First 15 Days of PAD Challenge

I’ve made it over half way through the PAD (Poem a Day) Challenge (Poetic Asides with Robert Lee Brewer on the Writer’s Digest website) and challenge, it is. Great way to celebrate National Poetry Month, though.

Sounded simple enough when I saw it, too late, last year. (Last year would have been a wash anyway)

The challenge was to write a poem a day using the prompts Brewer provided, post it in the comments for each given day. Simple enough. The rewards-your poetry might get read by others in the challenge, might get published in the eBook, if you submit for every prompt (30)you get a completion certificate and a badge to place on your blog or website.

All good enough rewards, but the real reward is just doing. I’ve done several NanoWriMo challenges over the years and loved the way it pushed, stretched my writing and put a fire under my feet. This challenge did the same. Of course, I approached the whole thing the same, too. The goal in my mind was quantity as much as quality, maybe, more so. I let the challenge push me to just write the poem, worry about editing and working and polishing later.

Oh, I worried over the poem, rewrote and studied, researched, made it the best I could for one day, then I moved on. I felt I had to, to keep up with the real challenge. Write a poem a day.

These first fifteen days have surprised and exhilarated me. Those pressures—to get a poem down, polish it the best I can, then move on, got my head in the right place, first of all. Then, the challenge stretched my thinking, my writing, my output. I couldn’t believe what has been set free.

Some of the prompts have made me smile, some have made me groaning. I write anyway. (My motto) Nothing better than that. I write anyway because to meet this challenge that is all that is required—Get a poem down.

Another great benefit is reading all the other poems, seeing the talent out there, feeling a part of a community.

I am so glad I took this challenge. I hope I hold on to the feelings it’s stirred up, too. I plan to take the challenge every year I can, too.

There are a few things I’d do different next year. Simple things to prepare. I’d take better notes during the year and I’d stockpile words. I do this often with my writing any way, but more so with my poetry. I make word lists-finding words in catalogs, magazines, and newspapers and putting them in a file to be ‘used’ later.

I recommend the PAD challenge to any writer. There is still time to do it this year. Check it out at- http://www.writersdigest.com/article/poem-a-day/