Challenges you've delivered on.

[lovecraft68]

Not Lit sponsored contest challenges and not author events. Not even writing exercises.

I'm talking about a challenge that's more personal. Could be something you pushed yourself to do or maybe something another author threw the glove down on, even if indirectly-as in their discussing something and you get the 'I could do better' thought and decide to act on it- More like a perceived challenge. Could even be something spurred on by a reader comment.

A friend of mine-RIP cancer sucks- used to call these an "Oh, really?" moment. My wife does the "Cute you think that." remark.

Have you accepted these real or not so real writing dares? Do you feel you delivered? You want to share what it was? Bask in your own glory for a hot minute here in the forum?

Again, this could be as simple as being dared to write in a category you have no interest in. Hitting a top list, getting a better score than a detractor (keep the other person's name off the post, this is a gloat thread not meant to be a firefight.) just something where you showed up and showed out on a "Bet you can't" moment, even if it's with yourself.

 

[lovecraft68]

Going first, and as an example.

Going back over ten years ago, we had a stretch where for a long stretch I/T stories couldn't place in contests. Why? Not sure, I always think the large number of votes and disparity in sweeps may have been part of it, but as always, many theories.

A very popular author here-who left some time ago- had some good hits in I/T but three times in a row had an I/T story that was in the winning until last minute then bumped off. I had this happen to me in the same contests. He told me in an e-mail he was done entering in I/T and entered in other categories and pulled off a couple of placings. For an unrelated reason things went south between us and he made this crack I kept entering I/T stories because it's all I could do. My reply was that not if, but when, I placed with one it would mean more because I wouldn't quit and run.

Next contest I entered with I/T but he'd inspired me to take it more seriously, I looked at the past few contests where I/T kept getting the raw deal and noticed a few things. It would take a certain style of story to win with various factors. I trashed the story I was going to submit and wrote something from scratch. I then e-mailed them and said, "I'll accept my congratulations in the contest thread at the end." I finished second. First I/T to place in a while and what's interesting for the tin hat type is after that they began placing regularly again. Rarely first, but second and third often enough.

I never got my congratulations.

Main point is I never took it that seriously until someone who pissed me off gave me the reason to sit back and analyze and deliver on the results. Challenge met, middle finger given.

 

[lovecraft68]

Different side of things. I used to chat with a reader here and we bickered a bit about how I ended one of my stories. I told them, hey if you can do better, let's see it. Write or be an armchair QB.

Month later they sent me a link to their first story with the message "Thank you for the encouragement and fuck you."

They went on a long run here with a sea of red and a couple of HOF stories and contest placers before health issues and real-life bullshit eventually caused him to stop.

Side note, on his first story I commented anon that I didn't care for the ending. He sent an e-mail saying, "I know that's you; you prick!"

I think things like that have kept me here all these years

 

[THBGato]

No.

But also, seriously, doing something because somebody dared you to? What, are you twelve? Even Marty McFly worked out this wasn't a good idea (eventually).

Now, doing something to proove to yourself, that I understand...

But no, I haven't and I wouldn't. One of the things I especially like about writing is it needn't be competitive. I'm not as good a writer as, say, redgarters, but the readers don't have to choose between us. We're not football teams. Readers can read both of our stories and enjoy both. I just don't get the mentality of trying to 'compete' with other writers or prove something to them. Especially on here, where we are all anonymous.

But each to their own I guess: I suppose we all have to find our motivation to write somewhere.

 

[NotWise]

My challenges have all been personal. Just writing here at all was a challenge.

With Her Dream House I challenged myself to write a story with anonymous protagonists. While writing it, I also decided to pile on a couple other challenges: scrap all dialog tags, and write some passages in first person present tense. It worked.

More recently, with Escape from Cimarron I challenged myself to write a swashbuckler. I'd never seen anything like that on Lit, and I wanted to do it. It wasn't as successful.

 

[Omenainen]

Side note, on his first story I commented anon that I didn't care for the ending. He sent an e-mail saying, "I know that's you; you prick!"

I think that’s pretty funny!

I dare you to send me the flak you promised but didn’t deliver

 

[RejectReality]

This whole pen name was a challenge to see what I could accomplish without the name recognition of my established pen names. Kept it secret from basically everybody but Laurel for a few years. Think it worked out okay. LOL

Lot of other silly things. Some complete, some not. Working on every category. Working on every letter of the alphabet with titles. Taking title ideas ( A Sale Of Two Titties, One Whore's Town, Hooters, Hung by the Chimney, etc. ) or cover mock-ups ( Jerk, Classic Ride, Taste the Rainbow, Inher-Tit-Ance, etc. ) and finding the story that belonged to them.

 

[Erozetta]

My husband challenged me to write a soft and fluffy romance, so I did. Missed Connections: New Orleans was the result. No trauma for the characters, no sadness, no major issues, just a couple of strangers on a train who make the best of an awkward situation.

He loved it. It was the first story I posted here and the first I had edited by a.volunteer editor here. The editor's name was Snowbear (which is why I contacted him and was glad I did, he did a phenomenal job.) and he ended up asking if he could share the story with his wife, I said of course.

My husband has said multiple times he'd like to see me turn that one into a full fledged novel, but I don't wanna. I did it as a challenge to myself, pulled it off, and am happy with where it is, but I got nothing out of writing it and was bored by the time I finished it. I don't remember the numbers off hand, but it had like a 4.87 or so on a couple hundred votes and like 20+ comments, most of which were expressing how the reader happy cried at the ending and being surprised it was my first story.

I'm happy with it, and I do occasionally write simple HEA stories without delving into trauma or real life troubles, but they aren't my favorites as they don't really interest me because there's nothing deeper to explore within the characters.

 

[lovecraft68]

No.

But also, seriously, doing something because somebody dared you to? What, are you twelve? Even Marty McFly worked out this wasn't a good idea (eventually).

Now, doing something to proove to yourself, that I understand...

But no, I haven't and I wouldn't. One of the things I especially like about writing is it needn't be competitive. I'm not as good a writer as, say, redgarters, but the readers don't have to choose between us. We're not football teams. Readers can read both of our stories and enjoy both. I just don't get the mentality of trying to 'compete' with other writers or prove something to them. Especially on here, where we are all anonymous.

But each to their own I guess: I suppose we all have to find our motivation to write somewhere.

Like you say, to each their own.

We all have different motivations to achieve what we want. It was a long challenge for me to start writing after giving up for years. Took finding someone who believed in me. I spent a year or so here writing and happy with what I've done then I came here and found all new motivation in the form of-then anyway-group of pretentious twits who thought they were the shit, which is fine, everyone needs some swag. But some liked to denigrate and put down, so I found a whole new and fun way to be motivated and that was pissing them off by excelling here.

As for a dare? is the word challenge really that different? People put up writing challenges here. Going to take them up on it? Its not seen in the same light because its not direct, but a competition is a dare. People enter all manner of tournaments to compete with one another, they accepted the dare.

Being 12? Again, matter of opinion. To me being twelve is when a woman here makes a flirty or sexual remark and 75% of the men here line up to reply in kind and act like Beavis and Butthead. That's being 12. Wanting to take someone up on a challenge/dare/prove it is human nature. Now, whether people want to admit they see it that way is another story.

I like lit stories as in the stories behind stories. Things that made someone decide "Hell, yeah, I can write that. Fuck you, you don't think I can get to the fav lists." I like to hear things like that. Picking up a glove and smacking someone with it.

I've thought of this topic for a while, and no offense meant-okay, maybe a little, to people here, but this forum has no edge. Creative types are odd breeds, and because we get scoffed at by the "yeah, who are you to write, paint, play music etc" type you need thick skin and an edge. You need some "Oh, yeah? Hold my beer, bitch." I don't see that here, but because I don't doesn't mean some people feel that way, so here's the opening to say "Know what, I wrote that as a pure middle finger to..."
Not promoting people to be rude or combative, but way back when, a lot of posters had more of that, "Yeah, that's nice, now watch this." and its normal and healthy to want to do a little 'in your face'. Sometimes people took it too seriously and got butthurt, but for the most part, it could often kick someone who was struggling to find that gear and get going.

Or we can just stick to people endlessly pimping their story links and threads and doing passive aggressive bragging while trying to not look like they're bragging and hoping someone else will fawn over them. Bragging, to me, is fine, crow away, trying to pretend you're not, but doing it is weak sauce as that old saying goes.

I suppose in a sense this thread is a little bit of a challenge in itself. But no one needs to respond if they don't want to.

 

[iwatchus]

I have said this before, but my whole 5 1/2 months writing have been one personal challenge after another. I think it is how I work.

Could I submit a story at all. That was the hardest one. It was almost a decade between creating an account and actually submitting.
Keeping up writing.
Write in multiple categories -- about to submit for my tenth category.
In my 100 day milestone post, I publicly challenged myself to write a good story and shocked myself by doing it with my next story. The only good one I have written, in my judgement.
Write a novel. My 120K novel came out earlier this week.

I have three challenges I am working towards now:

Learn to write better. I think I am a reasonable storyteller at this point. Not great, but I think that is yay strength. But my wordsmithing is barely adequate in my mind. There are several writers on the site who use their words beautifully. Their words float and flitter, mine trudge through the mud. I have a plan I am working on to try to improve there.

Too many of my stories are okay (in my mind). I want to get the quality of my typical new story to improve. I probably need more self discipline than anything else.

Learn to be a useful beta reader and develop a range of authors I respect who trust my opinion enough to find me useful. I am starting to beta read, but I am not convinced I am all that useful yet.

 

[lovecraft68]

I think that’s pretty funny!

I dare you to send me the flak you promised but didn’t deliver

Yes, I owe you something. I've been working on it here and there, trying to keep it reasonable and not a snarkfest.

 

[lovecraft68]

This whole pen name was a challenge to see what I could accomplish without the name recognition of my established pen names. Kept it secret from basically everybody but Laurel for a few years. Think it worked out okay. LOL

Lot of other silly things. Some complete, some not. Working on every category. Working on every letter of the alphabet with titles. Taking title ideas ( A Sale Of Two Titties, One Whore's Town, Hooters, Hung by the Chimney, etc. ) or cover mock-ups ( Jerk, Classic Ride, Taste the Rainbow, Inher-Tit-Ance, etc. ) and finding the story that belonged to them.

I think the Survivor Challenge was great for pushing people, but of course someone had to ruin it by abusing it.

 

[dirk2024]

This is sort of minor in comparison, but when I first considered putting pen to paper here, I thought I would only be writing in the Erotic Coupling category and perhaps in Taboo. I read someone here talking about the benefit of exploring the other categories, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I now have one in T/I, one complete in BDSM, just finished a Romance (for the Summertime contest) and a Mind Control story. I have one WIP that was going to be a four story series, but now I'm considering making it a novella.

It does seem to help me with my view on my characters as I write.

 

[lovecraft68]

I have said this before, but my whole 5 1/2 months writing have been one personal challenge after another. I think it is how I work.

Could I submit a story at all. That was the hardest one. It was almost a decade between creating an account and actually submitting.
Keeping up writing.
Write in multiple categories -- about to submit for my tenth category.
In my 100 day milestone post, I publicly challenged myself to write a good story and shocked myself by doing it with my next story. The only good one I have written, in my judgement.
Write a novel. My 120K novel came out earlier this week.

I have three challenges I am working towards now:

Learn to write better. I think I am a reasonable storyteller at this point. Not great, but I think that is yay strength. But my wordsmithing is barely adequate in my mind. There are several writers on the site who use their words beautifully. Their words float and flitter, mine trudge through the mud. I have a plan I am working on to try to improve there.

Too many of my stories are okay (in my mind). I want to get the quality of my typical new story to improve. I probably need more self discipline than anything else.

Learn to be a useful beta reader and develop a range of authors I respect who trust my opinion enough to find me useful. I am starting to beta read, but I am not convinced I am all that useful yet.

This is exactly what I'm talking about!

For lack of a better explanation, I tend to get bored if I don't have the "next' thing so I used a lot of things to keep me going, usually with someone else in mind through something they said or did or how they acted. These days, I've become more self indulgent and writing some things that are a bit off the wall in being hybrid stories or stories that take popular tropes and crap on them a bit. Guess now I see the challenge as experimenting with some off the wall ideas.

 

[lovecraft68]

This is sort of minor in comparison, but when I first considered putting pen to paper here, I thought I would only be writing in the Erotic Coupling category and perhaps in Taboo. I read someone here talking about the benefit of exploring the other categories, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I now have one in T/I, one complete in BDSM, just finished a Romance (for the Summertime contest) and a Mind Control story. I have one WIP that was going to be a four story series, but now I'm considering making it a novella.

It does seem to help me with my view on my characters as I write.

You should check into the unofficial survivor category. No prize and not run by the site, but its based on points for how many cats you write in and number of stories etc. You sound like someone who could get into it.

 

[dirk2024]

You should check into the unofficial survivor category. No prize and not run by the site, but its based on points for how many cats you write in and number of stories etc. You sound like someone who could get into it.

Thanks!

 

[NuclearFairy]

I haven't had a "hold my beer" moment, I think my biggest challenge might be my foot fetish piece though. It's a fetish that I understand, since I find them elegant and quite enjoy having my feet played with, but it's not exactly a fetish that I have. So I've been trying to get into it from the other side and try to understand it as I write it. I thought I'd be done with it last week, but not yet.

 

[lovecraft68]

I haven't had a "hold my beer" moment, I think my biggest challenge might be my foot fetish piece though. It's a fetish that I understand, since I find them elegant and quite enjoy having my feet played with, but it's not exactly a fetish that I have. So I've been trying to get into it from the other side and try to understand it as I write it. I thought I'd be done with it last week, but not yet.

If you have any questions, I have a damn near debilitating foot fetish, written a few for sale, but I think only one here.

 

[Rob_Royale]

So when I started writing, non-con was at the top of my I'm-not-going-there list. For obvious reasons.
Then, on this forum, someone started talking about rape fantasies. I was rather amazed that it was a thing, frankly, and had to put the query to my wife. She assured me it was very much a thing and suggested I write one.

So I challenged myself to writing a husband/wife rape fantasy where the husband makes his wife's group rape fantasy come true, but without bringing another man into the situation.

The Ravishment of Melody is rated well, has 30k views and I've received feedback from women with this particular fantasy, that claim I nailed it. It's the only story my wife has read of mine and she loved it too.
But it does ride the hairy edge of acceptability because it does use real fear at the onset of the situation, so it's not for everyone, as my comments have made clear.

 

[Lifestyle66]

Challenge?

This past Memorial Day at the end of May (in the U.S. a day to remember those who served and died in war), I started writing a story based on the memory of one old friend. It grew as other old friends' memories intruded, until it was 16K words. Then I felt compelled/challenged to do more than my usual "shitty writing".

'They deserved more than that.'

I decided to feed it to an AI for a review as I was approaching what I considered my 90% complete draft. BUT I was told that although it was unique, it was basically "Crap, with no redeeming value!"

WoW! That, from a relatively friendly AI reviewer!

After about 12 to 14 [MAJOR} revisions, I finally posted the final story (now 25K words).

I feel better for the final result. But I wish I could have done even better in memory of "those gone but not forgotten."