Your Best 2021 Writing Experience

Posted by David Duhr in ABCs of Writing      23 comments

Feb
19

Discussion question: What was your best 2021 writing experience? That one particular day when every word was the right word? That time the walls came down and you wrote your way through a problem that had been nagging at you for months or years? Or when your writing and the environment in which you wrote combined to form a memorable experience? Let us hear about it in the comments.

After taking a look back at our 2021 reading experiences, this week let’s get to the good stuff.

I want to hear about your best 2021 writing experience. Not necessarily the best thing you wrote (although if that’s what you want to talk about, go for it!), but your most memorable writing moment or writing session: An obstacle overcome; an achievement gained or a goal hit; that time you wrote on a beach in Mexico or while perched on the rim of the Grand Canyon.

When you think about your writing life in 2021, what sticks out?

I didn’t get as much writing done as I wanted to last year. Hopefully you don’t feel the same. (About yourself, I mean; about me, I hope you agree. Because I need a kick in the ass.) Still, I had some memorable experiences. I recall the day I learned that writing out of sequence may work well for me; the day I published this fun post about Northern Exposure and process vs. product on Writers Helping Writers.

But my best 2021 writing experience was probably the day I wrote furiously, and terribly, to hit a random and totally optional deadline.

One April morning I stumbled across a short story contest judged by one of my favorite writers, Stuart Dybek. The rules allowed two submissions for the price of one, with each story capped at 1,000 words.

The deadline? Five p.m. of the day I discovered the contest.

Immediately I thought of a particular story I liked that, even when I wrote it, reminded me of (a pale imitation of) Dybek. It was ~1,250 words, though, so I’d have to do some shaping.

And write a second story. Because nothing else I had was close to being contest-worthy, and whenever I consider the idea of passing up a two-for-one deal, I can hear the sound of my dad spinning in his grave.

So I shoveled the dust off my little blue notebook, grabbed my favorite mechanical pencil and my favorite backup mechanical pencil, and walked over to a nearby park. And by “park” I mean this little square where a string of benches surround a defunct running track about a tenth of a mile long.

Only two other benches were occupied. At one, an old man snoozed while his German shepherd secured the perimeter. At the other, a woman shot heroin. Meanwhile, I frantically scribbled a whole bunch of nonsense in a patch of sun that felt great after the long winter. It had been years since I last wrote on deadline, even a weird self-imposed/optional one, and I’d forgotten how invigorating it can be, like cramming all night for an exam.

When I finished an incredibly absurd and awful draft, I rushed home, transcribed it, quickly edited the existing story, and submitted ’em both.

And that was my best 2021 writing experience.

Now it’s your turn! What was your best 2021 writing experience? Tell me about it in the comments below.

WriteByNight is a writers’ service dedicated to helping you reach your creative potential. We work with writers of all experience levels working in all genres. Browse our book coaching, manuscript consultation, and publication assistance services, and sign up for your free writing consultation today.

WriteByNight writing coach and co-founder David Duhr is fiction editor at the Texas Observer and co-host of the Yak Babies podcast, and has written about books for the Dallas Morning News, Electric Literature, Publishing Perspectives, and others.