This week on Monday I finished up my participation in the Topsy Turvy What’s My Line challenge on Instagram. I won’t go on about the challenge itself today–check out last week’s Friday post for details, and rest assured the conclusion to the story will be coming this Friday! Instead, today I wanted to share what I’ve gained from these challenges, and why someone might want to join one in the first place.

Because let’s be clear–challenges like this are a lot of work! More likely than not, you’ll be writing completely new short stories in response to specific prompts (stories which have to obey Instagram’s character limit, no less–unless you get fancy with your graphics). Plus, there’s the pictures to make, the time it takes to actually post every day and keep up with comments, and checking out everyone else’s contributions to the challenge . . .

It does add up.

But! Even though I know that, I keep coming back and doing more of these challenges. Why is that? Well:

1.Community: Challenges like these help you build friendships, even if you know no one to begin with! Jumping into Instagram challenges is exactly how I met most of the wonderful people I know through IG today. And if you’re participating in the challenge every day, your consistent presence will definitely be rewarded.

2. Inspiration: Sometimes what you need is an excuse to write without thinking about massive plots or publishing–just something fun, goofy, and maybe a bit off the wall or completely unexpected. It gets you thinking about your characters in a new way! I’ve definitely taken ideas inspired by Instagram challenges and sprinkled them into my actual stories for a bit of flavor and depth.

3. Encouragement: Basically, this is “community” all over again! The folks who host challenges like the Topsy Turvy variety are awesome. They don’t care how much experience you have, who you are, or even what genre you write. They’re just glad you’re interacting with something they made–in essence, they’re there to support you! Comments from folks like this meant the world to me when I was starting out, and still do today.

I’m sure I’ll think of more reasons in the future–this post may well end up having a Part Two! But for now, we’ll leave it at that. 🙂 For as frustrating and depressing as social media can sometimes be, remember: it does have a bright side, too.