The 30-Day Writing Challenge: Begin or Enhance Your Daily Writing Habit

by Sara Crawford

The 30-Day Writing Challenge encourages beginner and advanced writers alike to stretch their writing muscles and create or enhance a daily writing habit. Each day, a new writing exercise/prompt is presented in an inventive collection that focuses on technique, inspiration, and craft by taking a comprehensive look across multiple forms and genres of writing.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

95 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 6, 2014

About the author

Sara Crawford is an author, a playwright, and a musician. Ever since she was five years old, she has lived for art in one form or another. This manifested itself as writing plays at age eight and convincing (forcing) the neighborhood kids to perform them on her driveway, auditioning for Atlanta Ballet's The Nutcracker three years in a row before finally landing a small role as a toy soldier, starting an all-girl band in high school, writing and producing her own plays and short films, and most recently, writing a YA trilogy about a girl who falls in love with her Muse (THE MUSE CHRONICLES). Sara has been an actress, a singer, a playwright, a songwriter, a guitarist, a keyboard player, a poet, a screenwriter, and an author of both fiction and non-fiction.

She graduated in 2008 from Kennesaw State University with a B.A. in English and in 2012 from the University of New Orleans with an M.F.A. in Creative Writing (emphasis in Playwriting). She has taught creative writing courses for Southern New Hampshire University, and she has been in numerous bands in Atlanta, including Pocket the Moon. She also loves to talk about books, music, and writing on her YouTube channel. For more information visit http://saracrawford.net or https://www.youtube.com/user/saracraw....

Reviews

[Anastasija · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great writing challenge. I really appreciate the gradual flow. Each day's challenge had a nice and short intro and detailed instructions on how to do it. I will be doing this challenge more than once. 😊

[Just Josie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neat and straightforward.
Many different challenges from poems to screenplay to “write an ending.”

Read: 08/04/2022
1st rating: 3.5 stars
Cover: 2 stars
Will I recommend: For fun, yes.

[Crystal Otto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book Review – 30 Day Writing Challenge by Sara Crawford
Review by Crystal J. Casavant-Otto

The 30-day Writing Challenge claims to help readers begin or enhance their daily writing habit. Whether you are a writer, blogger, or journaler this book is for you! Author Sara Crawford encourages and inspires writers of all skill levels by challenging us to ‘stretch our writing muscles’ and create a daily writing habit. The daily writing exercises and prompts focus on technique, inspiration and craft while covering the different genres of writing.

Crawford does an excellent job being real with readers. I fell in love with her book after reading the following paragraph:
I would like to acknowledge that in my own writing, I constantly do the things that I say you shouldn’t do. I am far from perfect. Every writer has room to grow and improve, and I include myself in that. However, I strive to be a better writer each and every day, and I live by
these rules, principles, and ideas in my own creative life.

I really admire someone who can be themselves and I felt encouraged instead of judged after reading this small tidbit. It made it much easier to move forward with the exercises and I felt like Crawford understood me. I missed a day here or there but feel this is the type of book I can pick up again and again. This isn’t something you do once and forget about.

In many ways The 30 Day Writing Challenge reminds me of a diet. Sure, I can lose weight quickly, but if I don’t continue with good eating habits, the weight is going to creep back on. If I want to be successful, I need to stick with it, even after the initial success. Similarly, if I use The 30 Day Writing Challenge to get on track and then set it aside instead of faithfully writing and practicing my craft, I am going to falter.

Thank you Sara Crawford for providing a fun and encouraging book to help build successful writing habits. The 30 Day Writing Challenge is a great book for anyone who enjoys writing, blogging, or journaling!

[Lillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful in breaking out of your comfort zone

Sara exposes is to a wide variety of writing genres and styles. By attempting each of the exercises we learn what we can do and what we are comfortable with. Love the quote that states that writing is the only acceptable form of schizophrenia out there.

[Michael Grenier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for beginners and professionals

My first thought was, this is going to be another how to book.
I was pleasantly surprised by the way the author set up each challenge.
This book is an excellent approach for writers to finely tune their craft.
Highly recommend and a great recipe for success.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for someone looking to develop a daily writing habit. Also great for anyone who wants to write but has trouble coming up with ideas or inspiration.

Would definitely recommend this book for anyone still trying to find their groove when it comes to writing.

[Cathy Carol]

Reading not much new but...

Very real presentation of what I've read before.

Enough to have me realize I didn't take to heart when I read or heard the words the first time which is a plus for me who has read every word I found on writing a novel. Thank you, Ms. Crawford!

[Angeline Gallant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some Great Ideas

If you ever have writer's block or are just getting started as an author, this is the book for you.

[J. Dorner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book that was fast and easy to read. It offered up a lot of good ideas. I was especially impressed with the introduction. The author points out that just making an effort to write daily is the main point, not necessarily to finish this book in exactly 30 days.

There are fun writing exercises for each day. The suggested website (https://writingexercises.co.uk/random...) has sadly gone down. (These things happen. Writers can't spend their lives tracking down every website they've ever mentioned.)

Most of the ideas would only take a few minutes, but some would require large chunks of time. The cover is okay. The title makes sense. I learned a few new ideas on what to write. A worthwhile read.

[Rick Yagodich · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is nothing new in this mini-book; no insights or suggestions that haven't been bandied about countless times by others. Nor is there any meat on the bones presented, only tired suggestions that lack substance; there is no frame of reference against which to assess the exercises. (This would be like an exercise to "write something humorous," without supplying an audience to laught – or not – at the joke.)

For someone who has never put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, the exercises might provide an inkling of what there is to learn. But beyond that, it's a rather bland and shallow offering.

[Samantha comer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it

I especially loved the fact that above each new prompt was a famous quote or saying from a famous author since it was about creative writing I thought that suited the book title fantastically would highly recommend this author and I am currently hoping she has more free books since I am currently homeless and in between jobs the free options is fantastic as well.

[Emma Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed working through this book. The challenges were varied and included some mediums I hadn't tried before. I was forced to think about writing in different ways and its been an interesting experience. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to push themselves to write daily (or at least regularly).

[Tara Brabazon · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are many '30 day writing challenge' books. This book offers a solid intervention in the worries, fears and perfectionism of potential or emerging writers. Really, the best advice is to 'just write.' Get on with it.

Sara Crawford offers 30 structured exercises that relax the prospective writer into writing.

Nothing complex. But there are effective exercises here.

[Jennifer Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great

I didn’t really use this as it was intended. I didn’t sit down and go through all the exercises; I just read it, to use as a kind of guideline. I will definitely take what I’ve read here and put it into practice; I feel like there was a lot of good advice here.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives you some good, stimulating ideas whether you have writer's block or just starting out. I found it hard to do everyday since some assignments took longer than others, or you would have to make special arrangements for some. Otherwise, a good book to get you writing.

[Jorja Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

a great guide

As an author who sometimes gets stuck, I found many of these exercises to be ingenious. I also recommended it to others who are struggling to begin. Nicely done!
Jorja Rae (independent author)

[Tara Callahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great ideas for creative writing

If you're stuck on writing and need something to jumpstart your creative juices this book is for you. This is the book for you. Great ideas to do daily exercises to get your story written.

[Olivia Gaines, Romance Author · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of the challenges come from works of poetry or screen plays which require the user to write an ending. Can work well to break you out of writers block.

[Kiki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was good and it is one I would read again. I think the exercises were okay, and ones I wouldn’t normally use because they weren’t really for the type of writing I write (survival stories). I give this book 4 stars. I really liked this book.

2014-Summer-Reading-Review

[Jeanette · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been trying to keep up with the blog but fell behind. Can't wait to read it all.