In my last post, I briefly mentioned some of the art and writing challenges that take place in the fall. From writing a short story every day to experimenting with different art mediums, here is a guide to fall art and writing challenges.
Fall Art and Writing Challenges
There are so many to choose from! But first, I want to get something out of the way: Inktober.
The Controversy Around Inktober
For those who don’t know, Inktober is a hugely popular month-long challenge in October. Participating artists create an ink drawing every day to improve their skills with the medium. There is an official Inktober prompt list that you can either choose to follow or ignore. Even if you’re familiar with Inktober, you may not know that there is a current controversy wherein Alphonso Dunn alleges in a video posted on August 26, 2020, that Jake Parker, the creator of Inktober, plagiarized sections of his book Pen & Ink Drawing: A Simple Guide in Parker’s new book Inktober All Year Long. Here is Dunn’s Youtube video addressing the issue.
Parker’s book was due to be released in September 2020, but due to the accusations, his publisher has put the book on hold. Dunn’s book was released in 2015. Here is a detailed article from F News Magazine that covers the controversy in detail.
The controversy has been polarizing, and both artists have their supporters. It’s not just an issue of plagiarism, but race as well. Alphonso Dunn is a Black artist, and Jake Parker is white. If the allegations are founded, a white artist has stolen a black artist’s work and claimed it as his own.
If you plan to participate in Inktober, I encourage you to do your own research beforehand. For me, I will not participate until there is proof that plagiarism did not take place as the comparisons of the preview of Parker’s book are VERY suspicious.
Now that that’s out of the way, we’ll move on to art challenges that aren’t laden with controversy.
Brushtober
Brushtober is not a new concept, as there are mentions of the word on the internet for at least a decade. However, it has never officially been used for an art challenge until popular artist Lois Van Baarle announced that she was going to use the hashtag to test out various mediums that require brushes to apply. Her announced mediums include ink washes and ecoline, watercolor, acrylic, and gouache, with each medium assigned to one week in October. Other artists are already following suit, so I can see this evolving into a recurring event. You can find her work on many social media platforms including Instagram and Facebook.
OC-Tober
OC-Tober or OCtober is similar to the two above events in that the goal is to draw every day. Unlike the others, rather than focusing on a specific medium, the goal is to draw your own original characters every day. OC is common internet shorthand for original character. They can be characters from your own original work, or characters you created to participate in a fandom.
This is a more open-ended event, so if drawing isn’t your thing, you can also use it as a writing challenge to write about your characters. It is a popular event without a sole person running it, so there are a few prompt lists floating around. The goal is fun and to let people know about your characters, so you can be as simple or as detailed as you want.
Blacktober
Blacktober is a new event for and by Black artists. This event was co-created by Céli, a Dutch/Afro-Carribean artist living in Denmark, and Black Card Members community where Black artists re-imagine their favourite characters as black “in media where [they] are underrepresented.” The hashtag has exploded on Twitter and Tumblr, so be sure to follow it to see work by amazing artists.
A quote from Celi:
Blacktober is a month long exclusive event where Black creators get to turn their favorite characters into something that looks like them or draw their Black OCs using the official prompt list or their own! The event is meant to overall have fun by putting a fun, representative twist on their faves be it from anime, western cartoons, video games, and more!
Céli, co-creator of Blacktober
There is another Blacktober that you may not know about, hosted by Big Black Chapter. This event is for authors of colour and features 31 horror prompts for the month of October.
National Novel Writing Month
Now, October is not the only month in Fall, nor are artists the only creatives. National Novel Writing Month takes place in the month of November. Since that title is extremely long, participants often shorten it to NaNoWriMo or NaNo. The challenge is for writers around the world to write a novel in a month. The official NaNoWriMo site defines that as 50,000 words within the 30 days of November.
Unlike the other challenges on this list, NaNoWriMo has been around for decades. It began in 1999, but was officially established as a non-profit organization in 2006. It is by far one of the most popular challenges for writers, and has its own vernacular. “Kickoff” marks the start of NaNo on November 1, with many local groups holding events late on October 31st so that writing can begin right at midnight. A “Wrimo” is a NaNo participant. A “write in” is when participants from the same region get together to write. “TGIO” stands for Thank God It’s Over and marks the end of National Novel Writing Month on December 1st.
National Novel Writing Month can be brought into schools, and it even has a separate website for its younger participants, called the Young Writers Program.
The event doesn’t just take place in November. After a break in December, NaNo returns with the “Now what?” months of January and February where writers work on finishing and editing the project they started in November. Your first draft is never your best draft! Then there are also smaller events in April in July, called Camp NaNoWriMo, that are less official and where you can choose your own word goals.
Other Fall Art and Writing Challenges
This is not a comprehensive list by any means. September, October, and November are popular months for artistic challenges, and I’m sure there are dozens of community events that I haven’t even heard of! For example, I learned of Blocktober, an event for game developers/designers, while fact-checking this article. So if none of these are your jam, keep looking. Your thing is out there.
Which challenge is your favourite? What challenges did I leave out? Let me know down below!
