This is it! We’re kicking off the final week of March, and with it the last week of the March Madness for Writers Challenge. How are you doing? Have you managed to write every day (or mostly)? Did you tackle any of the Circuit Training exercises?

Whatever you’ve done this month, I’m hoping you surprised yourself. My wish for you is that you came up with an idea that was fresh and exciting, that you broke through a block, that you’ve produced more pages than you expected. I hope you’re coming to the end of March with confidence in your abilities as a writer — not just in your talents and your current skill set, but in your willingness to push past those boundaries and stretch toward your next goal.

This week is your last chance to participate in Circuit Training for Writers, whether or not you’ve tried out any of the exercises in previous weeks. Give the exercises a look and see what appeals. They’re still optional, of course, but I’m hoping you will feel like giving them one final stab before the month is over.

For anyone who missed out on March Madness, I’m sorry that I will not be running another challenge in April. These are not the focus of this blog, just something I like to throw out there occasionally. However, anyone interested in continuing to challenge themselves should consider repeating the rules for March Madness throughout the month of April on their own. These ideas and writing exercises certainly don’t expire on March 31st; I hope you keep up the good work, or push yourself to try something new in coming months. Those of you looking for a more structured challenge should check out Camp NaNoWriMo, which starts April 1st.