Introduction to me and what will fill this blog during 2022.
Hi and welcome to the Allison Wrote blog! This very first blog post is going to be a little introductory, both to myself and the first creative endeavor I'm launching right here in 2022!
I'm Allison Rott, a reader, a writer, a short story published author, and inspiring novelist in a short package. (I did not manage to get the tall genes in my family). I've been dabbling in creative writing all the back in 2007, or at least, that's when I started to write down the stories and ideas I had in my head and sometimes would say aloud.
In 2017 I started sending out short story submissions. While still working on a novel and many other works in progress. As of writing this first post I have six published short stories in various anthologies. A writer's group, a couple writing challenges, and then four more traditional submissions. More details about those can be found on the about me page.
During this process I discovered, that I enjoy prompt writing. I like the challenge of taking the theme for an anthology, or a prompt for a challenge, and seeing what I can do with it. So, to feed this urge to challenge myself even further in writing, I've given myself my own challenge, well, besides the blog as a whole. That's a different sort of challenge.
The Writing Challenge
My writing challenge kicks off on January 1st, 2022. I'm calling it the Ugly Words Challenge. I bought a desk calendar with 313 so-called ugly words for the entire year. (They only did one word for each weekend.) How ugly they are is subjective, but the important thing is as I looked at the calendar, is that there are some words I didn't know, ones I didn't use very often, and then obviously more common ones. And it is (almost) daily.
I decided, as I looked at that calendar, what I was going to do next year. I already write pretty much every day for various projects (bouncing between novel ideas and short stories I plan to submit), but now I'll have one project that I'll work on (almost) every day.
This challenge is going to be an expansion of my short story “Feeding the Universe”. In flash fiction sized chunks, I'm going to explore the characters, settings, plot, and overall Universe I started hinting at in this piece. It was part of a challenge of its own, so it only seems fitting I continue it with another challenge.
Looking for more details?
I'm Allison Rott, a writer, short story publisher, aspiring novelist, and writing challenge lover. Starting my own, and sharing it with the world on this blog. Above are the basics of my Ugly Words Challenge, if you want to know the full rules I have set for myself, or read the original short story check out my projects page.