For the past three years, I’ve challenged myself with daily creative challenges. For two of the three, I drew a doodle a day for a year. I also spent a year writing a 365-sentence story. [Links to these projects are in my navigation bar.] While I learned a lot from those challenges, what I learned the most was that spending three years doing a daily creative challenge is a major time suck. And often left me feeling way less free to be creative in my own ways. So this year I’m trying something different. I’m not doing a daily challenge. Instead, I’m giving my creative brain time to breathe and room to thrive. I’m still going to challenge myself creatively, but my goals are going to be way more flexible. So what are they?

Finish my children’s book. Last year I started seriously writing a children’s book. By seriously, I mean that I’m actually going to make myself finish it. And I’m actually really excited about it. More on what and why and how later…

Write more letters. I’m challenging myself to write at least one hand-written letter (not a card, a letter) every month to someone new. Want to be on the list? Send me an email and I’ll add you to the list! (haleygate@gmail.com)

Take more photographs. I’m a writer, so my brain often thinks in words more than in pictures. I want to change that. By taking more photographs, I hope to challenge myself to see the world in a more creative way.

Blog more often. I want to be more intentional about this blog by writing more often. I also plan on writing two posts a month on our family blog, especially as we try to accomplish The List.