Announcing the 5 Obstructions blogathon

The 5 Obstructions blogathon

What do you do to become a better blogger/writer? Do you challenge yourself in order to grow or have you slowly gotten into the groove of things and enjoy being in that comfort zone? Recently I saw the documentary/movie The 5 Obstructions and it inspired me to create a new blogathon which will start very soon.

What is the movie The 5 Obstructions about?
If you have not heard of this film, let me give a short summary of it:
Director Jørgen Leth got the assignment from Lars von Trier to remake one of his movies (The Perfect Human) a total of 5 times. Each time there were rules he had to adhere to (for example: the movie has to be set in Cuba and the maximum length of a shot is 12 frames or the movie had to be animated). The idea behind it was to challenge the filmmaker, forcing him to come up with something worth watching with those restrictions in place. It has been announced that Martin Scorcese will also do the same thing in The Five Obstructions: Scorsese vs. Trier, which will finish shooting this year.

So what is the 5 Obstructions blogathon about?
This is not a blogathon where you write one post and you are finished. This is a blogathon for which you have to write 5 posts (1 per month) with 1 restriction in place each time. The goal? To challenge yourself as a writer and force you to get out of your comfort zone (hopefully) resulting in lessons learned to improve your blogging in various ways. If you are worried, I have some fun obstructions in mind which I think you will enjoy.

So how will this blogathon work?
At the beginning of each month I will post the obstruction for that month and you will have the whole month to write your post. You can do it immediately or take your time, but it has to be done before the month ends. You can send me the link to the post or leave it in the comments underneath the obstruction. At the end of the month I will check who has managed to pass the challenge and post an overview of the posts. This will be repeated for the other 4 obstructions.

When will this blogathon start?
This blogathon will kick off on June 1st, when the first obstruction will be posted.

Where can I find the logo for this blogathon?
I’ve created two versions of the logo, one with a black background and one with a white background, which can be found here.

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments.

54 thoughts on “Announcing the 5 Obstructions blogathon

  1. This sounds fascinating. I’d like to take part. Please tell me that one of the obstructions is that we have to write a post in Cuba?! 🙂

    • You are welcome to join! How did you know about writing a post in Cuba? Have you been hacking into my notes in preparation for this? 😉

    • Nice to hear Ben, can’t wait to see which one you’ll review. I think reviewing a movie you love negatively is the harder one of the two, but it is a good reason to rewatch a movie 🙂

  2. OK, I’m totally game for this! Sign me up! I’ll shoot you a link once I have my review up…I’ve got a month to think this through 😀

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