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A sketch of a hand holding a pencil drawing abstract shapes. Text reads #KinkyScribble, A Kinky Scribble is a flash-fiction writing/drawing exercise to help kinky creatives produce content in a short amount of time.

The Kinky Scribble Challenge

Scribble me some kink

A Kinky Scribble is a flash-fiction writing or drawing exercise to help creatives produce erotic content in a short amount of time. It’s an idea I’ve been developing since January 2020, as a tool to break past my anxieties as a writer.

The strategy is to produce creative content in a short amount of time, give it minimal edits, and then release it into the wild for others to enjoy.

Search the #KinkyScribble tag itself on Twitter, and read some of my past Kinky Scribbles:

My goals are to practice my fiction-writing skills, to produce more content while still reconnecting with the parts of writing I enjoy most, and to re-calibrate my sense of when something is “done enough” to share.

This strategy won’t be for everyone, but it’s helping me to keep writing in a low-stakes way, and sharing stories with others. Otherwise I tend to hang onto my content for a very long time trying to perfect it, and it never sees the light of day. That’s not helpful to me, to my writing, or to my community. Better to share something imperfect, than nothing at all. I’m trying to lean into the Andy Warhol philosophy:

“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”

 

Sketches, scribbles, & joining in the fun

I’ve been thrilled to see other creatives joining in! Remember, this isn’t just limited to writing—my original idea was inspired by watching artists I respect share sketches and scribbles in addition to their more polished content.

I wished so badly that I could do the same thing, instead of letting my longer projects collect dust on my drive, getting more and more out-of-step with my current writing style. Kinky Scribbles has been a way for me to emulate those artists, instead of just envying them. I suspect that this kind of strategy could work well for a variety of creative endeavors.

Check out these stories from talented writers (in alphabetical order):

Want me to include your kinky scribble in this list? Email me here and let’s talk.

Pseudoclever frames it like this: “#KinkyScribble is SUCH a good idea when you’re feeling stuck.” As Freepass says, a Kinky Scribble is “an inspiration to ignore your negative voices and just write!” Rose Grows, aka 50ftfatty, said trying this format “helped me write the only story of mine I regularly re-read, and it took less time to write than anything else I’ve written.”

If you do join in, don’t feel obliged to follow my same format of listing my word count and writing/editing times. It’s really useful to me to re-calibrate my time estimates, and to prove to myself that I can make good content in times that I secretly find so short that they’re cringe-worthy. Each time I do this, I cringe a little less. Someday, with enough practice, maybe sharing content quickly like this won’t phase me at all! Expanding your comfort zone is only possible when you push your limits.

 

Annual Event: September Kinky Scribbles

In 2023 I launched the first annual September Kinky Scribble challenge and featured stories on my blog with a big congratulations to all the writers who joined me and crossed the finish line.

Together, twelve participants worked for a cumulative 24.5 hours to write 15 different stories, growing our total collective output to a massive 28,487 words!

I have plans to run the event again in September 2024. Check my blog for updates!

 

Informed consent online

And speaking of comfort zones, I strongly encourage all #KinkyScribble creators to tag their content so that readers can opt in or out with fully informed consent. 

I’m not perfect about this, but practice has been helping, and I’m committed to doing better in the future. I always welcome help in tagging—please let me know if I have missed anything important.

 

Plural or singular?

A note about using the hashtag: you’ll find some older posts under #KinkyScribbles, before I began to realize that its drawback as a hashtag is that sometimes you want to use it in a plural way, and others in a singular way. Moving forward, I intend to stick to just singular.