October #WriteFit & #OctoWriMo Challenges + Signed Book Giveaway!

It's October! A new month, time for a new challenge, or in this case, two. Read below for more info on the October #WriteFit Challenge, as well as #OctoWriMo, and enter a celebratory giveaway for a chance to win a signed hardcover of one of the hottest 2013 YA reads! Accept one challenge or both :) Game on.

#1: October #WriteFit Challenge! 

What is #WriteFit?

#WriteFit is something my BFF and fellow writer Jessi Esparza came up with a few months ago and a small group of writer friends participated in. Jess pledged to write every day and exercise at least five times a week. We each submitted our word counts and exercise for the day on Twitter using the #writefit hashtag. And after two months we got this awesome tweet:

How awesome is that?

I didn't really jump into #writefit until the end because I was all...I'm so busy, I'm in law school, etc. etc. So now, enough of the excuses, I'm taking over #writefit this month and accepting the challenge! I hope you'll join me!

How do I #WriteFit? 

It's EASY! All you have to do is:

1. Write something every day! 

• Aim for at least 15-30 minutes if you can, but work with your schedule and be flexible. 
• It doesn't have to be a novel! Write in your journal, write a letter to your mom or your BFF, write a poem, a blog post, a short story, just write something! 
• It doesn't even really have to be "writing." Some of the people who've already signed on are in the revising stage and have committed to instead spend time revising every day. Revise or send out queries. Do whatever works for you!

2. Exercise at least 5 times a week!

• Again, there's no time limit--do what fits in your schedule, but aim for maybe 30 minutes a day.
• Do what you like! Yoga, running, biking, taking a walk, playing a sport, all free game! 

3. Tweet me your progress using the #WriteFit hashtag on Twitter!

• The best part about #writefit was the community and the accountability that came with signing on to do something like this and making it known to other people. It made me wake up a little earlier to work out and take the time to write, even just a little bit each day. 
• Help keep others accountable! A few times I noticed that Jess hadn't put up her word count for the day yet and I'd tweet her to remind her/nudge her to stick to the goal :) Soon enough we'd get a word count tweet back. Yay!
• Measure your success! If you tweet me your word counts @KtOshea with the #writefit hashtag and how many minutes (or miles if you like) you work out, I'll keep track of them in a spreadsheet so we can see our collective progress at the end of the month!

It's 30 days. We're all busy. But let's do this anyway for a happier and healthier life :) 

#2 #OctoWriMo Challenge

What is OctoWriMo?

It's like NaNoWriMo, the official National Novel Writing Month, except one month earlier! Basically once I committed to do the October #WriteFit challenge, I was stumped about what I should write. I wanted to save my NaNoWriMo novel idea for November, so I decided to start a different new novel that I've had kicking around in my head for awhile now (yes, that means I'm going to try to write two new novels in two months. In law school. I know. I'm crazy). So I figured, why wait until NaNo to write a novel, when I can write one now and make my own NaNoWriMo like I blogged about here!

How do I participate in OctoWriMo? 

1. Start writing a novel and don't stop until you've hit at least 50K words!

• The goal for NaNo is to write 50,000 words in one month (as a technical matter for NaNo you're supposed to start a brand NEW novel, not work on an existing one, and I'll be starting a new one, but hey, I won't tell if you just add 50K to an existing project ;) ). You may not have a finished novel, but you'll have something novel-length. And while it'll just be a messy first draft that will need to be revised, it'll be this awesome thing that didn't exist one MONTH beforehand :)

2. Tweet your progress using the #OctoWriMo hashtag on Twitter!

• Share your progress and success! Tweet me your word counts @KtOshea with the #OctoWriMo hashtag, and I'll keep track of them in a spreadsheet so we can see our collective progress at the end of the month!

30 days. Accept one challenge or both. Join the fun. Spread the word. Write like crazy. :) 

#3 Celebratory October #WriteFit & #OctoWriMo Signed Book Giveaway!

Ya'll are hopefully going to be doing a LOT of writing this month, either through #WriteFit or #OctoWriMo, or maybe just on your own this time, and to celebrate you deserve a giveaway! Enter below for a chance to win a SIGNED HARDCOVER of THE FIFTH WAVE by Rick Yancey (which is an amazing book)!

The giveaway is U.S. only (sorry! expensive shipping!). The winner will be contacted by email after the deadline and announced on the blog! *You don't have to participate in #WriteFit or #OctoWriMo to enter the giveaway!

About the 5th Wave:

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.
Now, it's the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth's last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie's only hope for rescuing her brother--or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'm so excited to embark on these challenges with you all! Leave me a comment and let me know if you're joining in the fun! Now go get writing!! 

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