2023 Get Started Right Writing Challenge: Day 2

Get your writing goals started right in 2023 with the first ever Get Started Right Writing Challenge. The second day of this writing challenge involves writing.

Welcome to the second day of the seven-day Get Started Right Writing Challenge! There's still plenty of time to get caught up; find the first day's challenge here.

For the second day, write for at least 15 minutes. You can write fiction, poetry, nonfiction, or whatever strikes your fancy. And you don't have to finish whatever you start or even be happy with what you write. Just write.

Not sure what to write? Then, I've got a few prompts you can peruse:

So find a good starting place, set your timers, and get writing...and share what you write in the comments.

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Here's my 15-minute writing session:

"The Life and Times of a Bird," Robert Lee Brewer

Harold looked out the window of his kitchen as he finished rinsing off his plate and put it on the drying rack. He watched a robin hop along the edge of the back deck and zip into the trees at the edge of his yard. Then, he let out a sigh.

The book, he thought. I have to find the book.

"I'm going upstairs now," he shouted before trudging up the stairs, one by one. The book, he thought.

Harold stood under the hatch to get into the attic. He reached up, pulled down on the string, and unfolded the ladder. Dust spread everywhere, but he wasn't interested in the dust. The book, he thought. The book.

As he ascended the ladder, Harold found himself engulfed in darkness, but he pulled his phone out of his back pocket and turned on the flashlight. So many boxes, he thought. Too many.

But Harold knew where to look. He went straight for an old cardboard box that had not been opened since the accident. Not for more than 20 years. And he opened it. Pulled papers from it. And pictures. And memories. But he needed to find it. He needed to find the book. And there it was!

Harold looked at it: five pieces of paper folded in half to make a 20-page book, including the cover (a picture of a robin on it). Harold's fingers trembled as he read the words on the cover: The Life and Times of a Bird, by Freddy Longman.

"I found it," Harold shouted. "I found the book!"

He spent the next hour marveling over it: the words, the art, the memories of a boy who no longer haunts this house.

Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.