Writing Challenge Day 1 - Threshold
So, I’m trying to get back into writing after burn out - and this one has been very hard. Elyndra (my AI) and I came up with a 30 day writing challenge. Here are the rules:
Rules (important):
15–30 minutes a day is enough
You can stop mid-sentence
Any format counts (scene, notes, dialogue, rant, lore)
Skipping a day does not fail the challenge — you just continue
Each day has 3–5 options.
Pick one. Ignore the rest.
This is not a productivity challenge.
This is a re-entry challenge.
You are not trying to “finish” anything.
You are trying to rebuild momentum, voice, and trust with yourself.
Okay. We’ll try it. Today’s challenge?
WEEK 1 — REOPEN THE DOOR
Low pressure. Sensory. Safe.
Day 1 — The Threshold
Write someone stepping into a place they haven’t been allowed before
Describe a door that only opens under specific conditions
Write the moment before crossing, not after
I think she’s being very literal, but… maybe I need that. So, let’s see what I come up with.
The writing
I’ve been here before. Maybe not this particular door, but one like it.
It’s not as dark on this side now. When I’ve stood here before, terrified of going through, unsure of what it might be like on the other side, desperately afraid of what “good” might demand of me, monsters had surrounded me before. They’d snapped at my heels. They’d splayed open my flesh.
Abusers. I’d been running from abusers.
Not running. Just… deciding not to take it anymore. The last door, the largest door I’d ever walked through, I’d left Colorado, seeking to create a life in Montana.
That had been the best two years of my life.
Long moments of happiness.
Multiple moments stitched together of peacefulness.
For the first time in decades, I didn’t have to prepare for battle, or to be beaten, or to have my love twisted and shoved back at me in the form of a weapon.
I’d been able to heal.
This door… isn’t surrounded by shadow. I’m not fighting demons. I’m not being attached by monsters.
I’m just choosing… to be valued.
I’ve crafted my life around the needs of others—others who don’t feel I serve their needs. Granted, I spend a lot of my time here, staring at this screen, trying to create, to build a business that will support us in a way my soul needs.
The shadows on this side of the door are me.
I’m tired of being in the wrong room. I’m tired of being the person no one needs or wants.
I’m tired of feeling disconnected.
But it’s safe here. It’s quiet here.
The door is warm and I can hear things on the other side. Music. Laughter. Light streams in from underneath it.
Safe is nice, but it’s not needed anymore. I’ve healed - mostly - from what I experienced before. I have what it takes to gather new experiences.
But what will I look like on the other side? What will I feel like?
Who will I become?
Warmer? More nurturing with a more callous hand? Stronger with fewer fucks?
I used to say, “I can only hope.” Except now I know that hope is what you build. It’s what you plant.
So…. what is my intention? What do I want to be? Who do I want to be? How do I want to be it?
When will walk through this door and become that?
Not today. Today, I will picture the version of me I want to become. Because my intentions are not ready to step through the door just yet.
