19 of the Best Writing Challenges to Help You Reach Your Goals

Creative writing challenges—events where you set a writing-related goal and race to reach it in the specified time—can be a massive boost to your motivation.

They help you beat procrastination by providing accountability and time pressure. They often have their own communities too, giving you the chance to socialize with other writers along the way.

There’s a wide variety of challenges out there, involving different goals, structures, and time frames. To help you narrow it down and find a good fit for you, here are our top picks.

Novel Writing Challenges

If you’re yearning to get a book draft written, these novel writing challenges could provide the support and motivation you need.

Novel November (NovNov)

Novel November is a free 30-day writing challenge, created by ProWritingAid and supported by well-known companies in the writing space, like Scrivener, ElevenReader, Lulu, and Wattpad. The goal is to write 50,000 words of a novel in (you guessed it) November.

You’ll be able to track your progress from your favorite writing app or the PWA website and earn badges as you go. Community spaces and regular cowriting sessions will give you the chance to join forces with other writers too.

You’ll also have access to advice from experts throughout the challenge, including bestselling authors like Madeline Miller, Rufi Thorpe, and Tomi Adeyemi.

Head over here to find out more and sign up. There are events and resources to help you prepare too.

The 60-Day Novel Writing Challenge

The 60-Day Novel Writing Challenge is hosted by Dabble, a book writing app. The idea is to spend October planning a novel and November writing it, with an ultimate goal of reaching 50,000 words.

There are weekly workshops and daily writing sprints, as well as resources on different aspects of writing. You can also get discounts for Dabble.

Write Fest

Write Fest is a free event on 4theWords, a writing app that turns writing into a game. It’s a 44-day challenge designed to help you finish the year with a fresh novel draft.

You can set your own goal and explore a magical world, defeat monsters, and earn in-game loot as you work toward it. There’s also a global community.

4theWords hosts other challenges and events throughout the year too.

The Rough Draft Challenge

The Rough Draft Challenge is a free challenge run by author and coach Sarra Cannon and involves setting your own target for a particular month. While it’s a good chance to get a first draft done, you’re free to work on any writing-related goal.

The challenge runs regularly. You can track your progress on the Rough Draft Challenge website and join the community on YouTube.

Rogue’s Amazing Word Rush (RAWR)

RAWR, hosted by the Rogue Writers community, is a free challenge that runs during October and November. Here, you don’t just pick your word count target but your time frame too: 30, 31, or 61 days.

Stay motivated by collecting badges. Become a member of the Rogue Writers community. Rr join in the conversation on social media with the #WRITERAWR hashtag.

Short Story Writing Challenges

Here are some fun writing challenges that focus on crafting short stories and flash fiction.

StoryADay

Unsurprisingly, the free StoryADay challenge is all about writing (and finishing) a short story every day during the monthlong challenge. It runs every May and often again in September.

Stories can be fiction or nonfiction and of any length. While it says “every day,” you can set your own rules and give yourself designated days off if you need to.

You can sign up for optional prompts and resources on the challenge’s website.

The Writer’s Games

The Writer’s Games, run by The Writer’s Workout nonprofit, is a free annual short story challenge taking place over 6 weeks.

There are six events, each challenging you to focus on two core fiction concepts. You have 72 hours to write your story for each event. You’ll receive feedback from the judges, and you have the chance of publication in the challenge anthology.

Flash Face Off

Flash Face Off is a free weekly flash fiction challenge from Writers’ HQ (which provides writing courses and resources). You receive a prompt every Friday and have until the following Thursday to write and submit a story of 500 words or fewer.

You can give and receive feedback and encouragement via the community forum as well.

7-Day Story Writing Challenges

The Globe Soup writing community runs free 7-Day Story Writing Challenges throughout the year.

You’ll be assigned to a genre group and given the challenge theme. From there, you’ll have seven days to write and submit your story. The organizers choose the best story from each genre group, and the best overall receives a cash prize.

There’s an optional Facebook group for community too.

NYC Midnight

NYC Midnight holds a range of paid challenges throughout the year.

Each competition has multiple rounds. You’ll be given several prompts (such as a genre, word, or character) and a limited window of time to write and submit your entry. Judges will then rank the entries and decide who progresses to the next round.

You’ll be given feedback and might be offered publication. There’s also a community forum.

Writing Battle

Writing Battle hosts regular paid writing challenges throughout the year. All you need to do is write a story from the prompts you’re dealt in the time frame provided.

You’ll receive feedback from other writers and/or professional judges and get the chance to provide feedback to others, depending on the challenge you join and how far you get. Your story could also be published.

There’s a forum where you can chat to other community members too.

Writing Challenges for Poetry and Nonfiction

Want to branch out from fiction? Here are some writing challenge ideas for poetry and nonfiction.

National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo)

NaPoWriMo involves attempting to write a poem a day during April, which is National Poetry Month. There are optional prompts, but you’re free to write what you like.

If you choose to share your work, you can add your site/blog to the participant roster on the challenge website.

April PAD (Poem a Day)

April is a busy month for poetry challenges, as PAD also takes place then. It’s hosted on the Writer’s Digest website, and there’s a fresh prompt each day.

If you feel like sharing or interacting with other participants, you can do so in the blog comments.

The Poetry Marathon

The Poetry Marathon is an intense annual challenge where the aim is to write a poem every hour for 24 hours. You can also choose to complete a 12-hour half-marathon.

You pick the length of each poem, and there are optional hourly prompts. You post your poems on the website, where you can also socialize with other participants.

Write Nonfiction in November (NonFiWriMo)

NonFiWriMo involves writing a piece of nonfiction during November. That could be a book, an essay, or an article, and there’s no set word count to aim for.

While the official challenge seems to be dormant, there are plenty of resources available via “Write Nonfiction Now!” so you could easily DIY your own.

Yearlong Creative Writing Challenges

You can use longer challenges to help you maintain momentum throughout the year.

Get Your Words Out (GYWO)

GYWO is a free challenge that involves setting a writing goal for the year, known as a pledge. You can choose either a word count or a time-based pledge.

The aim is to include any projects that contribute to your writing life, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, fanfic, and edits.

Registration takes place every January. All you have to do to remain part of the challenge is to report your progress via the monthly check-in forms. The community gathers on Dreamwidth Studios, and there’s a Discord server too.

WriYe

WriYe is another free yearlong challenge. You can pick a word count target that you want to achieve that year and decide for yourself which kinds of words count toward it.

You can sign up at any point and count all the words you’ve already written that year toward your goal. There are community forums and a Discord server for chatting.

12 Short Stories/12 Poems

Hosted by Deadlines for Writers, 12 Short Stories and 12 Poems are free monthly writing challenges that run all year.

The organizers send out fresh prompts each month, and you have until the deadline day to write your poem or your story. You then share it via the challenge website and comment on four other people’s work. 

Make Your Own Challenge

If none of the challenges on offer feels like the right fit, why not create your own solo challenge or team up with a few writer friends? All you need is a goal, a deadline, and some way to track your progress.

Word count tracking apps, like TrackBear and the Online Writing Log (OWL), let you create your own leaderboards or challenges. You can then invite friends to join you. And if you need some more structure to help inspire you, there are also frameworks and prompt lists out there specifically designed to help you run a self-paced challenge.

Conclusion: Challenge Yourself

Whether you’re looking for motivation to finish a novel, help to work on your short fiction, or something to keep you writing all year, one of these writing challenges could be ideal. Alternatively, there are lots of tools out there to help you build a custom challenge that works for you.