimes it’s hard to write.
Lucky for us, we have (in each other) an awesome writing buddy who sets goals and sends us off and running. (Take that, selfish muse!) Lucky for all of us, we have an awesome writing community here at Read Write Poem that can do the same thing.
What we’re going to do
The good news is that none of the Poetry Mini-Challenges will kill you (unlike, perhaps, contracting cooties, getting hypothermia and ingesting soil of questionable origin). On the other hand, not writing feels a little like death. Your choice is clear!
We’ll create mini-challenges related to writing poetry, reading poetry or firming up your writing process, and we’ll post them as often as Read Write Poem dares to let us out of the barn. You’ll work through the challenge on your blog and keep us updated with links and notes in the comments section of the current challenge. And, of course, you’ll zip around to your fellow Read Write Poem members and offer your encouragement (and egg them on as necessary).
Our first mini-challenge
Research synonyms for “unearth” or “dig” or “cull.” Pick one you like. It will be the title of your series.
Now, with the images conjured by your series title swirling in your mind, go through your notebook and find a subject for a poem. If you don’t keep a notebook, sift through any book or paper or magazine, preferably something in print. Digging is a physical act.
Do this every day for three days, starting today. You will end up with three poems that may (or may not) be related to one another or to the matter of uncovering something, but they will be three poems you didn’t have before. And you shall be known henceforth as the one who is not afraid!
Update: You can leave your comments, progress notes, poems, links to the mini-challenge work you are doing on your site and words of encouragement in the comments of this post. Or (if you are a member), you can leave them at the Poetry Mini-Challenge group, located here.
Carolee Sherwood is a painter, mixed-media artist and poet. This moody mother of three boys shares her writing at her site, Carolee Sherwood, and is a senior contributor and columnist for Read Write Poem.
Jill Crammond Wickham has discovered that the frantic pace of motherhood has driven her to write more, not less. Jill writes at Mom Trying to Write and is a senior contributor and columnist for Read Write Poem.
Bring it!
Inspiring. I can taste that dirt already.
yum
Awesome! I’m in.
Cool!
One question from the lackwit in the back row: do you want us to link to our poems each day? Or save them up and publish them all in one go on the third day?
I’m not quite sure when “today” is. (I’m reading this at 11.08 pm 4th August, New Zealand time, but I’m guessing it got posted not very long ago).
I’ll sleep on it, if I do it it will have to be the 5th to the 7th
hi, everyone!
and catherine, i think we’re flexible. pick three days ASAP and work on the challenge. we left “today” in there as a start so that people wouldn’t feel like they could put it off.
“technically” you have until the next challenge. “technically” you have the rest of your life.
but the comments will probably be most active the first week or so, i’m guessing.
I love flexible! Actually, as an INFJ, I detest flexible but am trying to embrace it.
Car and Jill, someone tried to set up a subblog because they thought that was where we wanted their poems and progress reports updated. I explained that we are not rolling out the subblog feature yet. But! Do you all want to have people working in this post and on their own blogs exclusively? Do yo want to set up a group where people can talk and post work, too? Or is that spreading things out in too many places? It’s your call. I just wanted to pose the question …
Catherine, it always freaks me out that you are in the future.
Once the forums start working again, I’ll create a group/forum thing. I’ll make the first topic “journal digging #1″ and we can post our progress there on the first poem. I’ll also make a journal digging #2 and journal digging #3. I think that will help us see how many people languish after the first one. Don’t let it be you!
If people have blogs, I think they should post there and then give us the link at the forum (when it goes up). If people don’t have blogs, I think they can paste their work into the forum thread.
Sarah — There are no stupid questions.
We’re figuring out what works as we figure out what works. I think we should post poems as we write them. No need to wait for the set. That way = more chance for people to support you, egg you on!
OK, kids. The group is set up. “Poetry mini-challenges.” We’re looking for a graphic: ideas?
And I’ll set up the forums as soon as the issues there are resolved.
So, those who sign up for a membership can access the group Carolee created. Anyone can leave a comment here, with or without a membership.
(Another reason to get a membership — so you can open the magic door to extra poetry fun. Whee!)
Ooh, I think I’m gonna love this mini-challenge! I do NaPo twice a year–the official one in April and the unofficial one in November because I can’t write novels ’cause we’re poets!!
I’m always digging stuff in life no matter where I am, so this will be fun!
Sign me up!
I don’t have a blog.Can I join this group?I’m also living in the future.I wonder if there are more poets living in the future than in the
present but from our perspective you are actually living in the past!
Rallentanda, don’t think I don’t know it! Even living on the West Coast gives me that living-in-the-past feeling. The stock market closes some days before I’ve even gotten out of bed. It’s like the rest of the world is doing all the work for those of us out here. We just hold onto the world’s coattails.
The group is open to all members, so you can join for sure.
Kathy, I do NaPo twice a year, too! In fact — Read Write Poem came to be when I started the Read Write Poem group in November 2007, back when NaBloPoMo set up shop on the Ning network. The functionality on Ning (although poorly executed — blech) was a huge inspiration for the new Read Write Poem you see before you.
Oh, and if you trace this group back to its NaBloPoMo group, you will see that I blogged for a while under the name Ceridwen. One of my many online alter egos.
I started writing a poem every day on April 1 and never stopped! Day 126 today and about 130 poems. Thanks for getting me started.
I set up a secret blog a couple years ago just to force myself to get words down daily. But I haven’t kept it up. No longer a secret, I am looking forward to being taunted into continuing!
Great idea for writing, Jill and Carolee — I’ll give it a try!
Dana, that’s interesting. I didn’t know RWP started over at NaBloPoMo. I used to be on NaBloPoMo myself, but I’ve abandoned it for so long now… Errr, I get kinda busy and somewhat ADHD with too many sites to keep track of!! lol
I loooovvvveeee this mini challenge. I am starting an art journal page distinctly for the words I “dug up” today… just finished the background… let me tell you, there are so many images bubbling up I need to calm them down before I head out to my rehearsal… which I am looking forward to ending so that I can get to my poem. Look what you have done to me, Mini-Challenge-Triple-Dog-Dare!!!
Got my first poem. Uh….?
I selected my word. That’s as far as I have gotten. Rough day, today.
Hi Dana, I haven’t gotten even as far as you yet, I managed to post a review of a book launch on my blog and upload an avatar.
Now I am staying up way too late because that’s what I do when I am tired. I really need to go to bed now.
I’m not sure whether I’m going to try this tomorrow or head into town and watch strange creatures with antlers and black faces. I think I want to put them in a poem (It’s the Arts festival).
Maybe I’ll wait for the weekend. Or the next prompt.
hi, everyone!
I’ve started three forums (“journal digging #1, #2 & #3″) under “general discussion” so that we can get started sharing our work. Here’s a link to the first one: journal digging #1. You should be able to find them all easily from there.
Normally, they would be linked to our group name “Poetry mini -challenge” but for now that’s not working.
So, let’s get started. As soon as you have your first poem, visit the first forum and share!
dana was able to put our forums under the heading “poetry mini-challenge” — so click on the forum tab and you can get to “journal digging” in two places:
1) under “latest discussions”
2) under “forums for RWP groups” (we’re toward the bottom of the page)
the forums are functional and we have a poem posted already! the only problem is that you can’t get to the forum from the group page, but it’s easy to walk around it using the forum tab.
i’m off to get writing. my own journal digging is calling me.
i can’t seem to get registered, so I’ll post this here for now, if that’s all right?
it’s my first poem in the series!
http://improbableenjoyment.blogspot.com/2009/08/exhume-day-one-ex.html
Andre Tan replied:
August 5th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Rachel, if you’re having trouble with the activation email, be sure to check if it somehow managed to meander into your spam folder.
i have been watching the spam folder, so, i don’t know what went wrong but i suppose i will try again as soon as it lets me reregister the same email.
…interesting!
I believe I’m going to really enjoy this place!
and as i am still not joined up, here is day 2 for anybody who’s watching.
http://improbableenjoyment.blogspot.com/2009/08/exhume-day-two-piano.html
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[...] the first ReadWritePoem Mini-Challenge, three poems in three days, my series is entitled [...]
[...] groups of words, that is. I think only the first one will end up a poem.) Seeing as I started this challenge two days late, three poems in one day is [...]
I decided a little late to take part in this challenge. I declared myself this morning here , and my first poem is ‘The king of Atlantis’. I’ll come back and post my other poems, as well, on the off chance people still check older threads.
My second poem in the series was “A mountain blocked my path”.
[...] on to Read Write Poem recently or if you missed the other challenges, you’re welcome to visit the original post for [...]
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Iam ready tell me what I have to do.
I don’t mind eating a little dirt.
Pam
hi, pamela! the next mini-challenge is coming soon, and it will have all the instructions you’ll need. it’s always a daily writing task (for a set period of time), and it’s always a lot of fun. to get ready: get your rest. eat your wheaties.
[...] on to Read Write Poem recently or if you missed the other challenges, you’re welcome to visit the original post for background. Here’s the short [...]
Ok, I am ready. I know exactly what I am going to submit for day #1. It is a true life experience.
Pam
[...] on to Read Write Poem recently or if you missed the other challenges, you’re welcome to visit the original post for background. Here’s the short version: A mini-challenge is a poetry-writing, poetry-reading [...]
[...] on to Read Write Poem recently or if you missed the other challenges, you’re welcome to visit the original post for background. Here’s the short [...]