EXERCISE: The Dare to Be Bad Challenge

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting 21 August 1993, reposted 26 August 2008

I've been going over old postings, and one of the pieces from long ago struck me as still useful. So - here it is.

Original Posting: Sat, 21 Aug 1993 18:00:06 JST

The Dare to Be Bad Challenge (thanks to Ken for the good words)

The Dare to be Bad challenge is a writing strategy designed to help beginners get published. It requires that you write a new story every week, and send them all out to magazines. When they come back, send them out again. And again, and again. In the meantime, keep writing.

The reason it's called Dare to be Bad is that some weeks your writing is going to be pretty awful, and you have to dare yourself to finish it, and mail it out, anyway.

Note that we aren't talking about spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors here. You must prepare your manuscript to the best of your ability each week; you just have to be willing to live with the fact that you aren't going to be writing Hugo-winning fiction for quite a while.

The original group of writers who started the Dare (among them is Kris Rusch, the editor of F&SF) claim that every person who has followed the Dare for over two years has become published. No exceptions.

Kousen's Corollary to the Dare to be Bad challenge: If you do decide to participate, for gosh sakes don't tell any other writers about it, except those already in the Dare. Otherwise you'll waste all your time defending yourself, and still be accused of being a "hack."

Go for it!

Comments

EXERCISE: The Dare to Be Bad Challenge

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

No question about it -- if you take this as a rationale for submitting trash, than you aren't playing the game very well. On the other hand, if you take this as a challenge to send out ONE submission every week -- to keep from holding on to it for just one more round of polishing, one more check -- and to keep sending them out, every time they come back (cause they will) while writing one more, one more, one more -- well, that's how you get the practice and recognition.

It's a challenge. I'd be happier if they called it the "One a week"
challenge or something, but I certainly understand the need to convince yourself to send it. And sometimes that inner critic that is yelling "It's bad" needs to be nailed in the barrel while you go ahead and send it out. Kind of surprising what people really notice when you take that plunge.

Your choice, of course. I think this was mostly aimed at convincing themselves to go ahead and do it, even if they thought they were bad.

How would you label it and describe it? "The Weekly" challenge? How do you get yourself to put the stories together, finish, send them out, and keep sending them out? I think "Dare to be bad" focuses on getting past that "finish" step where many of us tend to get stuck. Do what you can in one week -- and send it. Give yourself a time limit to finish it and send it.